Virginia Tech basketball coach Buzz Williams talks with reporters after the Hokies’ bid for an upset of #2 UVA fell short in a 50-47 loss on Sunday.
On the atmosphere in Cassell: I’m really thankful for the people that came on Thursday, for the students that came. I’m really thankful for the people that came today and spent their Sunday afternoon arranging all the things that you have to arrange in order to attend. We really appreciate it. I thought it was great. Hopefully we can get it to the point where it’s this way in early November and it’s that way in late December. Hopefully we can get it that way whether it’s the rivalry game or not. At some point fans are just like everybody else. You want to see your team win. I’m thankful for everyone that have been a part over the last two games. I thought our effort was better today than Thursday, but I’m thankful for everyone that came, both days.
Coach Williams on playing hard: If you don’t work hard in your job, at some point, they fire you. That has nothing to do with your skill set. We played hard, but I think if you’re going to compete, you have to play hard. Virginia played incredibly hard as well. That’s just a prerequisite. That just gets you a ticket to the game. It doesn’t ensure anything.
Tony said they hadn’t seen much zone this year. Was that something you saw on film? “We don’t have enough guys to play man for 40 minutes. Frankly, we’re not good enough to play man for 40 minutes. We’ve got to change the rhythm and change the pace. So we try to do that as best we can. I think they probably shot it a little better against the zone than against the man.”
Does a game like this show that you’re close to breaking through and getting a win? Not trying to be sarcastic. I’m trying to handle my emotion the right way. And not trying to be arrogant at all and not trying to be Herm Edwards (“You play to win the game.”), but you don’t play for all that. That’s the truth. I’m not trying to be silly. If we’re supposed to be applauded for playing hard, I think you can do that over at the Blacksburg Rec [Recreation Center]. It has to be more than that.
Coach Williams on the final shot: We knew they were going to foul. But the possession before, they didn’t foul. So I told the team, ‘I think he will foul, but I don’t know that. So we’re going to run this play, and we won’t get through all the action because they’re going to foul before we get through all of it. If they don’t foul, we’re going to run it. If they foul somewhere in the middle, we’re going to run it again.’ So obviously they’re going to sit on top of Adam. Most of you probably thought Adam was going to shoot, and I think they probably did, too.
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Chris Graham
