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Post by Sly Fox on Nov 18, 2005 22:25:26 GMT -5
Guys, ease up. This is the season opener with a ton of new faces. Playing an ACC team on the road we can't expect for them to be a cohesive force right out of the chutes.
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Post by HarrisburgFlame on Nov 18, 2005 23:06:58 GMT -5
Sly:
I agree. we all know we're going to take some lumps early with this team. But in the process we can correct mistakes, nail down the rotations and hopefully make a run in the BSC. When you're in a conference like the BSC - your season comes down to peaking at tourney time.
Go Flames.
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Post by LUconn on Nov 18, 2005 23:39:18 GMT -5
Just got back from the game. I'll say some comments tomorrow after I sleep tonight. For now, all you need to know is we have red uniforms and I don't like them.
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Post by krh44 on Nov 19, 2005 9:25:51 GMT -5
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Men's Basketball Home
HEADLINES Quotes Virginia Cruises Past Liberty 79-44
Virginia Men's Basketball Opens Season Friday Night Against Liberty
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Nov. 18, 2005
Recap | Box Score
NCAA BASKETBALL
Virginia 79, Liberty 44
November 18, 2005
POST-GAME QUOTES
VIRGINIA HEAD COACH Dave Leitao
I'm pretty happy with this first performance from the standpoint of what we tried to emphasize and demand. The first eight or nine minutes of the game, defensively for us, was about as solid and energized for us than what we've had in any of the 29 practices before today. I'm pleased.
I thought defensively we did a good job of bringing some energy and as a result we got Liberty on their heels a little bit. That allowed us to get out and gain more confidence and get some easy baskets. I think for our first go round, obviously, it's something we can hang our hat on--hopefully get the guys to now learn. This is a good atmosphere to learn from. There are enough things there that we can correct, enough things there to give us a lot to work on so we can continue to move forward.
I thought Mamadi Diane played a terrific all-around game defensively. I was worried when J.R. {Reynolds} got in early foul trouble having to put a young guy on a terrific scorer like Larry Blair he wouldn't be able to hold his own, but he got three blocked shots in the first half and played a terrific floor game. He's going to be really good. There is just something about Mamadi. I said last week, here is something inside that just ticks the right way.
I don't play the score. Our team plays box out up 30 or non box out up 30 is the same as non box out down 30. You play basketball a certain way, you practice that way and you conduct yourselves that way. At the end of the game you look up and there's the score. If you do things consistently, then you have a better chance of winning. I am demanding. I don't think they would respect me as much if I situational coached them.
As for our foul trouble tonight, I think it's two-fold. We're trying to teach defensive aggression. Aggression usually leads to fouls. You can teach down from there trying to clean it up as best you can as opposed to the other way playing passively.
I walked out of the tunnel and said to myself--"Here I am." Once I got to the bench it was a gym with two teams and I was mentally ready to go. I've come in a very short period of time to really really love this place. I hope this is one of many many games to come.
I'm not even a technical guy. In five years I've probably only gotten less than 10. I try to get them to the point where they want to give it to me, but not do it. That one was well deserved.
LIBERTY HEAD COACH RANDY DUNTON
We are very young and we are trying to find ourselves and figure out who we are. A lot of the credit tonight goes to Virginia. I think they played extremely hard early and took us out of it. They did a tremendous job on {Larry} Blair. That's a credit to the way they prepared. Obviously a lot of enthusiasm about the opening game to start the coach's era and I think the kids really responded well to that challenge. We were ready to play too, but they took us out of it. Leitao did a great job in preparation for us. I have to give a lot of applause to them and certainly a lot of work ahead for us.
We have a lot of inexperience in a lot of spots. We missed some shots that we would normally make. We started to rush ourselves a little bit and got out of our game.
Singletary is a tremendous player. We worked on transition defense with him, but he was able to take the ball way deep on too many occasions.
If they get that kind of guard play that they got tonight, they'll be lot better than people are expecting them to be.
You knew it was going to be a pep rally at Virginia tonight. It was the Macy's Day parade--welcome to the new coach's show. It's great for the University of Virginia.
For Liberty we're going to be good. I think my team has more talent this year than we've had in the last couple of years. I think it's a function of us learning how to play and learning how to make quality basketball plays that serve each other. We have to know every night when we go somewhere Blair is going to be the target and will get everyone's "A" game on defense. Someone has to step up and help him and they will.
The way Virginia is setting those staggers is very good and it makes it very difficult to get through. It puts the guards in a pinch. Dave is going to do a good job. He's certainly a good basketball coach. I like what he's doing defensively; you're seeing possessional play out there. They work their possessions and they also try to punish you in transition.
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Post by PAmedic on Nov 19, 2005 12:12:09 GMT -5
smoothie probably knows better than any of us but I'm going to say: UVA - 79 Liberty - 64 other than spotting us 20 pts, that was darn close! and I'll go on record as saying I'm not terribly disappointed here- we have a YOUNG team and UVa is, well- UVa. don't think this was a bad start AT ALL.
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Post by PAmedic on Nov 19, 2005 12:14:22 GMT -5
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Post by PAmedic on Nov 19, 2005 12:16:35 GMT -5
seems like UVa scouted us well and did what they had to do: shut down Blair. we'll learn to deal w/ that. Anthony Smith got in there and scored- good for a young guy, and looks like we struggled on D a bit, which EVERYONE predicted.
the sky is NOT falling, we're just young and growing. Onward and upward.
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Post by PAmedic on Nov 19, 2005 12:23:55 GMT -5
## SUMMARY GP-GS Min FG% 3PT% FT% R/G A/G STL BLK PTS/G ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 BLAIR, Larry........ 1-1 35.0 .154 .250 1.000 6.0 1.0 1 0 13.0 30 MONROE, Russell..... 1-1 25.0 .500 .000 .750 4.0 0.0 1 2 9.0 11 HUBBARD, Damien..... 1-1 30.0 .111 .000 .800 3.0 1.0 1 0 6.0 05 SMITH, Anthony...... 1-0 22.0 .250 .250 .000 3.0 1.0 1 0 5.0 02 RISHER, Evan........ 1-1 21.0 .167 .250 .500 2.0 0.0 1 0 5.0 44 STEWART, Doug....... 1-0 17.0 .400 .000 .000 5.0 1.0 0 0 4.0 04 BIGBY, Eric......... 1-0 6.0 .333 .000 .000 1.0 0.0 0 0 2.0 45 DENTON, Andrew...... 1-0 1.0 .000 .000 .000 0.0 0.0 0 0 0.0 21 ECK, Jeremy......... 1-0 14.0 .000 .000 .000 0.0 0.0 0 0 0.0 33 PORTER, Rell........ 1-1 29.0 .000 .000 .000 3.0 1.0 0 0 0.0 TM TEAM................ 1-0 0.0 .000 .000 .000 5.0 0.0 0 0 0.0 Total............... 1 .226 .176 .654 32.0 5.0 5 2 44.0 Opponents........... 1 .475 .333 .680 49.0 18.0 9 5 79.0
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Post by Stevev on Nov 19, 2005 12:54:31 GMT -5
My question is this. Is UVA any better off than they were 3 years ago? I remember us losing by a little less than 20 points, not 35 and at times seemed to compete pretty well with them. Personell wise we seem to be in the same predicament we were in 3 years ago when Dunton first started. Talk about going backwards. Well I can't spend time mulling over this game. Time to move on and see what they do vs. Kentucky.
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Post by PAmedic on Nov 19, 2005 13:06:56 GMT -5
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Post by LUconn on Nov 19, 2005 13:33:04 GMT -5
My question is this. Is UVA any better off than they were 3 years ago? Yes and double yes. I thought they looked pretty good. I really think the score is decieving in this situation. We got down early and then we got the deficit down to 10 when it was 20-10. Then over about the next 6 or 7 minutes they went on something like a 23-0 run. I was trying to keep up with it but it was tough because of this idiot UVA fan behind me. Anyway, that was really the only point in the game that we played terrible. The rest of the game we did fairly average, which I think it pretty good against an ACC team in our season opener. Blair can take it in every single time and they'll foul him. He probably wouldnt last an entire season doing that though. Kinda like AI. We were really doing so much better but the ball just kept going in and out. It wouldn't stay in the hole. I was very frustrated. Lastly, the scrubs didn't come in until the 2:00 minute mark, so don't think that we kept it even with their bench. In conclusion, don't slit your wrists just yet everybody, Hubbard looked good, Blair is good, Russel had some good looks, Robinson will be good. I thought we could have done so much better but this team is gonna be pretty good I think. Blair, please dunk with 2 hands from now on. I felt embarrassed for you.
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Post by bigsmooth on Nov 19, 2005 19:34:06 GMT -5
larry's showtime dunk was pretty bad. you cannot miss a dunk on the road. i think UVA played pretty well, but will only go as far as the guards go. their frontcourt will surprise some people, and they play good defense. now the flames are another story. if our opponents try to take blair out of the game and are successful, we will have a long season. someone is going to have to step up and get something going. i really did not see any offensive plays last night either. but it is early and gauging our season against an ACC opponent is not really fair.
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Post by jimflamesfan on Nov 19, 2005 22:31:29 GMT -5
Another positive...can't remember which Flame it was...but when Reynolds got fouled and Laiteo got a technical...the whole crowd was just doing everything they could to make A. Hubbard miss a free throw, and they would've went nuts...But he drained both of them. The missed dunk thing was rough...and the van ride was rough (the bus didn't make it to LU, and I think I'm still motion sick. Unrelated question, is Monday's game going to be on the Liberty Channel?
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Post by SCAR on Nov 20, 2005 9:18:54 GMT -5
Jim, we are not covering the game of Liberty Channel on Monday. Tomorrow's game and the game vs Lynchburg will not be televised. The rest of the games will. And remember you can catch us via the Web on www.libertyflames.com when we start webcasting men's hoops on Dec 6th vs. Buffalo.
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