Everything From Virginia Tech's Carleigh Wenzel, Megan Duffy and Mackenzie Nelson After Miami Loss

Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy and guards Carleigh Wenzel and Mackenzie Nelson spoke to the media after the Hokies' overtime loss to Miami Thursday night. Here's the entirety of what Duffy, Wenzel and Nelson had to say:

Opening statement from Duffy:

MD: "Extremely disappointed with our second half. Defensively, we weren't very good, for how well it went in the first half. We didn't put another 20 minutes together, specifically that fourth quarter. So again, this one hurts, especially on our home floor, to lose one like this."

On what changed in the final 8-9 minutes of regulation:

MD: "Yeah, I thought we had a bunch of defensive breakdowns with some coverage on a couple of their sets. Then they attacked us one-on-one, and then, to give them credit, they executed a couple things really nicely. So, it's kind of a combination of everything. When you give up 20 in the third quarter, 23 in the fourth quarter, there's a lot of things that don't go well. I thought us missing a few easy shots really impacted our mindset on defense. We've been talking a lot with this group about [how] there's a lot of different ways to make winning plays. And if your shot's not falling or you don't get a clean look, what you what you do to respond on the other side of the floor is what we've been really preaching all year long with our rebounding, our defense, and we just have to get better at that. Unfortunately tonight, up as much as we were, to lose, it is disappointing."

On what Miami did to frustrate Virginia Tech on the defensive end in 4Q/OT:

MN: "I think just like any other good team, they switched up their defense. They went to the 1-3-1, man, a little bit of both at some point, and we worked on it in practice. We took those shots in practice with confidence. I can't say today, we took the same shots with the same amount of confidence. And I think that's what it came down to at the end of the day."

Q: Just nine assists for Miami. Is there a difference with the [Virginia Tech] defense when [Miami's] offense is so isolated, like that?

MD: "Miami always just runs a lot of different actions, from their chin and Iverson. They got some quick hitters for [Ra Shaya] Kyle inside. I thought we had some great possessions of guarding all of it and helping each other. And, you know, you know, forcing them to take some difficult shots. Some of the stuff they got late was and a shot clock or the back end of it. And you know, it was just a little bit of a one v1 battle, whether that was inside, or whether a guard was like, I'm getting a bucket. And that's the competitiveness that we have to be a little different the next time. And, you know, fatigue doesn't matter. Foul trouble doesn't matter. It's like, I'm getting a stop no matter what. And there's, there's a couple different ways to do that, and so I just didn't think we, we executed that that very well. And give them credit, they stepped up. That basket became really big for him once they got some confidence. We couldn't stop the bleeding."

Speaker 6
Thomas Carly, six for 11 for 16 points. What did you like about what you were doing in the first half, and how do you feel? Miami eventually

On what Wenzel (6-for-11, 16 points) liked about her first half and how Miami eventually adjusted:

CW: "I think I've been in the gym. I think it's made a difference. I think the break was good for me. But at the end of the day, if we don't win, doesn't mean anything. So just coming out, staying consistent, making sure everybody's doing their job, making sure everybody's just ready to go tomorrow. So, we're gonna have a tough one on the road [vs. Louisville] and we're trying to pull that one off."

On how the team moves, rebounds from a loss of this nature:

MD: "Really, the same way we do every day, we talk about getting back into our process. And the most important things for our players right now is to rest their minds a little bit, get their recovery, fuel up. Coaches will get back to work. There's a lot of basketball to play. And I think we've been talking a lot about sticking to our values and not get too high or too low. We all should be extremely disappointed. But again, this is a group that we've been growing to fight back. I look forward to getting back to work and figuring out some of those small details that could have prevented what happened today. And I got all the confidence in the world in that locker room, and Mackie and Carleigh right next to me that, you know, we're all going to stay driven to fix some of the things and use it as a learning experience and keep moving forward."

On what made Kyle (23 pts, 13 rebounds) and Gal Raviv (18 points) so tough to guard:

MD: "We did a really nice job on them for about three quarters, I guess. I think Raviv had maybe six going into at the end of the third quarter. Just didn't did enough. Didn't do enough. She got downhill. She had her three. They were trying to get the ball back in Kyle's hands. We were throwing different bodies at her. She made a couple really, really great finishes. So, yeah, their two really stepped up at the end. We got to get better at kind of understanding that that could happen and just to do enough to stop it."

On what makes Raviv's late shot-clock ability difficult to manage:

MN: "Yeah, I mean, we talked about it all week with our preparation. She changes, her ability to change pace is really, really good. That's what makes it hard to guard her. We tried to switch up ball screen defenses. I think we got, specifically, me, got caught a lot of times going under the ball screen. And I think that just gave her confidence. And at the end of the day, that's what it came down to. But we talked about all week, her change of pace, her disability to get downhill. We call it hostage dribble off the ball screen. That's what makes her a really good basketball player."

On if Kyle (6-foot-6) forces Virginia Tech to change its defensive game plan:

MD: "I don't know about changing a game plan. I think, even in non-conference, we played against 6'9, 6'8, 6'4, 6'5, every post player's a little different. I thought Aniya [Trent], gave us some great minutes with her physicality and trying to mix it up. And Kyle has a lot of experience. She knows how to get to her spots. We tried to front a little bit. We tried to bring the double [team], couple different things and had a couple really great quarters with it. And then, again, maybe the stamina to do it, or whatever it was, they stepped up and were able to execute off of it."