Mark Turgeon  

Opening Statement:
"First of all I want to thank our fans. Our fans were terrific tonight, never gave up on us, stuck around utill the end. I'm just asking our fans not to give up on us because we've got a heck of a team that's going to have a great year. I really believe that. We lost to a great team tonight that played at a high level. Only two turnovers against us in this building, shot a great percentage from three, they made a lot of tough shots. We lost some guys, but they made some tough shots. We'll learn from this. We missed some timely box outs in the second half, but we never quit. And that's a good sign for us moving forward… against a really good team. We shot 54 percent against a Virginia team that can flat out guard you and we out-rebounded them by 10 or 11. It just comes down to turnovers, really. I thought they beat us to the 50-50 balls in the first half - they got six points off two loose balls in the first half. They're terrific. They're a great team. They deserved the win but I was proud of my group."

On the difference between how the team opened the second half and how they finished it:
"Well, they played slower. They attacked our press, but they played slower. We went small. We made one adjustment, we started switching the down screen and we doubled the post if we had a mismatch. I thought it helped us a lot. We still didn't guard great, we didn't rebound as well in the small lineup. I think it gave us some confidence. And we got out and got to the foul line. They had 10 team fouls early. That's a really good sign for us. If we can draw fouls against the team that's No. 1 in the country in fouls, that's a good sign for us. There's a lot of positives. Hopefully we can make a few more free throws, but I think the adjustment on defense helped us and we got a little bit of confidence on offense."

On if Anthony Cowan Jr. faced a particularly difficult challenge tonight guarding and running the offense:
"I thought the first foul had everything to do with it. I thought it was a block. I thought it had a lot to do with everything. With that said, they run their offense like they were trying to run it: wear Anthony out. They kept circling the guy trying to wear him out. Anthony gave us everything he had. He was terrific."

On the challenge the freshmen face playing much more experienced players and how it'll help them grow:
"We're going to get better, we already have. We've gotten a lot better. We got better during the game tonight. Got used to the crowd. That was our first sellout… some guys were nervous. They were making mistakes - stuff that we worked on today in shoot around. We'll get better. Let's be real. We're playing five young guys out of our top eight. We're going to have some growing pains. But I told the team that I've loved coaching them from day one, since June when we started individual work, and then our trip to Italy. They give me everything they have. We didn't play particularly well in the first half but I think that Virginia had a lot to do with that. We're going to get better, but we've got one hell of a tough schedule. The league's really good and we've got most of those guys twice, so we're going to have to get better. Tonight was a good experience for us and we should be better because of it."

On how encouraged he was that the team was able to fight back after Virginia had a large lead:
"We're all in. Our guys are all in. Our guys love each other and care about each other. I can't see that happening with this team. We fought… we just weren't playing well and they were terrific. We fought. Cut it all the way to three. I think that's a really good sign for us. It really is. It's hard to come back on Virginia, and we were able to do it. A lot of it because our fans were terrific and we had a lot of fight. I just hope we have the same crowd on Saturday. That would really mean a lot to us as a program - where we are with five freshmen - if we show up for the Penn State game. Because that's the big game of the week. This game was huge, it'd have been big, but the biggest game of the week for us is Penn State because it's a Big Ten game."

On the confidence of freshmen guards Eric Ayala and Aaron Wiggins:
"Eric's a winner. [Kihei Clark] guarding him was terrific. He was giving Eric some fits out there. We had Anthony off the ball and we changed our offense in the second half, we were able to spread a little bit. But to run those plays for Anthony we've got to have off the ball type deals. But Eric made some big shots for us. I was happy to see Aaron. Aaron was really nervous in the first half and he'll probably admit to that, but I thought the second half he played with much more poise and made some shots. We needed him to. I thought Bruno [Fernando] was terrific again. There was a lot on his plate - double team, no double team. We didn't do a great job around him when the double teams happened - getting to our right spots to help him. But a lot of positives. Those two young guys were good. And I thought Serrel [Smith Jr.] gave us better minutes in the second half too."

On limiting turnovers:
"I'm going to have to watch it. They add up quickly. There's just some silly ones out there. I think we had a couple offensive fouls. They made a heck of a play on Anthony when they stripped him there late. Give them credit. They're terrific. I think we were dialed in and would've been a little bit better against a normal team defensively. Their hands are great, their length is great, and we're still getting used to each other. We've got a lot of young guys. Our guys are aware that we need to get that down. For us to be a great team, we've got to get down to eight or nine turnovers a game for us. We'll get there. We'll get better."

On how playing a smaller lineup affects the rotation with Jalen Smith:
"It's tough. They're so hard… the double in the post and all that stuff. I just felt that defensively our big lineup wasn't good enough tonight so we went small, but I've got to share time at the five with Bruno and Stix. It hurts them. Doesn't mean Stix isn't going to start on Saturday and he's going to continue to get better. Stix is a good shooter - can make threes - he's just got to get in a rhythm to get a few more of them, and then he'll be harder to guard. But in the first half we got our high-low game going with Stix and we executed pretty well. I just had to make a change or it would've been a 20-point loss. We made that change to give ourselves a chance to come back, that's why we did it." 

Freshman Guard Eric Ayala
On what the experience was like playing against a fourth ranked team in the country:
"I think a lot of the freshmen tonight on our team grew up. It was definitely an experience for us and we're going to learn from it for sure."

On what the difference was after the first timeout in the second half:
"We hit adversity. We didn't want to quit at the end of the day. We just wanted to keep fighting. We knew we had a lot left in the tank. We fought back and gave our best efforts."

On what the biggest challenge in trying to contain Junior G Kyle Guy:
"Him and Jerome, they're some confident guys. It's not really a shot that they don't like, and their coach trusts them to make plays at the end of the day and that's what they did. A lot of respect to those guys and the work they put in, they're a number four team in the country for a reason. Those guys are running that show so a lot of respect to them."

On if you can see a difference between a team that's as experienced as Virginia is and a team that is a young as they are:
"I mean you can tell. I think they had two turnovers, that was probably the big difference. Their pace was their pace, they don't let anyone speed them up. It's a learning curve for our freshman at the end of the day it's basketball and we just have to come out and compete. I don't think that was a factor in them being older than us. Every game we're probably going to be the youngest team out there so we have to go out there and play to the best of our abilities."

On how they gauge what happened tonight and use it moving forward:
"Man, we're going to be one hell of a team, I'll tell you that, come March. We're young and for us to go out there and play like we did and fight back, that shows a lot of character in our team and a lot of our freshmen. I'm proud of my team, myself and our coaches for believing in us and coming back and fighting the way we did."

Sophomore Forward Bruno Fernando
On what does it say about the team and how encouraging is it for them to go down 17 and bring it back within four points:
"I think we have heart. We never quit and we try to play as hard as we can. We try to result the of the game and just in the game for as long as we can. They're a hell of a team. They made a lot of great shots and a lot of great plays. We just try to do the right things and come out victorious, but obviously things didn't work out the way we wanted them to but like I said, we try to play hard and fight the entire time."

On if he saw any changes in the second half in how they tried to defend him:
"It was just the double team. I think they double teamed almost the whole game and I couldn't really do much but try to make plays for my teammates and make sure I find the open guy."

On if he said anything to Freshman F Jalen Smith after the game:
"Not yet. I'm letting him just flow and let things go. Obviously, I have a lot of time to talk to him tomorrow or even tonight when we get back. But me and him, we're still trying to figure out a lot of things and how to be on the court at the same time. Obviously against a team like that we have to figure out ways to play better and make sure we win, but it's a process and we're going to take it one day at a time."

On what the biggest difference was that limited the play with two big men in at the same time:
"They started denying the ball entry at the high post and even when I tried to duck in and post up or post up in the middle, they tried to deny and then double team me whenever I caught the ball so that was really the only thing, they did the entire game."

On what they take out of this game moving forward:
"We learned a lot. We learned a lot about ourselves and the things that we have to keep working on and improving on moving forward. Obviously, we have a big game on Saturday and we're just going to try to use these days to get better and work on those things that we didn't do well tonight."