Post Game Quotes

Jan. 12, 2005

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MIAMI COACH Frank Haith

I am very proud of our team. I thought, particularly in the second half, we played with a lot of passion and made a lot of plays. The first half we got off to a great start, but we lost our focus a little bit. Virginia’s second-chance points hurt us in the first half. They got a spark when Devin Smith got in the game and he came in and made some plays and that set us back a little bit. I’m very proud of how our kids came back in the second half and played good defense. I’m excited about where we’re at and excited to win in such a tough place to play.

Elton Brown was very effective in the first half. Our post guys were having to rotate so much and that just left Brown open to get shots. He was very aggressive and very efficient in the first half. We wanted to get our front line defense better. If we did get broken down, we wanted a complete rotation and not just our post guys.

I understand why they picked us we are a team that lost our point guard from last year’s team, we lose our four and five man and our top recruit doesn’t show up and we had a player transfer. I thought we were picked fairly, but it is a long season and we have a long way to go. We’re a work in progress, but making a lot of improvements. I think we’ve showed that we can compete in this league.

VIRGINIA HEAD COACH PETE GILLEN

This was a very disappointing loss. This is a physical league and a physical game. Our two most physical players–Devin Smith and Jason Clark–are not 100-percent. Our defense in the second half was very bad. We scored a lot, but we need to be more physical. Our offense was good, choppy, but good. Miami played well, give them credit. They were tougher than us and more physical and that was the difference.

Their three guards are very quick and terrific players and we just didn’t stop them. When we did get a stop we didn’t get the rebound. It wasn’t our offense tonight, it was our defense.

We were up six at the half, but we didn’t defend to stop them. I thought our bench gave us a lift, but Miami drove the ball against both man and zone and we just couldn’t stop them. That’s disappointing. We have to be tougher than that. They shot 58 percent in the second half and that’s the story of the game. If anyone shoots 58 percent you’re not going to win.

Devin Smith was tremendous tonight with 21 points after not playing in three weeks.

You have to win at home. We have dug ourselves a big hole and will have to steal ourselves some road games now. We just have to be more physical out there.