Everything Ryan Odom Said After Virginia’s Win Against Pittsburgh

The Virginia Cavaliers had a change of pace tonight after they took an early lead during their matchup against the Pittsburgh Panthers. The Cavaliers were able to clinch a 67-47 victory over the Panthers, extending their record to 19-3 overall and 8-2 in conference play. Following the game, head coach Ryan Odom joined the media for a press conference. Here's everything he had to say.

Opening Statement...

"Good defensive effort, you know, for our guys tonight. Good win against Pittsburgh. Really proud of the guys and how they performed on that end of the court. Turned it over a little bit too much in the first half. I thought our guys did a better job in the second, taking care of the ball. Clearly, offensively, we weren't clicking on all cylinders. But the defense was a key aspect of the game for us tonight."

On his message in the second half...

"Yeah, I mean, we were just kind of standing around, you know, not passing the ball like we typically do, not moving our bodies on offense. The press was slowing us down. We weren't executing against the press. I mean, we didn't turn it over against the press, but it just clearly slowed us. When we would get defensive rebounds, we weren't pushing the ball like we typically do. And so, clearly [those are] areas that we've got to attack and get better at."

On UVA starting faster tonight...

"I think defensively, we wanted to do that for sure. We wanted to kind of wrap our arms around the game as best we could on the defensive side of the ball. We knew they were an awesome rebounding team, an offensive rebounding team, and we knew that was going to be a big key to the game. The defensive possession really begins when the shot goes up a lot of times with them. And they have good players and a good plan, and certainly I thought our guys, you know, did a nice job tonight of blocking out, and they did a nice job of crashing and countless guys getting in there to get offensive rebounds."

On what he saw from Chance Mallory...

"He was aggressive on offense, certainly, and tough to defend. He's really fast, and if he gets ahead of steam, you know, to the basket, he's tough to deal with."

On what he's seeing offensively...

"We just have to get a little bit better. I mean, you're going to have [times] during the season where it doesn't go in as much as you want. And I thought Jacari got some good looks tonight. And certainly there were some at the end that, you know, he was having to rush a little bit to to to get off, but for the most part, pleased with the attempts that we took."

On his message to the team during timeouts...

"I mean a lot of different messages, you know, certainly on offense it was passing the ball, moving it, moving your body, playing together. We were driving drives. When somebody drives and kicks it out, then that guy would drive it. A lot of times, those should be extra passes, and so our guys know that. But overall, the guys did a nice job."

On what UVA did differently in preparation for this game to game a dominant defense...

"A lot of it's a mindset, you know, a willingness to play to exhaustion and give max effort on every possession. And we just encouraged our guys, like it's easy to get excited about offensive plays, big offensive plays. A guy makes an extra pass, and then it ends up in a dunk for Ugo or a wide-open three for Malik, whatever the situation is. But if we can get excited about the defensive side and the plays that our guys make, whether it's Ugo blocking a shot at the rim or a really good contest, I thought a lot of the shots even in at the end of the game, you know, several of them went in for them, but our guys were right there contesting those shots. And so that's what we want to see, we want to see an energetic bunch on the defensive side of the ball that is willing to go deeper into the clock."