Everything From Ryan Odom and Virginia After Their Win Against Wright State

The Virginia Cavaliers clinched an 82-73 victory over the Wright State Raiders in their first-round matchup. Now, the Hoos are advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Following the game, Ryan Odom, Jacari White, Malik Thomas and Sam Lewis sat down with the media to discuss the game. Here's everything they had to say.

(Ryan Odom) Opening Statement...

"Can't say enough good things about Wright State. They played lights out. They gave us everything that we could handle throughout the game. It was an excellent and well-played game, a real competitive game. They played a little bit differently than we were expecting going into the game and how we prepared. They did a nice job on picking on our big guys a little bit in terms of popping and shooting some threes, but our guys did a nice job throughout the game of adjusting, and just hanging in there. And that's what you've got to do in this tournament. It's not going to be perfect. It's not meant to be perfect.

Other teams, all of the teams in this tournament, have prepared at a high level and been in tight situations throughout the season, Virginia included in that. Just really proud of the way that our guys fought throughout the game. Certainly, the second half was key for us, locking in on defense and really contesting and making things as hard as we could possibly make them.

We got up 67-61, and they went on a run, 68-67, and we were reeling a little bit. I thought our guys did a nice job in that moment of rallying and finding a way to focus on what the task at hand was. We were in a possession ballgame at that point, and our guys did a great job finding Jacari certainly, but then getting key stops when we needed them."

(For White): On reflecting on his journey and his long road to Virginia...

"It feels good knowing that I can have a performance like that and help us win a game. It's a lot of our first time being here, and I know, for it being my last year, I didn't want for it to end so early. I love this group of guys that I'm with right now."

(For Thomas): On what this win does for UVA's locker room and if he has something now off his chest...

"Yeah, for sure. I think the first game is always the hardest, especially Wright State, credit to them. They did a great job executing. Their game plan was amazing. As a team, we were a little bit nervous. Like Jacari said, it's our first time being here. So I think after we got our jitters out and we started to play our basketball and come together, we were able to string some shots together and hit some big shots."

(For White): On what got the ball going and tipped the game...

"Yeah, I think our defense really helped our offense a lot, getting stops. We were able to get out in transition. We were able to put them in a scramble. It's hard for them to close out for everyone, and we made the right passes. I think that really helped us a lot."

(For White): On his reaction when Wright State left him open to shoot...

" I guess I was just as surprised as you were. (Laughter) I made them pay for it. Bad miscommunication by them. I just made them pay for it and hit the shot."

(For Thomas): On his turnovers and what Wright Stated showed on defense...

"Yeah, 14 turnovers, uncharacteristic for us. Like I said earlier, just nerves and getting adjusted to the new ball and the facility and the bright lights and all that. I think after that, we settled in, we did a great job of taking care of the ball and learning how to get our offense going.

Credit to their 22, Burch. He did a great job disrupting our point guards and our guards in general. I know I got to do a better job taking care of the ball, and, yeah."

(For Lewis): On if he was trying to funnel the ball...

"I can't really think about what play you were talking about, but, yeah, Johann was great, trying to play our best perimeter defense. We send it to those guys, we know they got our back."

(Odom): On helping his team maintain composure during the game...

"I don't know about that. I think when you get to this level, you get to this tournament, all these teams belong here. Wright State has had a great season. They got off to a hot start. You saw it. One of the benefits for us was watching yesterday and not playing on Thursday. You got a chance to see some other teams and how momentum can really shift. I think the biggest thing that I'm proud of with these guys is they stay together and they trust their training. They understood that defensively, we weren't at our best in the first half. We weren't -- we were on our heels too much and we weren't forcing them into harder shots. They were too comfortable.

We encouraged the guys at halftime. We have to go for it on defense. We have to make them miss, and we have to force hard shots. We'll be able to clean those rebounds up if we do that. It did play out that way. Certainly, there were tense moments back and forth, but really proud of the way the guys stood up on the defensive end."

On what he tells his players when they're getting discouraged...

"Yeah, one of the things we do is we talk about our pillars. We talked about our pillars after halftime, and which pillar is being represented right now in the situation that we're in? The guys immediately came back with passion. It's not meant to be easy. It's meant to be hard. And you have to fight for something that you want. You have to go for it in these moments.

I think that's just what our guys did. We have to put things in their proper perspective during the time-outs. They have to take a deep breath, relax, and play and trust their training and trust their teammates. If you try to overplay, more mistakes will happen, and I think our guys just really settled into the game, and we've played a lot of games at this point, and they settled into the game and just figured a way and found a way to win this particular one."

On if he felt more pressure than he should have with UVA not winning a Tournament game in recent years...

"We never talked about it. We only talk about what this team wants to accomplish. We had no thought about the history other than being proud of the history of Virginia basketball. We do talk about that without question and we showed them one shining moment two days ago from the 2019 National Championship and the guys got a since of, okay, I'm wearing that jersey. This is pretty cool! And today we showed them one shining moment of all of them playing over the course of the season.

So it wasn't an actual tournament game. Now we actually have some footage, but it was all these guys. Billy Bales put it together for our guys this morning. I wanted them to see themselves over the course of the season having tremendous joy, both on and off the court. This is the culmination of the season. We're all at the end here. We're all trying to extend it as long as we possibly can.

The more you focus internally on the guys that you're with and trying to play for the guy beside you, the better chance you have of staying in the tournament. You're going to face hard challenges throughout and we certainly faced our fair share today.

At the end of the day, these guys just did their job and enjoyed the moment."

On bringing his players together when Wright State took the lead, and what finally turned things around...

"The play before I think I was trying to call a time-out. I didn't get it, and that's going to happen. It's pretty loud in there and the players didn't hear me at that point. Sometimes these pauses can reset you and you're able to just communicate, look one another in the eye and begin to figure out the plan of how we're going to get it done.

The key for us is not complicated. We had to get stops. We had to keep the pressure on defensively. We couldn't watch the guys shoot threes. A couple of times, we watched guys shoot and they made us pay. That's not something we have done all season. I think our guys did a nice job of showing the proper poise that was needed to be able to come out victorious."

On if the technical foul motivated UVA...

"No. I think Sam was disappointed that he did it. They were pressuring us and they were on a run at that point. So not the reaction that he should have had or that any of us wanted. We don't want to give away points. Thankfully, it didn't hurt us in a key situation.

Technicals can go both ways. Sometimes there is a motivation there that can happen, crowds, coaches getting irritated, whatever it is. Maybe that's more what you're talking about, but you want your players to have the poise to be able to deal with any situation, and certainly, they've been coached to do that, and they're a good basketball team.

Burch is an excellent -- he's number one in the country at stealing the ball per possession of any kid in the country. That's what he does. You can show guys film over and over again, but you have to live it. Our guys experienced it, certainly, today, and fortunately, we were able to come out on top."