Postgame Virginia Quotes

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VIRGINIA BASKETBALL
Postgame Virginia Quotes
Auburn 68, Virginia 67

Opening Statement:
“It was a hard fought game. I feel a little empty right now. We felt
pretty good being up one. That offensive rebound really hurt, but it was
positive that our guys fought back when they were down. They didn’t
die, but it is empty because they didn’t come away with the victory.
There were some good things that happened, but also some breakdowns. Our
zone at the end gave us a little lift. They were hurting us with their
ball screen action and they were making some shots. It is what it is.
We’ll keep going to the drawing board and keep trying to improve. I
want these guys to understand that it is a process. We will take the
good from it and learn from the breakdowns.”

On the last play:
“We were talking about maybe going man to man or maybe staying in the
zone at the timeout. The way it played out it probably didn’t matter
because of how he drove into the lane deep. He missed the lay-up and
Assane Sene came across. I’ll have to look at the tape and see if he
had a legitimate chance to block the shot or if he should have maybe
stayed at home to block out. It is a mad dash at the end of the game. We
got him to miss, but obviously the ball rebounded at the right spot and
there was nobody there to get a body on him.”

On playing without Mike Scott:
“I thought the guys stepped up. We got good looks from Jontel Evans
and Jeff Jones. They gave us nice lifts. When Mike is in there, it gives
a little more of an inside scoring presence and some rebounding. That
affected us, but the guys responded well and we had a chance to get it
done. It allowed them to key on Sylven Landesberg and collapse on him in
the second half. We were predominately trying to score off the dribble
or get some screens for some mid range shots and three-pointers. We
didn’t have a lot of post up action tonight. I thought the players
handled it well without him.”

On the foul situation:
“We had some foul trouble early. That is why you always have to be
ready when called upon. Guys did a good job at giving us lifts. I
thought we had some good looks for Will Sherrill. He just didn*t seem
to be able to knock them down. There were chances out there. They
didn*t just fall apart. I’ll take that as a positive and we’ll
address the areas with the breakdowns.”

On Sammy Zeglinski’s confidence:
“They tried to ice him and he stepped up. He made all three free
throws to put us in that spot. That was good to see. I thought Jeff
Jones passed up a good look on that play. I’ll have to look at the
tape to see how hard he got hit, but that should give him some
confidence when he steps to the line. That isn’t easy to do, especially
when they call a timeout.”

On first half defense:
“It was okay, but we have to keep working. That is a never ending
process. We have to keep making adjustments. It compromised our defense
when they would get some deep in the lane. They would roll guys back on
the other side and we were playing catch up. When their feet were set
when they shot it was hard to stop them. We have to keep working on
that. It is hard when they have four guards. We tried to switch when we
could. We couldn*t corral the ball when the five man would set the
ball screen. That put us behind and made us chase.”

On the upcoming break for exams:
“They have to lock in and prepare for their exams. It is no easy task
at Virginia. They will get as ready as they can for that. We’ll give
them a couple days off and then we will carve out some practice times.
When we practice, it is all business. Hopefully it will be a good time
to heal for Mike and everybody else. We’ve been playing a lot of games
in a short amount of time. This was actually our longest break in
between games leading up to the Auburn game. I thought offensively we
were able to do some things early on to get some good shots. We will
keep addressing those things and the defensive end.”

Virginia Sophomore Guard Sylven Landesberg

On Auburn*s 2nd half adjustments:
“I wasn*t getting good looks. We were moving a lot in the offense,
a lot of ball movement. Everyone was getting good shots. In the second
half, they started collapsing on me more so it got tougher.”

On last two losses:
“I think we are building up a fighting spirit. We were down eight
with four minutes left, but it didn*t turn out the way we wanted. If we
keep playing like this, games will start going our way.”

On Jontel Evans* improvement:
“He’s fast, he’s strong and he’s tough to contain. He can get
to where he wants on the court, so I wasn*t surprised at all when he
made those moves.”

On playing 35 minutes:
“I don’t think I was tired at all. I felt pretty good on both ends.
I don’t think that was much of a factor.”