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Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett

On Virginia’s lack of scoring in the final minutes of regulation:
“I thought we played so hard, and we always talk about hard and smart together. We were pretty solid with our decision making up until that point and then there were some breakdowns. We could have run some clock. Jeff got a wide open look. He had hit one and it would have been a time to run some clock. We left a guy unguarded in transition, two turnovers and the out of bound plays, fouling Delaney—there were just some things where I thought our execution and just making some sound decisions hurt us.”

“Offensively we definitely did get stagnant. Sylven was drawing quite a crowd and there were some chances where if we could have made that next pass… It’s something we have to learn from and they did a good job of really stacking up wherever Syl was.”

On Virginia Tech’s play in the end of regulation:
“With the time left they made a run on us. It was transition baskets too. That’s something that in this league will test you. If you’re not sound in that area that can hurt you, because when our defense was set for the majority of the game, it was hard for them to score. When our defense wasn’t set, they made it look easy.”

On Virginia Tech’s JT Thompson
“He’s a tough match up. He did the job as the game wore on. He’s so active and plays so hard. You can see that, and he’s just kind of a workhorse for them. He certainly was a significant key to their victory.”

On using perimeter players at the end of regulation:
“We thought we needed a little ball handling. If we could just get it in and run a little clock, that’s been good to us down the stretch. Late in the game they were hurting us a little bit whether we had our two bigs, three guards or four guards in, but it was more to handle the pressure and hopefully get fouled, get to the line and then hopefully make a defensive substitution if needed.”

On the team’s free throw shooting:
“We’re not doing anything different from the line as far as practice. We’re shooting a lot of them, trying to make it competitive. As I’ve said before, sometimes shooting free throws is a little bit like putting—you just keep your routine, step up and shoot them. When they’re going in, it makes it a little easier to win down the stretch, there’s no question.”

On Mike Scott:
“He was working hard. I think he really caught them off guard early and we got a few sets to get a few looks at him. I think there’s some times when we had opportunities to go to him and didn’t. We just didn’t make the next pass.”

Virginia Junior Forward Mike Scott

On losing lead late:
“We just did not make a lot of smart decisions. We played hard but not smart. We took bad shots, and had a lot of turnovers.”

On Sammy’s Zeglinski’s last second shot in regulation:
“I definitely thought we were going to win after that.”

On failing to get back on defense:
“Jerome [Meyinsse] and I were crashing the boards and they were able to leak out and hit the open man.”

On rebounding for the game against UNC:
“It is very important. It hurts right now but we just have to pick our heads up and move on.”

Virginia Sophomore Guard Sammy Zeglinski

On his game-tying shot at the end of regulation:
“I double-clutched by accident, so I felt it was lucky to have it go in. I thought we would have the momentum going into overtime, but we just could not get enough stops.”

On the loss:
“It is a tough loss because we had the lead so many times, and we just could not hold it.”

On rebounding for the game against UNC:
“We have to have a quick turnaround and get ready to play our next game. We have to have a short memory. We are going to stick to who we are. We just made too many mistakes. We are going to keep fighting.”

Virginia Sophomore Guard Sylven Landesberg

On sensing the win was close:
“There were a lot of points scored in the game and we were ready for the knockout punch, but they kept fighting back. You can’t sleep on a team like that.”


Virginia Tech Head Coach Seth Greenberg

On the overview of the game:
“That was just a really good basketball game. That is the only way to describe it. Both teams competed at a high level. I was very proud of our resilience – I was really proud of how tough we were defensively. I was very proud of the pace we ran our offense and our toughness. We are a good team when we get stops. We had so many guys step up. Erick Green did a nice job for us on offense when Malcolm (Delaney) was off the ball. JT Thompson was so tough and – I guess determined. It was so good to see him play that way – it’s a piece we have been missing.”

On Malcolm Delaney asking to be switched to guard Sylven Landesberg:
“I think we knew we had one bad matchup on him. Dorenzo (Hudson) is better at guarding shooters. He is such a great player – we tried to slow him down – gave him a lot of help. But that is Malcolm (Delaney) – he is such a competitive player and wants to give us any edge to win. That wasn’t one guy stopping Sylven Landesberg – you’re not stopping him with one player. He is so elusive. Malcolm did a good job of trying to get him off some spots – and as a team we did a good job of being alert – helping and getting back to shooters.”

On coming back from UVa’s early 10-point lead:
“I think the environment and the atmosphere here – I think we were trying too hard at the start of the game. Malcolm (Delaney) was too anxious – he hasn’t practiced for the past three days and he was almost anxious. I think it took him a few minutes to get the flow of the game and to play off the other guys. Once we got some stops and out in transition – put the ball in a couple times, you get some confidence. Once you get confidence, then you try and get the ball inside a little bit. Then a great trust amongst all of them developed during the course of the game and they started defending harder.”

Virginia Tech Forward JT Thompson

On Jeff Allen getting ejected:
“I’m a guy that tries to bring the energy, that’s what I did out there. I was trying to fire everyone up, diving on the floor and everything. When I saw Jeff wasn’t coming back, I just knew I had to step it up.”

On what this game means to him:
“It means a lot, especially against Virginia, it’s our rival, so, it means a lot in a rivalry game.”

On the mood on the court at the end of the game:
“Somebody said, “we’re still in it.” Every time we went to the coach somebody said, “we’re still in it.” So, in the back of my head, we can still win. So we went out there, and we just kept playing, and we won.”

Virginia Tech Guard Dorenzo Hudson

On the difference between this game and the Florida State game, when they couldn’t force the OT:
“Like I told you, the defense won the game for us, and I feel like we’re playing very good defense as a team…I think we know when we need to get stops and we get stops.”

On Jeff Allen getting ejected:
“I wasn’t hurt by it at all, I mean, we need Jeff to play in this league, but I knew some guys were going to step up…I knew because it’s a rivalry game, first of all. Coming into the game we don’t know who’s going to be the leader, or who’s going to have a big game. When Jeff went out, I let the team know that we needed some kind of play.”

On the win:
“It’s a big win, this being a rivalry game, plus it’s the ACC and Virginia was tied for first place in the ACC, so that’s a big road win for us.”

Virginia Tech Guard Malcolm Delaney

On whether they ever thought they were out of the game:
“I didn’t think so at all, I knew they went up on a little run in the first bit of the game, and I knew the game’s about runs, but we did a hard job fighting back. “

On the attitude he was trying to convey to the team:
“I was telling people, “keep confident.” This is the ACC, people go on runs. We knew the game didn’t get out of hand, just like they made their run in the first half, we came back and we made ours. We just stuck with it. Coach had confidence in us, and we just kept emphasizing hard work and staying true to our defense. That’s what eventually won the game for us.”

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