UVA coach Tony Bennett and players Kyle Guy and London Perrantes talk with reporters after the Cavs’ 60-58 loss to Florida State.
Coach Tony Bennett
On the play of FSU’s Dwayne Bacon: “I think [Bacon] is a special player. The shot he hit at the end of the game from my vantage point was pretty contested and tough, and he just rose up and that is elite scoring. I will have to watch the replay. I think a few times he rejected a ball screen and maybe we were not tight enough on him to make him try to make a play, but he is capable both ways. He has a mid-range game, he can get to the rim and then when his stroke is on like that, with his size, you can see why he has that kind of reputation.”
On the play of UVA: “We need everybody to be sound and tough, to take care of the ball, to get a quality shot. I thought there were stretches where I wanted London [Perrantes] to look for it. They guard you hard, they make every catch hard, they are on top of you, you have to take care of the ball, you are fighting on defense. So there is a toll, but we certainly need them all. [Kyle] hit a couple of nice shots. We had a couple of uncharacteristic things down the stretch, and we did it against Louisville, but it did not hurt us because we had a big lead. We did not have a big lead in this one; we were either down or it was a tight game, and we did some of the same things and it cost us. I have said it before, if we play well we are going to be in a lot of close games, so the ability to get shots, get stops, and execute all game is important. But those unforced errors I wish we could take away. Those are the ones that sting – the free-throw block out, then inbounding the ball and them taking it away.”
On the overall talent within the ACC this season: “The first thing I said to our team when we walked into the locker room was ‘Welcome to the ACC.’ I said, ‘If you are not right, and you are not executing all of the way through, you will not be successful.’ That is why in those games, if you can get them, you take them. Obviously, Louisville, we went in there and got a win. Florida State, they came in here, and that is a talented offensive group. You are just going to be have to be ready to play at home or away.”
Guard Kyle Guy
On the last two plays of the game: “I knew that the drift play that we ran was going to be open because we already ran it three times and it was open every time. I knew I just had to knock down the shot. When it went in, we were all hype but we knew we had to get back because it kind of caught me off guard, they just passed it in. I thought they would call timeout or something. Dwayne [Bacon] got it and he made a heck of a play.”
On preparing for the rest of the ACC season: “Every day in practice we do drills for staying in front of guys and Coach Bennett is always telling me I need to take elbows to the chest and get charge calls and stuff like that, which I got against Louisville and Mike Curtis is always preaching I need to eat more. Mentally I’m there. I’m just waiting on the physical aspect of it but I try not to let that hold me back, I try to give everything I have when I’m on the court.”
Guard London Perrantes
On the strength of the ACC this year and how the rest of the regular season is: “I think this is going to be the toughest ACC play that I’ve been a part of all four years. I feel like top to bottom it’s going to be tough. We have to come in every night ready to play, but we also can’t hang our heads with losses because everybody takes a loss. We just have to be able to get back and get better. The young guys just learn from our mistakes and learn from this game and keep moving forward.”
On his own offensive aggression: “I’m just taking what the defense gives me. They played me pretty hard defensively, trying to deny me the ball so I was trying to get other people involved since I felt like they were kind of keying on me. That’s where Kyle [Guy] gets open shots, Devon [Hall] gets open looks or Darius [Thompson] gets open looks. I’m not one to force anything just because I haven’t shot the ball in fifteen or so minutes if we’re playing well and other people are knocking down shots. I’m going to give it to them when they can shoot. I feel like we were good in the first half, the second half we needed some more playmaking. I kind of stepped up a little bit, and Isaiah hit a big shot late. He always tells me to be aggressive but I try to do the best I can.”
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