Virginia/USF Coaches Quotes

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Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett

“They (USF) certainly played a nice game. I thought early, that especially the first half we had real good looks and couldn’t capitalize when we got to the lane. We missed some really open shots, even some stuff at the rim, and I think that played heavy in our minds.

“I thought our defense held us in there, then as the game went on, I think their defense toughened up and we kind of did a role reverse, slightly softened up a little bit.”

“Dominique Jones is as good as advertised. You see that he can make tough shots and get himself going.”

USF Head Coach Stan Heath

On the game…
“That was a good win for our program, I thought we played hard and they played hard. I thought down the stretch we were a little fresher, I thought that our defense really picked up as the game went on and I thought that we had a really good balance of inside and outside.

“Both Gus and Jarrid commanded paint both in scoring and rebounding, and Jones was huge for us in the second half especially and all the way through the game. Justin Leemow had some key baskets at critical times, shots that last year didn’t seem like they were going in, but this year he is playing with a lot more confidence.

“We thought the first four minutes would be key, we wanted to get off to a good start. We wanted to continue to establish the inside first, so right away we try to attack the inside. We didn’t get what we wanted at first, but we just focused on the defense and getting stops and converting. We realized that they were going to try and take away our fast breaks and eventually our defense got some fast breaks for us and really widened our lead.”