Virginia Game Quotes
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Dec. 4, 2014
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Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon
Opening Statement:
“I thought Virginia was terrific from the beginning to the end. I thought their defense showed what Virginia is about and I thought their execution was better. They came into this game struggling offensively and we gave them too many layups. Out of 26 buckets, 18 of them were layups. Our defense was not good enough and for us to beat a team like Virginia, we have to be a lot better defensively. Give them a lot of credit. We did not quit and we kept trying to respond and I think we will be a better team after playing Virginia tonight.”
On the struggles of the freshmen class:
“I think Melo [Trimble] was terrific. He had two guys guarding him most of the time so I thought he was great. He got to the foul line 14 times against a team that was just trying to stop him. There were growing pains defensively and physically we just needed to toughen up to match their screening and execution. That is really what our new guys struggled with the most.”
On the first five minutes of the second half:
“I think in the first five minutes, you saw a veteran team who won two tournaments last year. I think we got our offense going, we just could not get our defense going. Nobody is going to shoot that many free throws on Virginia the rest of the year. We did not quit and they were just terrific. They would run the clock down and played for forty minutes.”
On Virginia’s physicality:
“They were very physical. Their physicality will help us and we had not seen any team like Virginia yet, so it was kind of an eye-opener.”
On Dion Wiley:
“Tonight he hit two big, tough threes when we did not really have anything going. His next step is going to be getting better defensively and hopefully with assists he will take some pressure off of Melo [Trimble]. Dez [Wells] gets shots for people so we want Dion [Wiley] to do that.”
On playing a team like Virginia:
“I would not say anything was easy against them, but they make you play differently. We had not really worked on our offense, so with injuries it was especially tough.”
On Jake Layman’s performance:
“I thought Jake [Layman] really played well. He played hard, tried to communicate and he tried to defend to get something going. He got to the basket and made some free throws and he was active with five rebounds. He is going to continue to trust his teammates because they are good players and the system will work. Between now and Saturday, though, we need to get better defensively.”
Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett
On getting into foul trouble:
“We had a little trouble adjusting to that. I thought we played good defense the first five, six minutes, we stayed in position. Then we started to put our hands on a little too much and that’s obviously rules emphasis. We didn’t adjust to start the second half. Guys didn’t want to pick up fouls, so they backed off and as the game wore on I thought we did a better job of tightening up our defense.”
On playing a young Maryland team:
“I think they play together well. Obviously, without Dez [Wells] and Evan [Smotrycz] that affected them. Those are important pieces for them. Mark [Turgeon] does a real good job. I thought they had a lot of talent last year, they have talent this year. I thought they were a little more cohesive watching them in the tournament. Those young guys are only going to get better and better.”
On Virginia’s defensive effort:
“I really thought we were locked in those first six or seven minutes. You could see that there weren’t many gaps. They were contesting shots and I thought, with our foul trouble, we didn’t play as effective. Our goal is always to try to take away the wing, which we didn’t do very well, but make them shoot contested shots and limit them to only one shot.”
On the poise of the team:
“I told our team that this is going to come down to who has the most composure and most grit at the end, both defensively and offensively. Our guys didn’t get too sped up or panicked. They took some time off the clock and made some big buckets.”
Maryland freshman guard Dion Wiley
On playing in front of this crowd:
“I was amped. I went into the game knowing it was a rivalry. I knew there was going to be a lot of people here so I tried not to be so nervous.”
On the Virginia defense:
“The defense was really solid. They play a lot of tough defense and they shoot the gaps so it was really hard to penetrate.”
On the difficulty to guard:
“They run a lot of plays and they use the shot clock a lot so they make you guard the whole 30 seconds. They were really tough.”
Maryland senior guard Richaud Pack
On playing behind for the majority of the game:
“It was hard. We didn’t come out with the intensity that we needed to come out with, especially on defense. They came out and played tougher defense from the beginning, and that is what made us fall behind.”
On learning lessons tonight:
“I think it’s a learning experience for all of us. One of the things we learned is that we have to get off to better starts; more intensity on defense and to keep playing hard for 40 minutes.”
On keeping team confidence:
“I think our confidence was big. A lot of teams would have let it get it out of hand and let the lead get to 20 but we just kept fighting. We just kept saying, make it a game, make it a game. We were just trying to make a run and I think we stuck to that and finished as best as we could.”
On freshmen presence:
“It was great. Dion Wiley and Melo Trimble were hitting a lot of shots in the first half. We are going to need our young guys to contribute because our team is young and the other half is old. We are going to need them just as much as we need everyone else.”
Maryland junior forward Jake Layman
On defensive performance:
“Our defense just wasn’t where it needed to be tonight.”
On playing from behind:
“That’s definitely hard to overcome but we are a much better defensive team than what we showed tonight. We are a good enough defensive team to rely on that when we are down by 10 to a team who is efficient like Virginia.”
On the freshmen performance:
“We expect them to be aggressive whenever they get in. Dion Wiley was great for us tonight. He came in hitting shots and got us going offensively. Without his shots it would have been a struggle. They are great and we expect that from them now.”
Virginia freshman Guard Marial Shayok
On his first time playing at Maryland:
“It was crazy. It was a really great atmosphere and just a really great experience.”
On his assessment of the game:
“It was a really good road win. I felt like we stayed together throughout the game with the injuries and the foul trouble. It showed how good our chemistry is.”
Virginia junior forward Anthony Gill
On if it was the team’s most complete effort of the season:
“Yeah, I think that we played well tonight on both ends of the court. We made them work on defense and then we made them work on offense. I think we played really good tonight. Everybody came off the bench and really helped us out a lot. Marial [Shayok], Mike Tobey, all the guys came off the bench and really helped us out.”
Virginia junior forward Evan Nolte
On the adversity the team faced throughout the game:
“It was the first time really we had that kind of adversity like that with fouls and stuff. It was great for everyone to step up and just play their roles getting ready off the bench.”
On his 3-pointer towards the end of the game:
“It was good. I’ve been shooting it real well in practice. It’s just frustrating when you feel like you’re shooting it with confidence and everything like that. It was nice to see the last one go in.”
On if tonight felt like a rivalry game:
“We just treated it like a normal game when we got things going. We played them last year and had some physical, tough games. It’s my third year here so I remembered it. It didn’t feel like they were out of the ACC to be honest but it just felt like one of those tough games that you just had to grind out against a really tough opponent.”