Postgame Quotes

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2010-11 Virginia Basketball Postgame Quotes
January 27, 2011
Maryland 66, Virginia 42

Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett

On a disappointing game:
“Too many turnovers led to buckets for them, and they certainly took it to us. We always talk about the fine line we walk, and I can live with guys missing quality shots, but there were some we needed to finish. Our offensive struggles spilled over into our defensive ability to play the whole possession, and out of our last four games, this was our worst.”

On Virginia’s shooting performance:
“Statistically, Maryland guards well. But we did get some pretty good rhythm looks at times and we needed to hit a few more of them.”

On Virginia’s defense:
“I thought the interior defense did a good job, especially on Jordan [Williams]. We just lost vision. Not always out of the double team and the post, a couple were when we were just out of position. So I thought our positioning defensively hurt us.”

On Assane Sene’s performance:
“He grabbed some rebounds and did a good job defensively. The way they guarded him and Jontel Evans was in zones, and those are the opportunities we have to try and cash in on. He did some good things on the glass and defensively, and we’ll keep working.”

On playing uncharacteristically:
“We always say there are things we need to do sharply, not flat, just to be competitive. Taking care of the basketball is one of them, not giving up second chance points, and the transition buckets, which were OK for a while. I just wish it wouldn’t seem contagious when one guy is off. I wish one guy could step up and get us going.”

On challenges following this game:
“We always talk about the terminology of being a door-to-door salesman, and you have to keep knocking. Now we’re a traveling salesman and you have to keep knocking. You can’t get too high or too low after a nice win or a really tough loss like this. You say OK, let’s make some adjustments, we’re playing a different team, and we have to try to bring as much grit, with execution. We all know that was a poor performance with a team that played well against us and we have to try and improve.”

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams

Opening Statement:
“Our defense was really key for us tonight. Tonight I think we did a good job of practicing to get ready and then following the game plan once we were in the game. Virginia’s a really good 3-point shooting team, they usually have got four guys out there that can shoot 3’s. We were really looking to take them off the 3-point line, and they didn’t get a lot of looks. That’s what we tried to do going into the game. Virginia did a great job of taking away Jordan Williams. Nobody had done that, like that, this year. We finally gradually got better as the game went on. Seeing what was happening, that was key. We made pretty good adjustments the second half. I thought our seniors just had a tremendous night. Dino Gregory was playing down, in other words, he was playing a guy smaller than him tonight, doing a great job. Adrian Bowie and Cliff Tucker just hit big shots. Adrian at the start of the second half, in terms of the game, when everything was up in the air, he took over the game offensively for us. In addition to that, our two freshmen really did a good job at the point tonight. Especially Pe’Shon Howard, coming off the bench. It’s never easy being a point guard if you play for a guy that played point guard. You forget that you weren’t that good when you played, and you expect your point guards to be better than you were. So you put some pressure on those guys. But I thought they were great, they got us into the offense. They made key plays, in other words, getting the ball to the right guy. That was a big win for us tonight, to play like that. We can carry that, because we have to go down to Atlanta on Sunday and play Georgia Tech.”

On their defensive strategy:
“We made a couple of good defensive plays and forced turnovers. A few times that has happened to us. Whatever that does to you, it takes you out of what you were trying to do. I think that’s what happened to Virginia tonight because they had been handling the ball well and running probably as good an offense as anyone in the league. We were able to disrupt that a little bit tonight with our defense. That’s not something that you really plan on. You hope that you can do it going into the game. We did a good job with it tonight. I think our intensity level, defensively, was good for the whole 40 minutes.”

On Maryland’s first double-figure victory in Charlottesville since 1975:
“Last year we played a game here that we had to win to tie for first place, our last regular season game. We were up the whole game but it came down to the very end. I thought that it would be the same thing tonight. It was very unexpected, obviously, it hadn’t happened for 35 years, so it was very unexpected. It’s been a great rivalry. I think that the closeness of the two schools when there were eight teams in the league made it special.”

On Maryland’s improvements since their loss to Virginia Tech on January 20:
“That game was funny because I feel that that was the one game this year that we were out of it. We had no chance to win that game. There were times in the other games where we had chances to win. The good thing that I did, which I probably wouldn’t have done 10 years ago, was forget about it because we had to play 36 hours later against Clemson. Clemson is pretty good, and we were able to just completely focus on Clemson. Beating Clemson gave us some confidence to come in here tonight. It can build either way.”

Virginia Senior Forward Will Sherrill

On tonight’s game:
“I thought we were not aggressive on both offense and defense and we did not attack their press. They just wanted to play harder than we did.”

On second half:
“We let our offense affect our defense. It is hard to pinpoint a certain play, in the second half, where they gained the momentum. But I think the main thing is that we just lost our focus.”

Virginia Sophomore Guard Jontel Evans

On bouncing back:
“We are going to need to stay together and learn from our mistakes and be sound with the ball.”

On Maryland:
“They were very aggressive on the offensive end and I felt like we had too many defensive breakdowns.”

On the crowd:
“There was a lot of energy in the building tonight and I think they just wanted it more than we did.”

On the Wake Forest game:
“Wake Forest is hungry for a win and a very dangerous team. We need to go down there and do the things we know we can do and come out with a victory.”

Virginia Freshman Guard KT Harrell

On the loss:
“We let missed shots affect how we played on the defensive end. We did not do the things we were supposed to do to get a win.”

On preparing for Wake Forest:
“It is going to be tough. I know a lot of us will not be able to sleep, but I know we will bounce back and play hard versus Wake Forest.”

Maryland Freshman Guard Pe’Shon Howard

On the pre-game mindset:
“Ever since the season started Coach [Williams] has told me to be aggressive in everything I do: run the team, be assertive and try to score. Teams know I like to pass a lot and get others involved so sometimes they take advantage of that. But when we need a big shot, I have to create. He just told me to be aggressive all week. I just tried to come out here and make sure the team got in the sets. This is a hard place to play, especially anywhere in the ACC on the road. We have a good team, but we had work to do, and we did it. “

On his rhythm in the game:
“I put a lot of pressure on myself, because I want to do well and help the team win. We all work so hard that I want to make sure that I pick the guys up, and it’s a lot of pressure. Coach [Williams] just told me to make sure I relax. I’ve been working a lot on shooting and not letting a miss or a turnover effect me. Coach told me not to worry about it, and even if I come out to just be ready to play. So I try to relax, go out, play and have fun.”

On defending Virginia from the outside:
“Our mindset was just to make every shot tough. They’re going to get some, but to make them work and every one a tough shot. That way by the end of the game hopefully they’re tired and maybe they’ll miss some. I know they were hot against Georgia Tech and that was one of our areas of concern. We worked on it a lot in practice, and just came out and executed.”