Virginia Coach/Player Quotes

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Head Coach Tony Bennett
On the emotions of his first game at Virginia:
“It is exciting. The arena is just beautiful, you walk in and look around and see all the ring lights for the first time. There is such an atmosphere. I was thankful for the opportunity and a little nervous about how we were going to show. I felt good at halftime and did not feel so good in the second half as they were cutting into the lead, but I am excited for the future. I know there will be some growing pains, but I am glad the first win is under our belt.”

On the struggle in the second half:
“We struggled a little bit defensively in the second half. That might be an understatement – they had us on our heels. It is no secret that we have a lot of work to do, and it is going to be a long journey. As a credit to them, they run good stuff and they know how to score the ball, but they made it look easy at times to score against our defense.”

On what went well tonight:
“We did not turn the ball over a ton early in the game. At times the extra pass was made and guys got rhythm plays. We probably could have gone inside to Mike [Scott] more, but when we needed a bucket we got him a few touches, and I thought that was important. We have to keep building on those things.”

On the starting lineup and whether it was a reaction to Longwood’s lineup:
“Yeah, we will have to be flexible that way. I would love to say that is our starting lineup and we have it set for the year, but I think it will change. South Florida has a couple really big guys inside, and that will present a challenge.

On Jontel Evans playing 20 minutes in his first game:
“The way they were pressing, his pressure on the ball helped us. I thought he gave us a nice lift in the first half, a couple steals, and he is very quick and got into the lane. For the first game under the lights for him, I thought he did a nice job. It happened quickly, he hit a little trouble in the second half, but he came back and I think he knocked down a shot after that. I thought we needed his ball handling on the floor against that kind of a team.”

On Sylven Landesberg and his performance:
“He did a good job. He can get to that lane, he draws fouls, he creates shots and is certainly a nice weapon to have. If we go small he has to guard a 4, and that requires different action like helping on ball screens.

Defensively we still have to get better. I told the guys, “what do you think happened in the second half, do you think that was a good enough effort on the defensive and offensive ends?” And to a man they said that it was not. They know they have to improve. We need tremendous focus, energy and toughness and that is what we are trying to build.”

Sophomore Guard Sylven Landesberg
On starting the season with the win:
“I think everyone was a little timid coming back and shaking the cobwebs off, but it was fun to play out there. There are definitely things we need to work on, but I think on the defensive end in the first half we were pretty strong. The second half we got a little too comfortable and let them come back.”

On second half play:
“We definitely got way too comfortable, played lazy, and started taking things for granted. They made shot after shot and worked their way back into the game.”

On Longwood’s scoring:
“The coaches told us that they would be able to get some points up, so we just tried to close out every shot.”

On Coach Bennett’s “slow-down” offense:
“His offense is definitely not as slow as people say. He gives us a lot of freedom on the offensive end, but keeps it strict on defense. We did not play our best in the second half, but he does give us offensive freedom.”

On playing South Florida next week:
“They are definitely a good team coming out of the Big East. We just have to look at the tape and continue to improve.”

Sophomore Guard Sammy Zeglinski
On starting the season with a win:
“I thought in the first half we came out with a lot of energy and played good defense for the most part. We kind of took our foot off of the pedal in the second half and they were able to run their offense a little more. That can be attributed to a lack of focus more than anything, but we will watch the film and try to get better.”

On Coach Bennett’s “slow-down” offense:
“Coach Bennett’s offense is very opportunistic, and when Longwood was able to pressure us people had to cut to the basket, make big plays and hit the open man. We tried to make that extra pass, and we hit some shots tonight.”

On playing South Florida next week:
“It will definitely be a good test to see where we are as a team. It is a quick turnaround to play Monday, but we will learn from this game and apply it to the next game.”

Junior Guard Mustapha Farrakhan
On his dunking ability:
“I just got the opportunity out there tonight, and Coach Curtis has been working with me on my stretching so I definitely give credit to him.”

On more playing time this season:
“I am taking it one step at a time. Coach believes in me and my talent, so I just want to be a solid player for him and let the game come to me.”

“It feels good to be out there playing. I used to just play sparingly, and it was hard to showcase what I bring to the team. I like having the freedom, but we know there are things we need to tighten up too.”

On playing without sophomore Assane Sene and senior Jamil Tucker:
“Obviously they are both very vital to the team. They bring a lot of energy to the team, and we look forward to having them back.”