Watch the video linked here on VirginiaSports.com to see the full postgame press conference with UVA basketball interim head coach Ron Sanchez following Virginia’s 63-51 loss at SMU in the ACC opener on Saturday afternoon in Dallas and follow along with the following transcript to read everything Sanchez said after the game.

On what went wrong late in the game:

RON SANCHEZ: I’m trying to remember the play. I know that we hit a three point shot, and it was a time out called and not sure if they executed something on one end or not. I do know that we went on a drought after that. I think they started kind of denying IMac [Isaac McKneely] the ball, very jumping and forcing other guys to make plays, which today was a little bit of a challenge, honestly. We were in such a playing really good basketball without two of our main guys with, you know, Dai Dai Ames spraining his ankle. I think he only played seven minutes tonight, and then Elijah Saunders was in foul trouble the entire game and barely played at all. So to be in that position was really energizing for us, and I was really enthused. I thought that resembled more of a Virginia basketball type of game. I think that we were playing the right way, doing certain things. Having two starters out kind of made it a little more challenging, and we had to depend on a couple of young guys. I think we missed a couple of point blank shots at the rim, and the best that we could do is to create those opportunities. Then we have to, you know, put the ball in the basket. I think Blake maybe missed a floater and I think Andrew missed a floater in there, Jacob Cofie missed a dunk. So I think some of our youth and inexperience showed down that stretch. We’ll watch it and we’ll see.

On the difficulty of growing a young team in important ACC games:

RON SANCHEZ: Absolutely. That’s why there are some challenges in what we do. It’s not just X’s and O’s. A lot of it is emotional. It’s experiential, playing in a hostile environment back to back games on the road. You’ve been traveling since… a lot of things kind of come into play, and then you take two of your guys that are supposed to settle you down, and they’re not able to do that because they’re on the bench. So as far as our play, I mean, we had some really, really good stretches of basketball today, and I think today we took a massive step forward in our defensive side of the ball, and also the offensive side of the ball. The turnovers again plagued us. I don’t know what the exact final score the game was, 51 to 63, and we gave them 18 points out of our turnovers. And those are things that we have to continue to clean up. And when you take one of your primary ball handlers of the game out of the game, it definitely impacts, impacts that that play.

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On finding someone else to step up other than Isaac McKneely:

RON SANCHEZ: Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. And honestly, when you take two of your main transfers that you brought in to assist in that situation – Dai Dai as a point guard, you know a playmaking kind of guy that attracts some attention when he’s attacking off the dribble. And then you take your forward who had 19 points on the road at Florida, and you take those two guys off the floor, the attention does fall on on him [McKneely], and then it falls on some of the younger guys, you know? But I do. I think that Jacob did a really good job tonight. I think that we got on the floor, we dove, we did some things that resemble us a lot more today than we have in the past. And that’s the encouraging piece.

On how Virginia’s success against SMU defensively in the middle of the game:

RON SANCHEZ: We were connected. We were covering for one another. Our ball screen defense was better. We didn’t get stretched. We contested shots. We stayed on down on shot fakes. We did all the little things well, and then that allowed us to kind of absorb the run that they went on, and then we shut them down, and then we made our run. Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize that in the second half again, back to there were a lot of young athlete mistakes made down the stretch there with just covering from the wrong side, or doing certain things that young guys do. Unfortunately for us, we’re in a position where we have to depend on first year guys to be on the floor and do certain things.

On what he saw from freshman Ishan Sharma in the game:

RON SANCHEZ: We want Ish [Ishan Sharma] to continue to come. You know, he handles the ball. He could do some things. He made a shot today. He made some decent plays. He got other guys some shots. I think his experience today hopefully will help him later. We’re encouraged by him. He was thrusted into the position today, and I think he did a really good job defensively as well.

On if he has updates on the injury statuses of Dai Dai Ames and Christian Bliss:

RON SANCHEZ: No, not at all. I mean, I don’t really know what happened to Ames, except that he rolled his ankle. How serious it is, we’ll find out. And Christian [Bliss] is basically day to day right now.

On what it means to add SMU, Cal, and Stanford to the ACC:

RON SANCHEZ: Well, I will tell you, when we take that Cal trip, what that’s like after being on the road for back to back games is, you know, is definitely a competitive advantage for the home teams. I don’t know what we did wrong to have to go on the road to all three of these games. I thought that Coach Bennett had a little more respect in the league, but we’re going to figure it out when we get there. I think we have a good plan in place. But being here, this is obviously a fantastic institution. So is Cal, so it’s Stanford. And we’re happy that they’re in the league, and it’s gonna be a long trip, but you know it’s part of the journey.

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