On how the team has prepared for the Virginia matchup after the Stetson win…
“Well, we were happy to get the victory Wednesday night. We came back yesterday to try and improve what we saw our team do on Wednesday night, and there is tons of room for improvement, but I thought the players had a good session yesterday, and now we’ll just try and get ready for what I think is a really strong, tough and dynamic Virginia team.”
On how different Virginia is now from a year ago when you met them at Rupp Arena…
“Well, I think you’ve seen improvement. I think you’ve seen all of their players, their returners, take a step forward and they’re playing really physical basketball right now. I think they have good size at all positions. Just really aggressive defensively, and they’re going to make it tough on us to score. We’ve had a hard time here early in the season making some shots, so I think it’s going to be a real battle. But, I think you’re going to see an overall step forward from them in a year or two with Coach Tina Thompson.”
On turning the ball over from them 32 times last year, and if you could have success in that area this year…
“Well, I don’t know that we could replicate that. I think we had a good day that day, and looking back, I don’t know that they had their best stuff that day. But, I think what we’ve got to focus on is really trying to stay in front of the basketball. I think they can really drive it. I think Jocelyn Willoughby is just one of the best players that I’ve seen early on around the country, and I haven’t seen everybody, but she is very impressive. They just have some really good athletes who can put the ball on the floor. So, for us, we’ve just got to try to be as close to who we are as we can, in every game, no matter who we’re playing, but part of our equation is playing tough defense, being disruptive and trying to be on the attack, and doing everything we can to be the team with more hustle, and that’s going to be hard to do against Virginia, because they look like a team who is hustling hard to start the season.”