Virginia, once again, steamrolled its competition Tuesday night. Bucknell never held a lead. In fact the Bison only held a tie for 60 seconds before the Cavaliers pulled away.
Here are the most important notes from Coach Ryan Odom’s press conference.
Elite passing and teamwork
The Cavaliers ended up with 30 assists — their most in a game this year.
“I mean, that’s incredible,” Odom said. “I don’t think I’ve ever coached a team that’s had 30 assists in a game, and just the willingness to pass. And obviously, we were in some situations, but you can see sometimes we messed it up and had some turnovers, and that type of defense can be bothersome if you allow it to be. And I thought our guys just did a nice job of just keeping it simple.”
The bench mob
Against Arkansas, only a handful of players saw notable minutes off the bench. Odom wanted to change that against Bucknell.
“It’s hard to get them all in there, and I tried did my best tonight to get every one of them in there,” Odom said. ” thought Jan [Vide] had a had a good effort. Certainly in the first half, his speed was noticeable up the court. I thought he had a nice game. Martin [Carrere], I thought had another nice game. Didn’t shoot it as well as I know he would want to. But I thought he did other things to help us.”
Odom also mentioned the breakout campaign of Elijah Gertrude — and a promising first-year.
“Elijah [Gertrude] again, was very, very good. Made some great plays on both sides of the ball. Some athletic plays defensively, and then some passes that were that were really good. And obviously, he made some shots. You know, Favour [Ibe] even at the end. You know, he did a nice job. Didn’t get in there in the first half. That’s hard. All of a sudden, now I’m putting you in there, and these guys are running all over the place to hold his own and get four blocks or whatever he got. That was excellent.”
The upcoming Maryland game
Once again, the Cavaliers-Terrapins rivalry is returning to the hardwood. Odom knows it well from his time growing up in Charlottesville.
“Maryland’s a good, good basketball team,” Odom said. “I think Maryland provides a lot of challenges to any team. And so when we get the rivalry between the two schools, it’s an important game for both teams, and we want to do our best to to play well and and try to earn a W up there, but we know it’s going to be a stiff challenge.”
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