Everything Jai Lucas Said After Blowout Loss to Virginia in ACC Tournament Semifinals

It was a difficult loss for the Miami Hurricanes and head coach Jai Lucas in the ACC Tournament Semifinals against Virginia.

It will be one that has to be burned as they prepare for the NCAA Tournament and Selection Sunday.

Here is everything Lucas said after the blowout loss:

Opening Statement...

"Just credit to Virginia. They obviously were the better team tonight. I thought they played to their strengths really well. First time we played them in Charlottesville, the glass was a big part of the game and a big part of the reason why we were able to be where we were at the end of the game, and we didn't control the glass like we needed to. Our identity and who we are didn't show through. I thought they really exceeded our physicality and just really put their imprint on the game. When you're playing games like this against really good teams, I thought we missed our moment to kind of pull away. I thought they had a rough start, but we didn't capitalize on it to give ourselves some momentum going down, and then they just continued to play. They're really good. They've got really good players, really well-coached. They were the better team today."

On respect he and the program has gained this season from others...

"I don't know. We'll find out, I guess, coming up with just, one, the seeding, where they put us in the tournament. I think it's just a credit to our guys to be able to put us in this situation, to one, give us a double bye, two, finish third in the ACC. For me, this is just the foundation. This is the building blocks of what we're going to be and how we're going to compete the whole time I'm here at Miami."

On struggles being able to make 3-pointers...

"You know, for us, we played to who we are, and I didn't think we played to who we were at the highest level. We're not Virginia. We're not going to shoot a bunch of threes. We're not going to make a bunch of threes. We can make the right ones if we take the right ones. But I didn't think our violence, our drives, our urgency, our speed, our pace with how we executed offensively, and the same defensively, wasn't to the level of the game. Not when you're playing a top-10 team in the country and playing a team who's also trying to win the championship tomorrow. So I think that was the case. I don't necessarily think it was the shooting because we've won multiple games like this and having these type of nights. I didn't think the things we were supposed to do really well, we did them really well to the level."

On Virginia's run late in the first half to pull away...

"I just thought we were looking for fouls. We were just looking around. You know, we got punched, and this was the first time we didn't punch back and didn't do what we normally respond to do. I thought the adversity kind of hit us, and we let it get the best of us in this moment. And it's a great teaching point moving forward. But we've been there before. We've responded before. Today we just didn't have it."

On Malik Reneau and Tre Donaldson taking a jump in their lone seasons at Miami...

"I think it just speaks to our environment and what we're about and what we build for those turnovers and those guys. It gave them the opportunity to kind of come and be who they're supposed to be and it's putting them in the right environment. And it goes into our development of how we teach and how we work and just showing that you can go from being somewhere for three years, being somewhere else, and there's still more you can get out of your game and more we can pull out of you. Both those guys ended up being All-Conference. They didn't have their best games today but we wouldn't be anywhere close to here without them."

On still having an opportunity to keep playing in the NCAA Tournament...

"It's just kind of what they said. You could kind of see our messaging from how they responded, so I'm glad they listened to me. We kind of have this us-against-everybody mentality of where we were picked, where people saw us, and what people thought of us in the league and how we finished. And we just really, from day one, stuck to each other and talked about it and then just continued to grow and get better throughout the season, you finish in the top 3 of the league, you make it to the conference semifinals. It's disappointing how we performed, but that part of the season it's okay to reflect on it as over. I'm just proud of where we started as a program and where we are today."