March 5, 2011
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Maryland Quotes
Opening Statement:
"Our three seniors played their last home game and they did a good job over a four-year period, both on the court and graduation-wise. They were part of our championship team that tied with Duke last year. They have some things that they will remember that are very positive. Going on with their lives, as they leave here, they will be ready to go with a degree and hopefully will be successful in whatever they chose to do.
"As far as today's game goes... I really give Virginia credit. They worked hard... They did a better job of running their offense as opposed to us. There are no excuses in a situation like that. I think that is the one thing I expect my players to understand. You get a lot of credit when you win but when you lose, everyone takes the blame, whether it's the coaches or players, it doesn't matter. You are all part of it. You win as a team and you lose as a team. I know it is cliché, but it's true. There is no one guy that's ever responsible for a win or one guy that's responsible for a loss. That's the way it works.
"What we do now is get ready to play in the ACC Tournament. I know no team has ever won four games down there since the expansion. At the same time, we are going down there to try to win the thing. We will see what happens. With practice, we are very open to guys coming in and playing really well. We are taking tomorrow off. It's certainly been a long week. Monday's practice will be interesting in terms of trying to find the right guys to go down there and represent us in the ACC Tournament. I really believe we are going to go down there and play well."
On Virginia holding Maryland to 38 percent shooting in the second half:
"They did some good things, but we missed some layups. Right there when we were five down, we missed a couple and that changes your shooting percentage if you make them. Plus you are five down, you make one, you are down by three and it's a one-possession game. I don't worry about percentages; you need to make shots when you have them and we had some shots there, but just didn't make them. Virginia played good defense but we were not real sharp in what we wanted to do and that's the difference in the game.
On only forcing six turnovers:
"Yeah it is alarming. You press most of the game and you'd like to think you can force some turnovers. The pressure bothered them down at Virginia so we went into the game thinking we can bother them. But they did a good job with the ball. Like I said, there are intangibles in any sport, I guess you could say. In basketball, you can intimidate other teams not physically but just by your effort but with your body language. We just weren't that type of team today. We got close on a couple steals but we seemed to be a step away. You can say we are tired. I don't think that's the reason why."
On not being able to get over the hump in the second half:
"Virginia kept its composure very well. That changed the game. When we went on a run they just kept their composure and played well. They made free throws, credit to them. They pulled it away.
On the team's intensity:
"It was close and then they pulled away, and then we had to fight back. It was an uphill battle all night. We kind of just let them play with us early. We should have just taken them out of the game at the beginning but we didn't do that."
On going into the ACC Tournament:
"I think the best thing we can do is just take it game by game. Not think about it all now and just move forward. Whoever we play we're going to play hard; we're going to play to win. We're going down to Greensboro to win the ACC Championship. That's what we want to do. That's what everyone wants to do. That's what we're going to try to do."
On bouncing back from the last couple of games:
"We've had a rough week. I think we just really want to finish strong... But we're a tough team. We've got Coach Williams who's a Hall of Fame coach. We've got players like Jordan [Williams] and Terrell [Stoglin], they're hot. When we get to the ACC Tournament we're going to give our best effort. I think a lot of people would be surprised. A lot of people count us out right now but I really think we'll do well in the tournament."
On momentum:
"We're struggling right now, but next week I think it's going to be a whole different team. I think we're going to do well in the ACC Tournament."
On what they have learned going into the ACC Tournament:
"We've played one of the toughest schedules in the country regardless. We've been in every game. We have one of the best coaches in the country, hands down, who's won the tournament. We have one of the best players in the country hands down. I think Terrell is one of the top freshmen. So we've got the players to do it. So I'm not worried about it."
Virginia Quotes
Head Coach Tony Bennett
Opening statement:
"It was a hard fought game. In the first game we played against them this season they really imposed their will on us, especially in the second half. I was happy with what our guys did. I told them that we have won three of our last four games coming in and take what we learned from that. We had to go get this one from a defensive stand point. Offensively, we handled the pressure a lot better especially the three-quarter court and full court pressure. Different guys stepped up. When you have Sammy (Zeglinski) knocking down shots like that, Assane (Sene) giving us 15 points and Mustafa (Farrakhan) making plays it's really a difference out there. I thought our defense was good enough. When we get some baskets we can be an effective team."
On the ball control and limiting turnovers:
"The past two days there were two specific things that we worked on and we really worked on them hard. We didn't really run that much five-on-five we did a little five-on-seven and forced our guys to find a way to make it work. You could see at the end of the Miami game how Maryland can get teams to turn the ball over. I'm thankful that our guys didn't look like they were on their heels. We were able to break the pressure and that's something that Maryland did a lot in the first game. We broke the press and we didn't let them score off of turnovers and we had a lot of points off of turnovers."
On not allowing points off turnovers:
"That's how you win. You limit the second chance points. You don't give them easy baskets. You don't turn the ball over and don't let them run the fast pace especially a fast team like Maryland."
On Sammy Zeglinski:
"He had a good rhythm. He was really flying off of screens. We were nailing some screens early and really stirring the pot. We have to be mindful that Sammy (Zeglinski), Joe (Harris) and Mu (Mustapha Farrakhan) are all three threats. Sammy was getting his feet set and you could see he was hitting his rhythm and we needed that. When they started stretching us out, we looked at some of the dump downs and offensive put backs."
On finishing games:
"That's a good step. I think we had a couple of games where if we had made our free throws or done some little things it could have been the difference. We just needed to learn from those other times. We handled the ball well and didn't give up second chance baskets. We were solid enough to win a game like this. It was a hostile environment and our guys had a presence about them that was good. They didn't get rattled and we handled the pressure they gave us. We really only had five turnovers and that's a good outing for us."
Senior Guard Mustapha Farrakhan
On Maryland's game plan to press Virginia:
"We did a good job preparing this week for them. We followed the game plan and it worked well for us. We really focused on just looking in the middle and not sitting back on our heels in the press. We worked on playing an aggressive game."
On Assane Sene's block on Maryland's Jordan Williams:
"He stepped up big today and played great. He's a warrior as far as trying to block shots and sticking his nose in there. He puts his body up for the team and he works well for us."
On his clutch shot with two minutes left in the game:
"Coach told us to just be aggressive, break the press, and score. At that time, I saw that I had a little lane and I made a euro step and a ball-fake pass, and it just worked out well for us at the end there."
On the ACC tournament:
"We just want to be solid and take the same mindset we had last game into this game and I think we accomplished that today. And I think we can take that same mindset into the tournament also."
Senior Forward Will Sherrill
On breaking Maryland's press:
"We really prepared on breaking the press. Coach put seven guys on defense and we had five. And with seven-on-five pressing us, we had to attack and move hard, and that preparation made breaking their press a lot easier for us."
On Virginia's 3-point game:
"As long as we execute and get good shots, we feel like we're going to knock down our tough shots. And when we've struggled in the past, it's not that we aren't hitting our shots, but it's that we're not getting good shots. Today, we got a lot more open shots and drives to the basket."
