Postgame Quotes

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Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett

On whether he is more concerned with the offensive or defensive performance tonight…
“I told our guys I can handle losses, but the manner in which we lost the last couple games has been frustrating. Our limitations are there, you can see that we struggle to score, but I do not think it is one or the other. I think when we get down, or adversity strikes, we are not able to muster up enough to rally from it. That is a concern. The mental toughness was lacking today – fatigue maybe was there, but the mental toughness was not there. Take your pick. Tonight it was tough.”

On Florida State shutting Sylven Landesberg out of UVa scoring…
“A lot of teams have, they have really stacked the deck against him. Certainly other guys have to step up, but like I said, if you are struggling to score hopefully defensively you can hang in there, but even the looks we got were just really off. It is a challenge, but we will see where we are after this. I told [the team] that this was a gut check game, and the manner in which we lost was poor. We have to find other ways to try and get some looks. You cannot lose your heart, and I think that was taken again tonight.”

On what Virginia will do to try and turn around the offensive game…
“We have to go back to the drawing board. You fight to get good shots, I thought we were pretty stagnant and that we had some silly turnovers. We tried to change up the line-up a little bit to see if we could get a scoring punch from Jeff [Jones] and to use Calvin [Baker’s] experience. Certainly Florida State is a good defensive team, and they make it hard. It is a grind, and I wish we could get a few more transition baskets. We looked like we were stuck in mud out there.”

On whether practice and shoot-around today and yesterday were consistent with this performance…
“We practiced briefly but intensely yesterday, and tried to get the Maryland game out of our system. I thought they hurt us in a lot of ways similarly to the way Florida State [did tonight]. We tried to prepare to the best of our abilities today at the shoot-around, we tried to get them some shots and to get ready. You have to be an underdog and fight like crazy – I worry that when we get behind or get down we do not handle that adversity very well.”

On Florida State’s defense and keeping Sylven Landesberg on the bench in the second half…
“We did not have any answers. I said let’s get some guys with some fresh legs and see if we can get the ball attacking a little more. [Sylven Landesberg] looked sluggish tonight, as did everybody. He goes against a set defense, and they make it hard for you to score. They do that to a lot of teams. Their points in the paint were astronomical, 38 points, and then our turnovers cost us, fast break, too.”

On Jeff Jones and his ability to score in the last few games…
“He has obviously knocked down some shots. Again, he is another perimeter scorer. The last few games he has scored some and has worked hard, that is why I have tried to give him some more minutes, to say, personnel wise, can we find another scoring threat on the floor? I said we will take a look at Jeff and see – he hit a few early and got us going, and then he got some late at the end. He is a threat, at least to stretch the defense.”

Virginia Forward Mike Scott

On the loss
“We did not play hard. We did not play smart. We played selfishly.”

On playing three games in five days
“I do not think we were fatigued. Our minds were fatigued. We just did not play smart.”

On struggling team offense
“I think we are just not moving on offense. We are not executing.”

Virginia Forward Jerome Meyinsse

On the loss
“I think we really struggled on offense. We did not move the play like we need to and we did not execute offensively. They are a good defensive team and they made us struggle.”

On the losing streak
“You come into every game starting fresh and focusing on the task at hand. We tried to do that tonight, we were not successful, and we will have to do that on Saturday.”

On what to say to the team as a captain
“We have to stay together. In rough times it is easy for a team to fall apart, but we have to make sure everyone sticks together to fix the problems we have.”

Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton

Opening statement
“Obviously this was a very important game for our basketball team, and I think we played with a very high level of focus. I think that the reason that we were able to do that for the whole entire game was because as we watched tapes of Virginia, we thought that they did an outstanding job of defending. We knew that if we did not defend them, that they would score points, because they have good shooters. Mike Scott was kind of a tough match up for us because he’s a pick and pop kind of guy. As we watched their system, the way they move the ball and reverse the ball, they always seem to get their guys open looks. I think that as a result of that our players really heightened their focus and their defensive execution and we were able to play a very sound, fundamental, defensive game for the entire game and I think that really made the big difference in the game.”

On Florida State’s balanced scoring…
“We don’t necessarily have a go-to guy. The go-to guy on the team is the guy with the best opportunity; it’s the open guy, that’s the go-to guy on our team right now. We haven’t had anybody emerge. It seems as though the guys kind of like playing that way. They move the ball, everyone plays within themselves, and gets the shots that are best suited for their abilities. That’s who we are right now.”

On what adjustments they made for Virginia…
“The only thing we were concerned about, the adjustment that we made, was that we knew they were going to double the post, and they did a very good job of getting behind you, pushing our center out. In the ACC, they allow you to lay your chest on them in the inside and walk your big guys out on the lane, and we knew that would be tough because our guys are not big, strong guys in the post. We’re tall, long, lanky guys. And plus, doubling them and pushing them off the block, we knew it would be difficult for us to handle. But I thought our guys moved the ball enough where it made it difficult to trap as easy as we thought that it would be.”

On preparing defensively for Sylven Landesberg…
“We didn’t do anything differently than we normally do from a defensive scheme of things. We just told Chris [Singleton] that he had to be solid because Landesberg has a whole lot of stuff to his game. He has the hesitation dribble, he has the perimeter shot, and he drives by you and lays it up. He had to play solid and make him make some plays over him as opposed to trying to reach and going for head fakes. They do such a good job when they catch the ball of moving the ball and shot faking, and we did go for some and got ourselves in trouble.”

On preparing for ACC games…
“We try not to approach any game any different than another. We’ve got respect for all of our opponents. I think that every game that you play in the ACC, if you are not mentally ready to play your very best, something bad can happen. We have run into that, there were a couple of games this year that we had our hat handed to us. We didn’t think that we were as focused as we should have been and I think that’s one reason why our guys have played as well as they have the last couple of games because those things we can control. We are really trying to make sure that the things we can control that we do control.”

On their defensive strategy coming into this game…
“We feel that our defense can be consistent, our offense kind of comes and goes. Tonight we shot 50% from the 3-point line, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen that…We are probably farther along with our defense than with our offense. We try not to let our offense affect our defense and that’s what has happened a couple of times, we weren’t executing, we weren’t scoring and that kind of took our energy away from us. Now the guys understand that one thing we can control is our focus on the defensive end and our offense will take care of itself.”

Florida State Guard Derwin Kitchen

On Florida State’s defense in the first half…
“When your defense is playing that well, your offense will start clicking eventually. We took control and never let go.”

On playing with a lead…
“We wanted to play smart and not force anything, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that. We kept moving the ball around and getting open shots.”

On Florida State’s balanced scoring…
“That’s been the way our team has played all year. We have had so many different players lead our team in scoring throughout the year.”

Florida State Forward Chris Singleton

On Florida State’s defense…
“We have to go back to what we know, and good defense is what we are known for. We do everything we can to keep the other team off the scoreboard.”

On early foul trouble…
“I thought I let my team down a little, but they picked it up. I just need to stay out of foul trouble so that I can stay out on the court.”

On getting a first half lead…
“It was big. Virginia has had a lot of success this year. We knew they would play a tough game. We just tried to play good defense throughout the game.”

Florida State Guard Luke Loucks

On Florida State’s defense…
“Our defense has been solid over the past two games. If we haven’t set any records, we got pretty close. We knew what kind of defensive team we could be, and it just took the effort and intensity that Coach [Leonard Hamilton] wanted to get there.”

On Florida State’s early foul trouble…
“One of the keys to our team is that we are a very deep team. When [Chris] Singleton and [Michael] Snaer were in foul trouble, other guys had to pick it up. I thought our bench did that. It was a team effort.”

On the team slowing down Sylven Landesberg…
“Landesberg this entire season has been unbelievable. That was one of our focuses for the game, to shut him down. When you slow down a player like that, it kind of deflates the rest of the other team. He had a tough game tonight, but he’s a great player.”