Postgame Quotes

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2011-12 Virginia Basketball Postgame Quotes
December 30, 2011
#23/24 Virginia 57, Towson 50

Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett

On Towson’s play:
“Well they did a nice job, Towson did. They hit some tough shots late and they were very patient and they ran the clock and then made some plays off the flat ball screen, guys made some plays inside. They certainly executed better and when we got a lead to six or eight they’d come up with an offensive rebound or we’d fumble it out of our hands. Certainly a credit to them, they played hard and you could see it. They saw, we can play with these guys.”

On Virginia’s play:
“For us, when we play well, I think we can play with a lot of teams in the country and be successful, but when we’re off and we’re not sharp and some of the things aren’t right, we become very susceptible and any team can play with us. Thankfully again, we got the lesson through a victory but it happened at Seattle and certainly it happened here. Part of that is parity in college basketball and part of that is us understanding that we have to be really locked in and focused. With foul trouble and a few bad decisions the game starts to get away from you and that could have gone either way tonight.”

On poor shooting:
“They did a nice job defensively, they worked, and they kind of jammed the lane against us. We got some good looks and struggled; when you miss a dunk and when you’re missing some open looks, certain guys missing some free throws to extend the lead, it probably was a combination of both. You just have to battle through that. If you’re going to have a cold night shooting and I didn’t feel like we executed well offensively, we were certainly stagnate and they did a good job. But you better be real good on defense. We’ve been in those situations before. I don’t think we were real sound on either, but they did make some plays so please don’t take this the wrong way saying it was all us playing poor; they led to that too with their execution offensively and really making it hard to get to the rim.”

On Mike Scott having foul trouble and heading into stiffer competition:
“On the road at LSU and then ACC play, with Mike this is the second game in a row he’s picked up two fouls [in the first half]. It happened in our last game and that’s why guys have to be ready. At times we played four perimeters to try to get some offensive spark; put in a fourth guard and whoever the fifth man was, whether it was Akil or Darion or Assane or even Mike can play that. We can’t pick up silly fouls, but that is part of the game and the other guys have to be ready. Besides Sammy and Joe, who got it going, we were pretty cold. It seemed like we got a little anxious at times, we got a little down and then we got a little anxious. You could see that guys were out of sync and we couldn’t seem to right the ship.”

On the team:
“Every game is an opportunity. We’ve had off games and come back. I think a game like this would suggest that if we play like this in conference play, then no we’re not ready for conference play; that’s pretty obvious. The challenge for us is every time you have a performance like this, what do you have to do to improve. That’s our job as coaches and as a team together; what do we have to do to shore up those areas that are going to cost us. Certainly there is going to be fierce play on the offensive glass starting at LSU; you’re going to go against more size and athleticism. You’re going to have to execute and you’re going to have to play both ends and this won’t stand up against conference play and LSU. So you understand that and you go to work at practice and you don’t hang your head, you say we’re still a solid team. Like I said earlier, when we play well we’re good, we can play with most teams and be successful. When we don’t we become very average to below average.”

Towson Head Coach Pat Skerry

Opening Statement:
“With all of these new players, that’s something we have been trying to preach to them. If you guard, and continue to guard, guard, guard, you are going to put yourself in position to win games. This is the first time we have done it for close to 40 minutes.”

On his feelings after the game:
“I told the guys, there are no moral victories. We lost.”

On how his team played:
“The truth is, I would be ok if we went 0-32 and we defend like that. The reality is, we won’t go 0-32 if we defend like that.”

On starting conference play:
“I am 100 percent glad that our non-conference schedule is over. We have a very tough Northeastern team coming in next week.”

On the keys to the game:
“For us, not turning the ball over a lot. If you guard well, and you don’t turn the ball over a lot, you are going to have chances to win basketball games.”