Virginia coach Tony Bennett talks with reporters after the Cavs’ 67-49 win over Virginia Tech on Tuesday.
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Quotes: Tony Bennett
On the play of Isaiah Wilkins on offense:
“He was real good on the offensive glass which I thought was extremely important. He had the three offensive rebounds. He also got to the free throw line. But that little 17-foot shot when they sagged off of him was significant. He’s made some of those shots before. That’s so important when we can get that sort of contribution. As I mentioned, Malcolm has been scoring so well, and Anthony and London, too. When another guy gives us that output offensively, it really balances our team and makes us more potent on offense as well as harder to guard.”
On controlling the tempo:
“That’s how we play. We try to move the ball side to side and get good shots. If there’s a good one early, we’ll take it. Virginia Tech did a good job pressuring us and bogging us down a little bit. At times, we couldn’t quite run our offense that well. But when we got the ball reversed and ran our stuff hard, we got some good action. Isaiah hit some shots, we got some offensive rebounds and we got some points in the paint. Sometimes against good defenses that are set, it takes a little longer. Virginia Tech really jams the lane. They flood it, pack it and pick up a bunch of charges. You’ve got to make the extra pass and they really forced us to do that early.”
On Virginia’s defensive effort:
“They missed some bunnies. We definitely caught some breaks. They had some point-blank layups they missed. We weren’t great defensively, but we were better. I thought we didn’t get split as much on the ball screens and we slid a little better. As I mentioned, I think we’re playing better collectively on defense. Our defense is such a team defensive system. You need some good individual slides on the ball and close-outs, but it really relies on all the guys being in the right position and making it hard. We were tied a little tighter together and I think we’re in sync a little more than we were when we played them last time. They got some transition buckets on us and had their way against us. We were better.”
On Anthony Gill’s performance:
“He was discouraged [after the game against Pittsburgh], but he still did some good things. I sat him down and talked to him. I said, ‘Be encouraged because we played pretty well without you having a big offensive game. You did some good things defensively. You’re just going to have some of those games when you’re keyed on like that.’ He did a nice job tonight. He was efficient and let it come to him. When [Zach] LeDay got in foul trouble, he did a nice job attacking that. Anthony is such an important part for us. I liked his mindset and his aggressiveness but he played within himself. I want him to be aggressive but he still let it come to him. I think that’s a sign of maturity.”
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