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Postgame Quotes
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Virginia head coach Tony Bennett
On the two-week layoff
“It was good to get back, especially after getting the other game cancelled. We haven’t been in JPJ in 21 days since we played Penn State, so it feels like a long time certainly. We were rusty but our defense got stronger as the game wore on and they certainly missed some shots, but we challenged them to be as sharp as they can and bring some energy and effort. That’s hard when you haven’t played in that long, but we’ll be back at it again soon and we will have to be ready.
On the 2-week break and learning more about your team and the starting rotation
“We had so long to practice, we tried to make it really competitive in practice and split the team evenly. I felt like I could have gone with Jeff (Jones), Jontel (Evans) or Calvin (Baker) at the other guard. I felt like Sylven (Landesberg) and Sammy (Zeglinski) established themselves, but I was looking for that other spot. Calvin did a good job in the two weeks of practice where he really stepped up and led. He was real vocal and did a lot of the intangibles and I wanted to reward him for that.
On the slow start
“I don’t know if we thought we could get it easy and just throw a knockout punch. The ball would go to one side of the floor and we would force the action. All we had to do was get it swung one time, and they were going to make us work and run the clock and we were going to have to stay in the stance and play for the majority of the possession. You can’t break down any defense with one pass to the side and try to score unless there is some sort of breakdown. I thought if we could just get it swung, we would get what we wanted. I thought we were just a little sloppy, a little disconnected. We’ll chalk it up to the break, but we need to keep improving.”
On Assane Sene
“During his suspension, he rolled his ankle and I think he wasn’t physically 100 percent when he first came back, but I think he is pretty much there. He just needs to play and get opportunities. He will bother shots. He had one of his best practices of the year over the break where he scored well and was catching everything. He guards the ball screens pretty well and shows – a lot times teams will look at your 5-man and they will ball screen him a lot, and he has been real good defensively with that.”
On Zeglinski playing 2-guard as well as the point
“Sometimes I think when you can take Sammy off the ball and play him as a combo or a two, he can help us where he can move and get shots and then defensively we get a guy to really eat up the ball. He’s just got to keep working – I didn’t think he had a good first half, but he got better as the game went along.”
NJIT head coach Jim Engles
“I was disappointed with our effort today. I was hoping we would give them a better game. We hung in for awhile. We are a very fragile team and when we make some mistakes and miss a couple putbacks, things seem to fall apart pretty quickly for us. We hung there for awhile. But I was disappointed with the way we finished the second half.”
On his concerns about Virginia coming in
“The fact that the Bennett name basically signifies defense. And one of our worst things right now is our offense. We have a very hard time scoring. He could probably buy a couple snowblowers with the money I have spent on his defensive videos. I was worried about that. I know they defend very well and I’ve watched their games – they play a pretty good schedule and have held some people down. My big concern was to get us some free shots.”
On Drejon Scott
“He is a good player. It’s hard as a freshman, especially as a point guard, because there are so many things you have to be responsible for. He is a pretty mature kid and understands the tempo of the game and tries to keep us in the game as best as possible. We have some deficiencies and we really need to play at a high level consistently, and I have been impressed with his play this year.”