Everything From Ryan Odom After Close 75

The Virginia Cavaliers are slowly getting themselves back on track after dropping their matchup against the Duke Blue Devils. On Tuesday, the Hoos bounced back and sealed a tight 75-70 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. After another close game in the books, head coach Ryan Odom sat down with the media to share this thoughts on how the night unfolded. Here's everything he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"I don't know, if I'm sure you guys noticed we're wearing some cool shoes. Did you guys notice that? So, Shoes for Hope. We had a group of young people who came in a month ago. It was supposed to be an earlier game, but ended up having to move it to this one. But young people who are dealing with cancer, pediatric cancer. And so we had the families of these young kids come in and spend time with not only the men's team, but our women's team, Coach Mox, and her players, and our guys all together in the practice facility. And we had each patient or each young person design a shoe for the two staff. And it was a really cool, really cool moment for all of us. And it just makes you appreciate where you're at.

There are a lot of bad things out there in this world, and you never want to see any parent have to go through that with their child, especially the really young ones, so it doesn't matter what it is, whether they're 14 or whether they're two. It's a hard deal, and the families get a lot thrown at them in a short amount of time, and for us to be able to spend time with them and see the smiles on their faces and just be around them was helpful, I'm sure it was helpful for them but it was also really helpful for us and a lot of the guys have stayed in touch with the families and coaches have stayed in touch with the families and they were all here obviously at the game today. So from that perspective, [it was] a good day.

Onto the game. Wake Forest played a good game today. They had a good game plan. The first half was a little bit slower, and then our defense kind of kept us in it offensively. We couldn't get our shots to go. We were offensive rebounding early in the half, but that kind of dried up for us, and then we had that little spurt at the end of the half that gave us a little bit of a cushion there going in, which was great. And then I thought our guys in the second half did a nice job. Offensively, we were better. Defensively, we weren't quite as good, but Wake had a lot to do with that. They really just test you with the way that they play offensively."

On what made it tough to pull away...

"They would make a good shot. You know, they would get to the basket or get fouled. There were just some maybe some breakdowns or mistakes out there, not quite being physical enough to get through a screen. But they've got good scorers, and they're athletic players, and I reminded our guys before the game.

This is a team; they are minus their point guard, and they've been without him for a little bit now. I know he tried to come back one game and got hurt in that one as well, but you know, they played Michigan to an overtime one-point game. They played Texas Tech to a one-point game earlier in the season. Started nine and three. This is a good basketball team, a well-coached team, and they really challenged you on that side of the ball, and so I thought our guys did a nice job finishing it out. Would have liked to have gotten it up a little bit more, but it didn't happen."

On the importance of answering with three-pointers...

"We talked about that just a minute ago in the locker room, and there were multiple answers; some were underneath out of bounds. There were two underneath out of bounds that were three-point shots. For us, Johann's little floater, Malik's basket in transition when it got to six. Malik's shot over there on the right wing was huge. Then, the free throws down the stretch, we had to make the free throws to secure it. Put a ton of pressure on us, and our guys stood up."

On Johann Grünloh and Malik Thomas...

"I mean, Johann's playing better. He's playing really well right now and made a huge play there for sure."

On what he's seen from Jacari White...

"Coach Henry in one of the timeouts talked to the guys about, we had some open threes and then we took some that were, you know, shot fake one dribble threes where we had a lane to the basket and tried to focus more on getting to the rim, getting some easier looks and I thought from then on, all right, our guys did a pretty nice job of that. And to your point, Jacari was one of those guys, and he gets out in transition, too. He had a couple of really good plays in transition that helped our cause."

On going through shooting slumps...

"There's no question about it. As shooters, you're going to have times where it's up and down. The key is just taking the right shots, and we've got a lot of guys that can knock it in, and we just have to continue to trust them, and they've got to be ready when the ball comes to them. I think that's the key."

On UVA's momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament and the final regular season game...

"I mean a good response. Obviously, Virginia Tech's a good team. They're playing for positioning within the conference and obviously the NCAA Tournament as well. And so we had a three-overtime crazy game with them. And so we want to focus on doing our best and getting prepared for them. Sending our seniors off in a good way and then, you know, turning the page and getting ready for the conference tournament. We're excited about the opportunity coming up on Saturday."

On UVA's plan for containing Harris and Mason...

"We wanted to make it hard certainly on Harris as hard as we could and I thought early in the game in the first half we did a pretty good job. He was one for nine from three, so he had to do a lot getting to the rim, and certainly he got to the free throw line some there, needed to stop him before he got there, and they did a nice job of keeping our bigs away from the basket.

That's one of the benefits of the way that they run offense. The five men a lot of times are away, and so it opens up some driving lanes for guys like Harris and Mason. He just had a whale of a game, and he got free a couple of times, and sometimes when that happens, you see a bigger basket, and he made some nice plays for them."

On locking up the No. 2 seed...

"It's a huge accomplishment. We talked about it in the locker room. You think back to June, nobody outside of the locker room thought we had a chance to finish second. And probably at that point, nobody inside the locker room knew if we had a chance to do that or do something that special. And certainly, we wanted to finish first. We weren't able to get the job done the other day to give ourselves a chance at that, but to be able to lock up that spot in the conference is a big accomplishment. You know, 26 wins, I think, is 14 now within the conference. I mean, that's a huge, huge deal. These guys are to be congratulated for that.

We certainly did as coaches. We're thankful for each one of them and the work that they've put in over the course of the year, and the belief that they have in one another, and we found different ways to win games. And you look around the country, you know, team to have 14 wins within your own conference where you're going to the NCAA tournament, it's pretty strong. And so a lot to be proud of."

On UVA culture and Virginia Tech rivalry...

"I mean, they understand it now that they've played at Cassell in a triple overtime game, they have a feel for, you know, the respect that the two fanbases have, but the extreme desire to win that both have as well. And so, you know, we have a ton of respect for Coach Young, and he's a great coach, and they have a really good team, and it's going to be a different game. I mean, that was the first conference game. Before that, or excuse me, after that game, I was really excited about the response that we had.

We went down to NC State, had a great response down there, and to win that game in the fashion that we did was huge and really propelled us the rest of the way and gave us confidence moving forward. And so, Virginia Tech's different. We're different at this point. We're certainly going to have to be ready to go and hate that it falls on spring break for both, winter break for Virginia Tech, and spring break for Virginia. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but it is what it is. Nobody's fault, just the way it fell. And we're going to make the most of it. So, we need as many Virginia fans in here as we can get."