Postgame Quotes

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Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett

Opening statement:
“I thought it was a poor performance. I didn’t think we came out and played well. Texas-Pan American has scrappy players who play hard. They missed a lot of shots – some point-blank shots that would have made that a lot closer than it was. We did not perform well. We were sloppy. We were unalert. That was disappointing coming off the UAB game. We will get back at it tomorrow to prepare for a different level of competition.”

On possibly looking past Texas-Pan American:
“It’s a hard team to play as a coach. They are 1-14 and they played pretty well against Air Force. You always respect the game first. You have to respect your opponent whether it’s a top-10 team or a team that’s not so good. If our guys disrespected their opponent, that would be very disappointing. I thought they certainly disrespected the game the way they approached it. We were just lackluster.”

On recent practices:
“We practiced pretty hard yesterday. I thought we prepared pretty well. I told them how they played this game would prepare them for ACC basketball. That obviously didn’t go over too well.”

Does this give you and your coaches something to start practice with tomorrow:
“It’s a long season. You’ve got to have an even keel. You don’t get too up when you win and you don’t get too discouraged if it’s not a great performance. I try to look at games and say ‘it’s about quality for us.’ And the quality wasn’t there. Whether you win or lose, you ask whether there was quality on the floor and I’m sure you can find some stretches where some guys did some things, but overall the quality was not present tonight. That’s what bothers me. It’s a win though and you’ll always take that. Certainly we will have to go to work and get their attention.”

On being 8-4:
“There have been some steps forward. I try not to look at this and get too carried away with the record and rather look at quality. I thought for the most part it was a quality performance against UAB and I thought we were making steps in the right direction. Hopefully we were just off tonight and we’ll come out better against NC State. The record, I’m not too caught up in. We’ll take 8-4, but you also look at some of those games we had chances in. From that standpoint, we have competed. I told our guys before the game, when you are alert and real competitive, I like the group sitting in front of me. But when you’re not, then it’s tough. Tonight we weren’t alert and tough and feisty. That’s the entry fee to play at the high major level and when that’s not there, you don’t belong. We’ll have to bring some effort and execution along with it.”

On Mike Scott:
“He made some nice plays. I thought he was solid on the offensive end and rusty on the defensive end. It’s nice to have a guy like that when you’re struggling and then you can dump it in to him. He’s got to bring a complete performance on both ends of the floor, and we’ll need that from him.”

Texas-Pan American Head Coach Ryan Marks

Opening Statement:
“For us, these types of games are great opportunities and privileges, to bring guys into a building like this and play this caliber of a team like Virginia. We have done this a few times this year and have had a little bit of a rugged road. Our guys understand if you are going to be able to compete and be a factor in the outcome, you have to play a perfect 40 minutes. I thought we played 32 minutes tonight about as well as we are capable of playing. The eight minutes at the end of the first half, when we came unglued, was the major difference in the game.”

On the stress of travel:
“We have hit fatigue on the road before because we had a stretch where we were on the road for 10 games earlier in the year. The first seven games we had good energy and the last three we were just out of gas; because of both travel and getting into exams. I thought we were pretty fresh tonight. Obviously we are out of school with no classes right now. We had two days between playing Air Force and here. We had a chance to take it easy.”

On the closeness of the game midway through the first half:
“We were able to score early and be competitive and that takes the monkey off your back a little bit. Guys feel like they can play a little looser offensively and they were going to be able to score.”