Everything From Ryan Odom After Virginia’s Thrilling Victory Over Notre Dame

What did Virginia Cavaliers head coach Ryan Odom have to say about UVA's latest matchup?

Virginia Cavaliers head coach Ryan Odom | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

In a double-overtime thriller, the Virginia Cavaliers pulled off a nail-biting 100-97 victory over Notre Dame. The Cavaliers were put to the test during this game, but they rallied and came out on top after a long night. Following the matchup, head coach Ryan Odom sat down for a media appearance to discuss the game. Here's everything he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"I can't say enough positive things about Notre Dame. Coach Shrewsberry, the players on his team and the fight, you know, that they gave us today. Certainly, they played an awesome game. I mean, they got off to a great start. They were really comfortable, and we were uncomfortable, got down 19 in the first half. And we were reeling a little bit, and that's probably, of course, but in the timeouts our guys came in, and they were, you know, communicating with one another in a positive way. Certainly, we did not intend to get down as much as we were down, but we were in that moment, and Notre Dame was putting a ton of pressure on us, and our guys had to answer, and fortunately, it began to turn a little bit. We had to play some lineups really for the majority of the game that we haven't played all year. And it gave us the best chance, you know, to be able to whittle the lead down a little bit going into halftime. And then we just tried tocontinue to grin, you know, over the course of the second half, and the defense improved a little bit. We were able to force some misses. The press, we scored better. We got into the press, which was able to really help us extend the game, and so many great plays out there. It's hard to recount all of them on both sides. The shots that were made and the big plays that these young people were making made for a great college basketball game. It's one of those that you hate; anybody ends up losing. But we have so much respect for Notre Dame and the coach and the way that they run their program."

On the shots Sam Lewis hit in overtime...

"Very close to calling a timeout. There were about six points, whatever, and the play was kind of, you know, evaporating, and I didn't, and he banged a shot."

On Certa's toughness...

"I mean, when he sees it going in the basket early as he did, you know, it can be a long night for you. And certainly he was somebody that we marked and scouted going into the game as he's got a dribble to shoot, and there were too many times it's hard because he backs up so much like he's three and four and five feet behind the line standing there and when they get in a switching situation and it's a big guy out there, they're just in unfamiliar territory. That's the only way to describe it. Big guys aren't used to guarding all the way out there, and they really tested us, but he's a big-time player."

On UVA's switch on defense after playing North Carolina...

"We had to switch the lineups, you know, quite honestly, we had to play the smaller lineups, which we hadn't played, so that we could switch a little bit more and try to keep bodies in front of them and pressure a little bit better and that required us to take, you know, Johann got two fouls anyway in the first half and so we kind of shuttled him in and out so it was a disjointed game for him. I thought Ugo played well in his minutes, and so we were trying to match him, you know, with Towt, whenever Towt was in the game, to give him some minutes there. But, you know, ultimately we had to play the smaller lineup to give ourselves a chance."