Video/Transcript: Ron Sanchez Weekly ACC Zoom Press Conference - 2/24

Matt Newton | Feb 24, 2025

Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Watch the video below and follow along with the transcript underneath the video to see what Virginia men's basketball interim head coach Ron Sanchez had to say in the weekly ACC Men's Basketball Coaches Zoom call on Monday (February 24).

Q. Ron, I'll start with this - Jacob, were you impressed with some of the minutes he gave you guys on Saturday at North Carolina and how do coach somebody when they're hitting that freshman wall at times? What's your take there?

RON SANCHEZ: Yeah, I thought he gave us great minutes. We have to find a way to keep him out of foul trouble; that's where his minutes are getting cut in the first half, he's always picking up that second foul pretty early. He picks up the first one pretty early. We thought that the rotation shift might help him a little bit. I think against Duke he picked up his first foul at the 18 minute mark in the first half, so had to sit out for a bit. But I do, I think that he's continuing to improve, even though, you know, like you said that February, you know, freshman kind of wall is kind of around him.

Q. What do you do to coach a kid through that? I'm sure it's happened. I'm sure you've experienced it with other players before, what do you do to coach a kid through that?

RON SANCHEZ: I think you gotta educate them, you know, you got to let them know what's going on. This is their first time going through it. So I think that they have an awareness of, man like Coach, I'm feeling a little fatigue, and you explain to them why and let them know that this is very common to a first year guy who's a starter, plays a lot of minutes and and then you try to just give them kind of goals. For me, it was: can you give us three or four really good minutes and then get a break and then come back in and then play as hard as you can again for three or four more minutes, and we'll pull you back out. And, you know, just really be intentional about knowing when you're going to go into the game, when you're going to come out of the game, and then just kind of set some expectations of what you want and just kind of have a plan in place, and then work it.

Q. Ron, echoing Tony, you have often said that your goal for this group is for it to reach its potential, be the best version of itself. Do you think it's approaching that?

RON SANCHEZ: The area that I am most disappointed in is our defense, not being able to get a stop when we need one. And, you know, the trying to identify the reasons why, and it's kind of shifted from from game to game, and a lot of it does come down to experience and really understanding. Some of these guys, they they feel like, Oh man, I can score, you know, we hit a three and give up a three like, you know, the concept of getting a stop and a score, stop and a score still hasn't really surrounded the group. But the one thing that I do praise them for is their fight. We had a stretch there when we weren't competing as hard as we needed to. And I feel, man, before the Miami game, I can't remember what it was before that, but we got to a point where we started competing really hard, and I think that we're maximizing those areas for sure, and we'll keep attacking the ones that come. I hope that answers your question.

Q. It does. And you mentioned the fight of your team. The early deficit Saturday, was that part of that fight to come back from 21-2 and to make it competitive at times?

RON SANCHEZ: No, absolutely, absolutely, 100%. I told them, you know, I said this had a chance to get away from you, and you found a way to reel it in. I think we got it down to seven. You know, if you cut out those first four minutes, like we didn't play an awful game. Again, we just couldn't get the stops that we needed, having Ames in foul trouble in the first half, definitely kind of hurt us there. But that was a perfect sign of their of their demeanor as a group and becoming the best version of themselves that way.

Q. Coach, you just mentioned the defense. The last five games it seems like, instead of hedging hard on screens, you shifted to switching almost everything. Can you talk about why you made that shift? And do you think it's been effective?

RON SANCHEZ: I think it was effective versus Pittsburgh. I thought it was effective versus Virginia Tech. If you watch those starts, it wasn't as effective versus Carolina. You know, we did try to do other things in there. We didn't execute it as well as we wanted, but it has helped us. It's helped us. It helped us win, you know, three, three games in a row. So it definitely had its place. And now we got to kind of adjust a little bit and see if we can make it make it better, find the areas of weakness and then find the right time and place to use it during a competition.

Q. That hard hedge is one of the main components of the Pack Line, I think a lot of people would say. Was there ever a recognition of that - oh, maybe we're diverting from one of the things that this defense has always been built on.

RON SANCHEZ: Well, yes and no. In this new time, when you have so many new guys, everything has a flow and a system to it. And it's never just one layer. If you're impacting a screen, there are a lot of things behind that. I actually would tell you that the other three defenders are more important than the two guys in the ball screen and what they do and how they communicate and their positioning and placing. We've been playing a lot of guys that don't have that experience. A lot of mistakes were happening early on in the season. We still work on it. We work on it every day in practice, to try to get better. But again we're playing good ball again. It helped us win three games. So if it wasn't broke, we weren't going to fix it. So now it's an opportunity to address it again and see with the next opponent, what is best for that team.

Q. I think I remember from early before the season even started Coach Bennett, when he was still with the program, and then obviously, you as well, talked about a two year development cycle with this group, trying to get this group on a good footing this year and really work towards a really good group next year. What would you assess? I mean, it seems like offensively, this team has really shown some cohesion. You talked about defensively, maybe not. What would you assess the development of this team since November?

RON SANCHEZ: Yeah, I agree with you, exactly what you said. I think that's a level of selflessness, you know, thankfulness. I think there's a desire for them to help each other, serve one another, to be good on one end. You know the defense part, it is a shared experience. The mental and physical toughness that it takes to get a stop when it's demanded and needed. And because of the defense and the pack, it's one person out of position ruins the possession. One person not doing the right thing kind of ruins the possession. Because it's not an individual thing. It's a five man collective type of defense.

So when you got some first year guys out there at times that are tired sometimes, that is the one mistake where you do everything right and then you give up the offensive rebound because somebody didn't block out, you know? So again, those are all shared experiences and the more you experience those, the better you become. I think if you take an individual like Anthony Robinson, his progression has been partly because he's gotten some experience and he's gotten better. Jacob Cofie, the same, Elijah Saunders is a first year with with the team. Andrew Rohde's become one of our better defenders because he has those 30 games from last season under his belt, and now he's a little better that way. Ames is a first year guy again, learning a lot of those things. So, you know, it's a combination of both. But you know, the amount of time you get together really does impact how much you improve. And this group being together now, obviously, the intent was to have them be together for at least two years and add some more pieces and then grow from there.

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