Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett
On first-half impressions:
“I thought our first half we were sharp, made it hard for them to get good looks in the first half for the most part. We ran our offense, touched the paint. Obviously when guys make those shots, when [Kyle Guy] gets rolling and [Ty Jerome] some good things happen. [We] had to withstand some foul trouble and still played at a solid level. So, I liked what I saw in the first half, I did. I thought we competed in the right way and had a mindset about us.”
On Ty Jerome’s offensive aggressiveness:
“I think he was always pretty assertive, but I think we need that from him. He’s worked so hard on his game and his outside shooting and his body, all those things, to get in the lane. So, he’s played two really good games and I think offensively he seems to be assertive with the ability to find guys and when we got in foul trouble I thought he looked a little more assertive on that.”
On second-half play:
“I thought we played well in the first half and I thought they outplayed us in the second half. They really did. They got open looks, we were sluggish, little loose with the ball and just got outplayed. The encouraging part was how they played in the first half, it was discouraging to get kind of outcompeted and outworked. A lot of clean threes, they made some nice shots, and they out-executed us in the second half and that’s, for us to be as good as we can, that shouldn’t happen. There were some opportunities for guys to get more time as the score was there and there wasn’t enough fight and effort and soundness with it. The ability to play a better quality of basketball was discouraging. So, absolutely got to clean that up and keep working.”
On re-adjustments moving forward:
“We’ve had teams that if we get in foul trouble they could do what this team did. This team has to keep working. It doesn’t have the luxury of taking it easy and cruising, because that won’t cut it as the competition goes up. And that part raised the antenna. What I do like, as I said, is the versatility, though I didn’t think we kept the ball in the second half in front. Certain individuals just have to keep working on things. We have some great strengths and there are some areas that we have to keep addressing, but you have some size when it’s in position that can bother shots, make it hard. I feel like we should be able to rebound better with our size on the front court. Everyone is capable. We have to get some more production off the bench, I think that’ll be important.”
Virginia Guard Kyle Guy
On his rebounds:
“Yeah absolutely I’m a better rebounder than Dre [De’Andre Hunter]. Coach has been preaching the guards making rebounds a lot because Towson got a lot of offensive rebounds and tips on us.”
On feeling a good game after a lucky shot:
“Yeah I know. I definitely didn’t think it was going in when it hit the rim but it went in and everyone went wild so.”
On allowing 40 points in the second half:
“I think they just penetrated a little bit more, kicked it out for rhythm threes, even if we had a hand up it was still rhythm, so I think that will definitely be a point of emphasis this week. Coach wasn’t super happy about it so were going to have to come back better this week.”
On his shooting in this game compared to last game:
“I think I had a lot more confidence today than I did the first game. I can’t really explain why. Guys like Ty [Ty Jerome] just telling me to keep shooting, and they keep feeding me, so some of them are bound to go in.”
On his staying aggressive offensively:
“He just wants me to stay aggressive. I didn’t want to force anything in the first game. I was just trying to feel my way into it, I think I found a groove already.”
Virginia Guard Ty Jerome
On looking for his shot:
“I mean I only took nine shots today. Like I said last time, I think I’m just going to let the game keep coming to me. I mean I took nine shots, I probably took double digit shots a lot of games last year, so wherever the game comes I’ll take it.”
On comfort with the offense:
“I think it looks good, like Kyle said we have a new team, we have a lot of versatility. We can split the floor a little bit more, we’re really working on our shots after practice, during practice. So yeah, we look good right now, but we know how far we have to go still.”
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