Everything From Ryan Odom After Virginia’s Frustrating Loss to Duke

The Virginia Cavaliers faced a 77-51 loss to the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon. As the No. 1 program in the country, Duke was expected to challenge Virginia immensely. However, this was a brutal matchup for the Cavaliers. After the game, head coach Ryan Odom sat down with the media to discuss how the game unfolded. Here's everything he had to say.

Opening statement...

"Duke played a great basketball game today. They put a ton of pressure on us from the get-go. Evans got him off to a great start. Got free a couple of times, and he's just an elite playmaker, shooter. Certainly, by no means a wild card for them. Somebody that they count on each and every game, and he did a great job. Then Boozer, over the course of the first half, began to make his presence felt. Our doubles were way too slow, and not there on time.

We had a couple that was okay, but we were just a little bit too hesitant to get to him. And he made some really good plays, getting to the rim and getting fouled. Our discipline was not there overall in terms of fouling him and getting him to the line. I thought their guards did a great job of applying pressure to our guards without getting beaten off the bounce regularly. They did a great job of just keeping us in front of them. And when we did get in there, there was help. And you have to make shots when you get in that situation.

When the balls kicked back out, we had some open ones that did not go down that maybe would have given us a little bit more confidence, but in a situation like we were in today, when you're kind of playing from behind, it gets harder and harder and harder. And they did a really good job of just playing consistent basketball throughout the 40 minutes. So you have to give them a ton of credit."

On UVA missing shots...

"No, I think it was probably a bit of both. I mean it was probably more their defense was better, but we did have some thatwhen you're wide open, and you don't knock it down, that hurts even more because they're going to get you to the end of the clock and a lot of the other ones, and so it just puts that much more pressure on the open shot."

On shooting cont'd...

"I think it's their defense. I mean, I think their defense is really good, and they did a nice job of getting out and protecting their paint, and our guys certainly, we encouraged our guys to let it go. When you're playing a team like this that does such a good job of protecting the twos, you're going to have to make some threes in order to have a really, really good chance. If you can get to the free-throw line and have a good balance of the two, then you have a chance."

On Duke having the size and advantage...

"I mean, I think they were bigger at most spots, especially when we play Chance, Jacari and Dallin together. We get a little bit smaller, but they're really good. They're where they are at this particular point in the season for a reason, and we're where we are. We don't need to cry about being 25 and four at this point. We got beat today, and we've got to go back, and we've got two more games left, and we have to get ready for those to finish strong."

On Jon Scheyer and the work he's done...

"He's done a great job since he took over. There's no more pressure situation than what he's been thrust into. And he and his staff have done a fabulous job of following a legend, and obviously, he knows the inner workings of this place better than anybody. And he's just done a magnificent job in this particular year. His team is well-balanced. They know who they are on offense. They know who they are on defense.

They're a typical tough-minded Duke basketball team that's going to rebound and pressure the ball and be kind of in your grill, and offensively, they're very patient, and they know where the ball needs to go on most possessions, and so that's a credit to Coach Scheyer and his staff."

On lessons from this game...

"It's not the first time we’ve ever lost a game by a significant margin. We lost to Albany one time. I was telling the team after the game, it was like 80-some to 40-something, and that team went on to do something pretty special. And so I'm not worried about one game, I'm worried about the mindset of our team, and we can't lose our confidence because we just lost to a really good basketball team.

We've got to get back to work and get ready to play and get ready to compete in our conference, which we know every night is going to be a tough matchup. Wake Forest is going to come to JPJ ready to play."

On how UVA will bounce back for their final two games...

"We do it every game. Celebrate, tolerate. We're going to celebrate the things that we did really well. We're not going to tolerate the things that we didn't, and try to move those tolerated things to the celebrate side, and we just try to learn from the game and the performance, and there's probably a five to seven minute stretch in there where we might be able to learn some things about ourselves but all in all we did not play well enough to be extremely competitive in this game."

On his message to his team coming into this game and his team's focus...

"I mean, naturally, you're going to take punches. This is a competitive sport, and we punch people; they punch us. They punched us a lot more than we punched them today, and that's what it is. And so you've got to cover yourself. You've got to make sure you're not getting hit as much, and you move on to the next thing.

Our guys have been really, they've been excellent at doing that all year. We've been in some tight situations, and they found ways to win games. And so, I'm really confident in this group, and the leadership that we have, the connectivity that we have within the locker room, the connection between the coaches and the players is really strong. And so, you have a chance for success when you do that. And so we're not going to lose our confidence because of one game, but we are going to learn from it."