Postgame Quotes
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VIRGINIA BASKETBALL
Postgame Quotes
Miami 62, Virginia 55
Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao
Opening Statement:
“I thought that both teams played okay. It wasn’t a great performance or display on either end. We got to a time out with 3:22 to go and it was a tie score, 55-55. That’s when I said to the group, somebody is going to separate themselves.’ Unfortunately, it wasn’t us. When the ball got below the paint, obviously we lost McClinton a couple times and got an offensive rebound by Asbury. More importantly, we got really tentative and turned the ball over. For consecutive possessions, we didn’t get anything out of ourselves and ultimately that cost us the game. I thought Calvin (Baker) did a wonderful job all night long in taking a personal challenge on one of the best scorers in the league. He did a great job, but he escaped a couple of times at the end. Even with that, I thought we could have withstood that. Offensively we did a good job in the first 20-25 minutes taking care of the ball, but (after that) we had a whole lot of empty possessions.”
On Miami’s approach to taking away Sylven Landesberg:
“The zone naturally means you can’t drive as much, so I think that was a part of it. When he did have driving lanes, his man stayed on his hip and the extra defender, a lot of times it was Graham or sometimes Collins, helped defend it very well. His runner wasn’t available today. He left off one foot and got it blocked or challenged more than normal. They did a good job with their scouting report with flooding him as a couple of teams have done. He has been able to sometimes bounce back or work his way through it, late in the game especially. That didn’t happen as much today.”
On sloppy ball handling:
“Under four minutes, it was a combination of tentativeness and just not making the right pass. There was a post pass that got taken away from us. There were a couple other instances where we turned it over. It was a combination of them being more aggressive on defense. I thought that their zone was good, but that zone had a wear down effect in terms of us playing a little bit mentally back on our heels. It went to man-to-man, it was a switching man-to-man as it was a little bit in the first half and when you have that you should be able to attack off the dribble, and we didn’t do a good job. As a result, we turned the ball over.”
Miami Head Coach Frank Haith
Opening Statement:
“It was obviously a huge win for us. Our guys found a way to win a game. It wasn’t pretty, but I thought defensively we were outstanding. Particularly to end the game with six straight stops, it made a statement that we can win a game without Jack [McClinton] having a monster game. Jack did have 11 points, but we found a way to win with other guys chipping in [Brian] Asbury getting 13 but it was kind of spread out throughout our whole team and that was good to see.”
On shutting down Sylven Landesberg:
“He got looks early in the game, he had a couple buckets but our zone was good in the second half. We really just didn’t want him to drive the ball. We think that is where he is good in terms of putting a lot of pressure on our defense off the dribble. I thought our guys did a really good job keeping him out of the paint.”
On getting stops late in the game:
“We just told our guys that is how we’re going to win the game; us being able to stop it late in the ball game. Obviously our offense wasn’t at its best tonight. It was all about getting stops and rebounds late in the game.”
On this game as a must win:
“It was a must win. We needed it badly. We need to finish the season strong.”
On trying to close the season at .500 in the ACC:
“We try not to really talk about what the magic number really is. We just want our guys to focus on getting ready to win basketball games and to focus on the journey as opposed to on the end result. If we do what we are supposed to do, we are going to be fine and the rest will just take care of itself.”
On the team effort involved in the win:
“It shows that we can win a lot of different ways. I think it is great for us at this time in the year because there are some times I think that our guys just sit and watch Jack play and we need to get away from that and be more involved. I love the games where Jack explodes, but there is no question it is really good at this time of year to move forward and get some production out of other guys. It’s good that our guys can see that we are still able to win a game without Jack having a great night.”
Virginia Freshman Guard Sylven Landesberg
On Miami’s defense
“In the 2-3 zone defense, they closed off all the holes and made it very hard to penetrate. Every time I got the ball they closed up pretty much all the holes. They stuck to their game plan and kept denying me the lanes.”
On final minutes of the game after being tied at 55
“We saw the plays that were there, but tried to force things. I know I turned the ball over one time when I saw Sammy [Zeglinski] in the corner and tried to get him the ball. We all had our minds in the right places and tried to make the right plays, but we just seemed to force it.”
On the team’s defense of Miami Guard Jack McClinton
“Calvin [Baker] did a heck of a job guarding McClinton, and we couldn’t ask him to have done a better job. Other parts of the puzzle just didn’t come together.”
On the emotional impact of the game and looking forward to Wake Forest
“This one definitely stings. We won our last two home games and we came in tonight feeling pretty confident that we could get the win at home. Wake Forest is another good team and in this conference you never get a day off. You are going to play a good team every night so we just need to get back to work to get ready for them. Of course the losses hurt, but we are still high on ourselves. We still think we could pull out a few wins.”
Virginia Junior Guard Calvin Baker
On defending Miami Guard Jack McClinton
“He’s a good player. We knew he can get hot and go on runs. Everything Miami does runs through him, so I just tried to keep him off balance. I figured if I kept him off balance the team would be off balance, but the other players stepped up and were making big shots too. I think I played okay against Jack, but he made that big shot at the end. When Coach Leitao puts me on the best player on the other team I really take it personally. I take it on as a challenge. I am a competitor, and I try to do everything I can to help the team.”
On emotional impact of the game
“It does sting a lot, mainly because we have to protect our home court. There is no way we should play flat at home, especially when we have the fans behind us. We are more comfortable at home so this does hurt a lot.”
Miami Senior Guard Jack McClinton
On his ability to get open and shoot the three at the end of the game:
“It was a set play. We ran it well and I got a great screen so I got a good look.”
On the team effort involved in the win:
“We did a good job. All the players were stepping up and I was trying to get the ball to others. There were a few times I could have kicked it out, but overall we played some good team basketball. Every game I don’t have to have a break-out game. Today everybody stepped up.”
Miami Senior Forward Brian Asbury
On trying to get to 8-8 in the ACC:
“Trying to get to that goal is very important because our goal coming into the season was getting into the NCAA. We just take it one game at time and this is going to help us get there.”