Tony Bennett Reflects on Virginia's Loss to North Carolina in ACC Quarterfinals

Hear what Tony Bennett had to say after the Cavaliers' blowout loss to the Tar Heels

Matt Newton | Mar 11, 2022

Virginia men's basketball head coach Tony Bennett answered questions from the media following UVA's 63-43 loss to North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Thursday night. Here are Bennett's noteworthy comments from the postgame press conference:

On Virginia's offensive struggles in the first half:

"Yeah, certainly it's a disappointing loss, and credit to Carolina, how hard they played and how hard they guarded us, and then Manek's first half was special. You know, when we did get some decent quality looks, we didn't hit them. That kind of gets into you, and we've talked about this a lot, it puts a lot of pressure on our defense. We didn't have an answer for stretches.

The one thing I was hoping maybe we could get some more offensive rebounds because we had a lot of misses and we couldn't get any extra points that way. But you just felt a little bit of a snowball effect where there were some turnovers and how quick Carolina got down the floor, and it kind of expanded quick. And then again, some of the contested shots that Manek made along with their guards putting pressure on you made it hard, and they played very good defense. Their guards are physical and quick. I think they put Leaky on Kihei at times. They made it tough.

I didn't do a great job trying to find different ways for our guys to maybe get some more space or get better shots. I was frustrated with myself. A little better in the second half, but I told the guys, I don't believe they stopped trying, and that's the one thing. Only they can look in the mirror and say that for the most part, their effort. But we've got to grow from this and understand individually and collectively what it was."

On if Virginia deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament:

"I mean, how we looked tonight, no... I don't know, probably some things would have to happen for us to even be in it. We improved as the season went on and it did not look like it tonight... I don't know if we're in that conversation or not, but stranger things have happened if teams lose. What was our overall record? I don't know, 19. Didn't get to 20. But finished above .500 in the conference. Certainly would like a chance at it, but probably today was an important one, but who knows."

On if there's a particular reason Virginia struggled this season:

"I do think we improved. Your goal always is to come as close to maxing out as the season goes on. There certainly were stretches of it. Probably this was one of the newest teams that I've coached. We didn't have as much experience in the program, so to speak, and I think, again, the guys rallied and had some big wins and had some right there.

We were always on that fine line. As I said, even the good teams are, but the margin of error for this team was probably a little smaller than most, and I think they did a pretty good job most of the year. But it stings right now because we got humbled against a team that played really good basketball.

But if you would have said after Navy took it to us and then we lost at JMU, those were all -- it's not a big deal to say this team is going to keep fighting and they're going to find a way to go 12-8 in the conference and get 19 wins and win some tough games. There's some positives in that, but certainly there's areas where we can keep improving and keep getting better and we've got to keep adding pieces.

I'm thankful for these guys, they were a joy to coach. They worked hard, and the fact that Jayden would even say that after I got into him after the game, it's pretty good on his part. He's got good composure there because I challenged these guys in the locker room after.

But they're very -- one of the best things I can say about them is how happy they are for each other when a teammate is having success. All right, that might not mean a lot, wins and losses, but that's what's right about this group. They really pull for each other, and you can just see it.

It's a little different. They're so happy when guys are doing well, and I like that. There's certain things that will last beyond the record and the championships or the not championships, and some of those bonds will. And how they treated each other and the way they conducted themselves were first class, so I'm thankful for that and I'm thankful that they did improve, and they competed pretty hard every time out, and tonight maybe wasn't as much, but we'll keep going."

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