Everything Bill Courtney said After Tenth Straight Loss
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CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Miami Hurricanes (4-17, 0-10 ACC) are not getting any better with many games this season coming down to a single play or two. Interim head coach Bill Courtney has been trying to find an answer for the defensive side of the ball and things just haven't clicked.
Opening Statement...
Obviously very disappointing loss for us uh you know same problem for us on the defensive end re his head several times couldn't get key stops um you know we tried to get key stops we just didn't get it done um we scored enough to win the game against a very good defensive team um we just didn't do we need do on the defensive end.
On Virginia's Performance....
tell you got to give UVA some credit for that, Isaacin particular, I mean he flew off of screens and made you know very difficult shots now were they open yeah because we got caught behind but you know he's running full speed off a screen, and turning and shooting within a half a second that's a tough thing to guard you know he we guarded it one time and he got it and did a spinning jump shot um so again give them credit also again. it's our job to continue to work at the defensive end and to try to be better um but you got to give the opponents some credit, too, for making plays.
On Matthew Cleveland's Performace...
He's playing the best basketball of his career. He's taking on a leadership role he's playing hard on both ends of the floor um I'm very happy for him because of the way he's playing he's going through this just like all of us and he wants to win. I think everybody wants to win you know the key to becoming a winner is honoring the things they go into like getting a defensive stop and we preach that every day in practice and we work on it every day in practice we try different things we went to switching one through five tonight off the ball and you know we just continue to try to search and find different things to hopefully help us become a better defensive team.
Message to the team after the game...
The thing for me is if nothing else I want to be a team right and regardless of whether you played a lot regardless if you like your role regardless of any of those things we got to stick together you know we have some shortcomings as a group um and the way we're built but we can overcome certain things if we remain a team and fight through adversity when we put apart we have no shot at fighting through adversity and that's basically what I told our guys we all have to be on the same page we all have to be rolling in the same direction now it's hard for a young guy to do that when you're losing they don't see the force for the trees they don't see the light the end of the tunnel they look at as you know oh who is me but we can't afford to do that and we're going to try darness not to let him.
On Virignnia offensive gameplan...
Murray had a terrific game also he made some threes and he did a great job of straight-line driving into the basket you know we've had trouble guarding the Virginia stuff for years it's not like it's new um but you know when we're not that good defensively it even sticks out, even more, it becomes exacerbated um and so again Virginia executed very well one of the things that we wanted to do was try to pressure them and take them out of their offense make them play one-on-one and they didn't fall for it they they they stuck to their guns and executed very well and didn't fall into the Trap oft rying to become a one-on-one team.
On the changes in the lineup...
it's just very difficult when there's not a lot of separation between you guys you know I mean we're bringing link kit off the bench we're bringing Austin Schwarz Off the Benchyou know so our bench is very comparable to our subs and so we want to stay fresh we wanted to use our depth against UVA because again they were short-handed missing Saunders missing Roade um and we wanted to use our depth and so again wasn't like we subbed the small at the same time it was kind of gradually but what really got him going was I we nearly hit two threes right he hits two threes in the first half it changed the entire landscape of the game because they were struggling to score at that time if we were doing to get decent job defensively uh and he comes off and hits two threes and that really kind of got us teetering again because again when you haven't had the success you know when adversity hits it's like boom head goes immediately down and we got to again grow up and try to get through that one more.
On how to get over the hump...
Seizing the moment right and you know maybe I can do something differently maybe call time out when that moment arrives it's so hard during the game if you go back to our Virginia Tech game you know we were seven and we have three straight possessions of turnovers the last one being they miss Brandon Johnson makes an incredible play at half quarter and he got Divine right ahead of him it's a301 break he hits him in the kind of the back of the leg it bounces off and the guys down there getting up on the Virginia Tech and they throw it to MCDso all of a sudden instead of being up nine having three chance to go up nine or 10 points it's a five-point game now their momentum is back in the game they're at home the castle starts rocking so seizing that kind of moments has been our issue um and trying to figure out again when that moment's going to come in the game CU it's going to come whether on the offensive or defensive end, we kind of capitalize on those moments.
READ MORE FROM MIAMI HURRICANES ON SI:
West Coast Woes as Miami Men's Basketball Continues to Extend its Losing Streak
Matthew Cleveland's Advice is to 'Just Smile'
REPORT: No Time Table for the Return of Nijel Pack
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.