Postgame Quotes
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Nov. 19, 2012
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Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett
On what he takes away from this win:
“On the sidelines or the stands maybe it doesn’t feel like it’s close, but we’re trying to keep building and play a certain way to give us a chance. I saw some good things. Paul obviously shot the ball well early, but I thought he gave us a nice lift on the glass and just was sharp so I liked what I saw in him. I thought that there was a stretch in the second half where we were up 24 or so and there were three or four moving screens and three turnovers that brought them back into the game. And those are things we talk about with our players, to play through those. We are still trying to find ourselves. I thought Teven gave us another nice lift as well.”
On fighting fatigue going into tomorrow’s game:
“This is our sixth game in 11 or 12 days. It’s a lot of games and that is the challenge. We’ll play a team that will bring a lot of pressure and an elite player in Mitchell who they are talking about as a top player for the next level. They’ll challenge us and it’ll be a different style and we’ll have to meet it and take care of the ball and play as good of defense as we can to get after them.”
On feeling confident with where the team is at:
“I’m not sure. I think I just want to keep getting the guys healthy. That’ll take some more time. I think we are making the most of our opportunities. As I told them before the game, sometimes things don’t always show but we are continuing to build. You’ve got to just keep plugging. We can’t afford a lot of mistakes the way we play, so we kind of have to play a little closer to the vest and it doesn’t always look the best. I can sense when guys are starting to understand what it means to get the ball reversed, to look inside, to make the other team work—all things that for us equate to good basketball.”
Virginia Sophomore Guard Paul Jesperson
On shooting ability:
“I’ve been confident on my shot the whole season, because I have been working on it a lot. I knew it was just a matter of time before I would be able to knock down some shots and get some things going.”
On moving forward:
“I’m hoping this is the kind of performance that will help me move forward the rest of my sophomore year. I know I put a lot of work in this off-season, so I’m hoping that this is a stepping stone for the rest of the season.” Virginia
Junior Guard Joe Harris
On Paul Jesperson’s performance:
“I think that Paul has taken it upon himself to be more aggressive and more assertive. He really improved a lot during the off-season and he played really well while we were in Europe. I think it was just a matter of time this season where he began to be more assertive and to take more of those open shots.”
On the offense:
“I thought we did a really good job on running our offense. It is something that we have really been focusing on lately. We try to not be stagnant, and to be continuous. We really work on getting good screens in and I think that is what gave us a lot of clean looks at the beginning of the game.”
Virginia Junior Forward Akil Mitchell
On facing Tony Mitchell tomorrow night against North Texas:
“I have watched him before. They pressure a lot and he’s athletic. It is nothing that I haven’t seen before. He’s good. We just need to come out and be ready to play tomorrow.”
On playing six games in twelve days:
“I am little exhausted. I’m getting old though. Six games in twelve days is a lot for an NBA team. Coach Bennett talked to us about that today and how important it is to take care of our bodies. We’ll be fine though.”
Lamar Head Coach Pat Knight
On the slow start:
“The start was really bad. We got down by so many that we couldn’t overcome it. I’ve got guys that haven’t produced and they have to get it together. But, I was really pleased with our last 30 minutes.”
On the team’s youth:
“I’ve got a lot of freshman and sophomores on this team. I only really have one senior back, who played a lot of minutes last year. I have to care for this team and not care about the record right now. We turn it over too much though. We only turned it over 14 times, but I think Virginia scored off every one of them. When your offense is the other team’s best offense, it kills you.”