Everything From Ryan Odom After Virginia’s Loss to Virginia Tech Tonight

The Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball program fought through a close game tonight against Virginia Tech. However, the Hokies ultimately pulled ahead and claimed a 95-85 win in an overtime victory. Here's everything UVA's head coach Ryan Odom had to say after being handed the loss.

Opening statement...

"Yeah, it was a great college basketball game. Virginia Tech, Coach Young, their players,they battled, you know, played a three overtime game like that in this rivalry is, you know, a pretty cool thing, you know, for all the players. Difference in the game is down at the end. Certainly, both teams made big plays to extend it or you know get a little bit of a lead, and then the other team would come back and just really impressed with all the players out on the court and the plays that they were able to make. Hammond was the difference in the game. Clearly, his ability to get inside our defense to make the key plays, even the tip there at the end in transition. He was just a big-time player tonight and, you know, we'll learn from this. We'll go back and get ready. It's hard to win on the road, and, you know, I thought the crowd was excellent tonight. They did a good job of energizing their team. You know, we've got to be more disciplined, you know, going forward."

On Thijs De Ridder and his rebounding...

"Yeah, no doubt. And you know, Gurdak at this point in the season, if he were to have played more minutes, he'd be, you know, one of the top in the country, but he's not statistically there. Obviously, tonight he got minutes and more minutes than is typical, you know, for him, and he did an awesome job of putting pressure on us in and around the basket, and, you know, we just got to be better. You know, there are times where we're blocking out, and it's getting tipped or whatever, you know, I thought they just did a nice job overall."

On their defense making it a tough shooting day...

"I thought they did a nice job of closing short, and you know, they're a good three-point shooting defensive team, you know, 29% and, and one of the reasons they get out on the three and they make it a little bit more difficult, and then in closeout situations, they don't over close. And so sometimes, you know, those shots end up being contested. And so we talked to our guys before the game about, you know, just our discernment and trying to get the right close out to maybe pass up one to get it to the backside. There were several times, you know, where, you know, we took the bait, you know, a few times, but, you know, all in all, there were some that were wide open, too. We just didn't knock out, knock down enough."

On staying more disciplined moving forward...

"Yeah, I think they did a great job of attacking the rim, and some of those are on offensive rebounds, so that's part of it as well. Two areas for us that we're constantly working on. Defensive rebounding, certainly playing physical without fouling. And it all comes back to discipline and just, you know, getting to the next play. And you know, this is a new group, you know, that's together. And we don't have that many shared experiences and so this will certainly be one that hopefully will be beneficial for us."

On coming back after serving as assistant coach under Seth Greenberg...

"Yeah, I mean, it's great to come back. You know, you know, it's a wonderful place, a wonderful community, great people here, fun to see folks that, you know, I knew way back when and have stayed in touch with. And so, the Odoms are thankful for their time, you know, here at Virginia Tech, and for Coach Greenberg. And you know, I think what he did when he was here was really special. You know, transitioning Virginia Tech from the Big East to the ACC in basketball. It's a pretty daunting task for any coach and, you know, certainly that success has continued here and Coach Young's doing a fabulous job."

On overtimes and not having timeouts left...

"You know, it was just the old school home run play. And the key is like catching it. And Devin's a great passer. We wanted to save the timeout. So, we threw it ahead, you know, to save the timeout, the play before, which was really important because you probably don't get to that if you don't save the timeout and put yourself in a position, you know, on that side of half court. With the change in rules, you know, coaches, players probably a little more, you know, hesitant, you know, to contest and get close to shooters, you know, because of the continuation and stuff, and fouling up three, you know, but, you know, for our guys to execute that, you know, was really cool. But we can't be in that position, you know, where, you know, you're relying on that. And Chance made a heck of a play. You can't like he just follows the ball, did what he was supposed to do and chased it and was there just in the nick of time."

On the value of winning on the margins...

"Yeah, I mean it's huge. I mean, we certainly know that. Our guys understand that. We've got some guys on our roster that have played in big-time games. You know, whether they're in a high-major conference or a mid-major conference, they've played in games like this. Not everybody gets to play in a triple overtime game, but you know, it's special. You have to execute, and it doesn't matter what the score is, you know, and are we playing in the 90s? Are we playing in the 60s? You know, obviously, both teams were struggling to score, you know, throughout the game. And it comes down to execution and they were able to find something that they could go to and Hammond did a nice job of keeping us a little bit off balance. He rejected some, you know, he snuck in there. He made some big plays."