VIDEO/Transcript: Ron Sanchez Weekly ACC Zoom Press Conference

Watch the video below and follow along with the transcript underneath the video to see what Virginia men's basketball interim head coach Ron Sanchez had to say in the weekly ACC Men's Basketball Coaches Zoom call on Monday (January 20).

Q. Anthony Robinson played 14 minutes last game. What have you seen from his development behind the scenes and just to be able to get some more opportunities on the court?

RON SANCHEZ: Anthony's been working, he's been working really hard in practice. The one thing that Anthony has, he's got just physical tools, he's a strong young athlete. He's vertical, he can be a really good rebounder for us, and he's been working on his finishing. What he needs is more time to get more experience. I said the game is at times a little fast for him, but it's starting to slow down a little bit for him. And if he continues to do his his hard work behind the scenes, I think you know that he'll continue to improve. So that's kind of what I'm seeing in him.

RON SANCHEZ: You've experimented a couple times with playing Robinson and Blake [Buchanan] and [Jacob] Cofie together. Is that something that you like going forward, especially with the rebounding trouble you've been having?

RON SANCHEZ: Well, you hit it on the head. I mean, I'm trying to find a way to just to get, to close out the defensive possession with the defensive rebound. And we've been there in that situation several times this season. We're defending well enough. We just have to end the possession, we have to bookend it with a secure rebound. And right now, sometimes those bigger guys just kind of help us, kind of get above the rim and just kind of sky up and snatch a rebound.

Q. Coach, the inexperience in defending, as you've said in the past, seems to really be hurting you guys recently. In sort of the era where you know you're going to have to play guys that have only had one offseason to learn the defense, do you change how you teach the pack line at all? Or did you even change anything about the pack line itself?

RON SANCHEZ: Well, no, you know, I wish you could speed up Mother Nature. And I wish that you could speed up experience. The only way you get it is by being in it. To cloud guys' minds with more teaching or different things I think would be a mistake at this point. I like to think that the more guys are thinking, the slower their feet get. So we're trying to get them to think less and just play more instinctively. And they're getting closer. They're just obviously not coming along at the pace that many would like. But you just need time and games under your belt in order for you to improve.

Q. Chad Venning is a load at 6'9", 270. You've been using Jacob, I think, at the five a lot lately. He only got 10 minutes the other day. What is your approach to Venning in this one?

RON SANCHEZ: I think it's gonna be by committee. We've actually have played Anthony Robinson, Blake, Jacob, you know, we've had different interior players at different times. We're going to continue to use all of those guys to keep fresh bodies on the floor so that we can be as physical as we can and be as sharp as we can. I think the less fatigued we are, you know, the sharper we will be.

Q. Ron, you mentioned the shortcomings in terms of defensive rebounding. Elijah had a career high 10 defensive rebounds on Saturday. How much are you leaning into him and saying, we need more of that every night?

ROM SANCHEZ: That's a great statement. I hate to tell you that I've been saying that for a long time to Elijah, because he's had flashes where he's played really well against some some really good opponents. Louisville is a great example. The University of Florida is another good example of that. But he's got to put more games consistently together. I think we played against Florida, he had a fantastic game, then we went to SMU the next game, I think he didn't perform as well. So we just got to get more consistency out of him. But I do like where he's going. I'll tell you one thing, if we can get Blake Buchanan to play the way he did against SMU and Elijah to play the way that he did against Louisville on the same night, then I think that we can capitalize on that. That is the goal for those guys to try to play really well and play with that level of intensity and that level of tenacity and rebounding, presence, as they did in those two games collectively.

Q. Yeah. Ron, one more on Robinson. When you brought him in last year, obviously he was a little bit more of a raw prospect, and that's why he took the redshirt year. What did you see last year as he kind of came along, and what were y'all working on with him last yea?

RON SANCHEZ: Anthony's development has always been kind of his hands. Anthony was kind of a late bloomer. The game is fast. The game is fast. Sometimes in high school, big guys just kind of play underneath the basket and you kind of zone up and then you get to college, man, you got to guard a zoom action into a pin down into an away screen that. So you have to be really continuous in order to to be really productive defensively, and that's at any position, unless you're a team that's going to play a zone the entire time. So Anthony has, you know, we're trying to get him to that point where he can see everything that's coming, anticipate a little better, guard multiple actions in one possession and then end it with the rebound. So those are some of the things that we worked on with him. Also his balance. I mean, he's a big, strong kid, but sometimes he needs to work on his balance on the floor. His hands, catching and finishing in traffic. Sometimes he brings the ball down and point guards kind of rip it out of his hands, and things like that, all the mistakes that usually young big guys make, because they can get away with it in high school. So those are some of the development pieces for him. And I think that it was a good plan and you can kind of see how it's always allowing his game to improve.

Q. And then with Jacob, his minutes have kind of gone down the last couple games. Is that just matchups or what are you seeing with him? And because y'all put him in the starting lineup last eight games, so where are you seeing him right now?

RON SANCHEZ: I think Jacob's trend is very natural for a first year guy. As you get into ACC play in the middle, these high school kids, they haven't played these many games. Like practices are challenging. Games are challenging. The travel is challenging. So some of this stuff is experience with Jacob. Going from California to here, to travel to some of those physical things that impact your energy level, the management of that. I think those are his learning experiences right now. And I don't think it's any different than any other first year guy who hasn't really experienced that yet. So he's geared up and has a lot of energy. He plays well. And sometimes maybe that impacts his performance. So we're just trying to help him and help him grow through that, and if he's not competing, or doesn't have enough energy to compete at the level that we expect, then other guys will get the opportunities.

Q. Going back to the defense, when you look at the tape and you look at what's going wrong in these games where you're allowing 80 plus points, what is sort of breaking down the most for you guys?

RON SANCHEZ: As I mentioned before, the continuous things. Some of the young guys that can guard one action, then they go under a screen instead of going over the screen. Yeah, just, they're very simple things, but they're all little tears into your defense. You make one mistake and you make the other when you have a first year in Ishan out there playing with, say an Anthony Robinson, and then even a first year in Elijah Saunders playing out there. So the combination, it's just not one thing. Sometimes it's just multiple things, different guys that just have to get used to really being connected defensively. Really good defenses are connected. It's not an individual thing. It's as a unit. We're all responsible for stopping the ball, and when one individual fails to do his part, it impacts the result of the entire possession.

Q. Last week was a difficult one, just shooting wise for Isaac and Andrew. Was it just the fickle nature of shooting? Was it a shot selection issue, form, anything like that?

RON SANCHEZ: No, actually, they both got great looks. I kind of call them "iMac shots." You probably have watched iMac longer than I have. So, you know, when you know he's flying off of a off-ball screen and he's wide open and his feet are set. I mean, he had about five or six looks that were of that quality, he just didn't make them. We're just trying to encourage iMac to keep shooting the ball. You asked me, I think it was two weeks ago, you know, what do I think that the California trip might do to some of these guys? Maybe this is some of the trend of it? Not sure yet. I'm still studying it. He hasn't shot the ball well since we came back from California. Maybe that's part of it. I don't know, you know. So maybe fatigue and rest is something that we need to focus more here. But we're learning and we're growing. We're just going to continue to encourage iMac to shoot and keep putting him in positions to take the shots that he's used to taking and making.

Q. Real quick on Ishan Sharma, he's been getting a lot more minutes lately. What do you see from him and what do you see for his future?

RON SANCHEZ: Yeah, he shoots the ball really well. He also has really good ball skills. He has a competitive tenacity to him that we really appreciate as a staff. The only thing he doesn't have is the maturity and the experience, and the only way you get better is to getting more experience on the floor. And that's that's the case for all these young guys, not just him. But you know, we got to continue to get these guys opportunities and whenever we can, we're going to put them on the floor and hoping that they continue to blossom. As we train forward, we just keep getting better and better basketball from all of them.

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