Jan. 29, 2011

Head Coach Gary Williams

Opening statement:
"Quick turnaround. We have to be ready to play. I think the players have done a good job of handling some situations already this year and we'll be ready to play tomorrow night.

"Practice today, you're still working on some things because you only have two days to prepare between games so it doesn't give you a lot of time to do what you want to do to get ready. So we have to be really tough in practice, prep for Georgia Tech.

"[Ian] Shumpert is one of the best guards in the country, not just the league. [He] does a lot of things for them. [Brian] Oliver is back who's a very good shooter at times; he's probably one of the better streak shooters in the league once he gets it going. [Glen] Rice is a proven scorer for them. This year they're different, they have their offense a little more on the perimeter than they did with the guys they had last year. It's a very talented team, especially at home. They've really done a good job down there in their home games."

On Pe'Shon Howard:
I really like the way he played. I thought he just stayed with where he is. What I mean by that is he's a freshman point guard playing in the ACC game on the road. He didn't try to be any more than that. He just got the ball into the offense for us, took shots when he was open and played good defense. If you can do that as a freshman guard in the ACC than you really help the team, so he was really good."

On Pe'Shon Howard and Terrell Stoglin's progression:
"They know the offense better; I mean it takes time. Any freshman coming in, it just takes time and they've gotten better. They're better players now than they were when we started in October, and they're better than they were in November or December even though they had some good games, they're playing against better teams now. In other words the good teams have gotten better by now and it's a better level of basketball they're playing against right now."

On Virginia's defense double- and triple-teaming Jordan Williams:
"They gambled I think that we wouldn't shoot the ball and we shot over 50 percent. Adrian Bowie, Cliff Tucker, Pe'Shon, Terrell, our guards really stepped up to handle that situation which you have to do. It would've worked - if we couldn't shoot the ball - it would've worked."

On Adrian Bowie's recent play:
"He sees opportunities to drive the basketball. I think that's the big thing because he's become a pretty good shooter. But if you're a pretty good shooter and teams can just run out at you, that doesn't mean you're going to get a lot of shots. If you add the ability to drive the ball, now they can't run at you and if you're a good shooter you get your shots. He's expanded his game which is really good to see. I think Cliff Tucker, he's also become more of a threat to drive the basketball which has helped us too. The more balance you have, like against Virginia if somebody would have tried that in early December I'm not sure we could've done anything about it, but hopefully we've gotten better."