Transcript: Tony Bennett, UVA Men’s Basketball Players Talk at ACC Tipoff

On Oct 12, 2022

- Advertisement -

Virginia men’s basketball head coach Tony Bennett and fifth years Kihei Clark and Jayden Gardner participated in the ACC Basketball Tipoff event in Charlotte on Tuesday. Read everything that Tony Bennett, Kihei Clark, and Jayden Gardner said during the press conference on Wednesday afternoon in the transcript below.

Q. Coach Bennett, my math might be incorrect here, but I was looking at the rosters, and I think it’s the first time since at least 2015 you bring back all five starters. How has that helped with cohesion early on, especially with the new faces, and then throwing into that the growth you’ve potentially seen getting back from that Italian tour.

TONY BENNETT: Yeah, last time I saw you was in Italy, so it’s good to see you again.

We always talk about retention and having experienced players. The fact that both Jayden and Kihei have a lot of great college basketball experience under their belt is significant, and then to bring our team back.

Last year was a year of maybe not to what our standards usually have been, but we played a lot of big-time games, won some great games, got some postseason experience, so that was good. And then going to Italy was good for all these guys. It was Jayden’s first year, so now he’s in his second year with us, and obviously Kihei and I have been together forever, right? Which is a good thing, a great thing.

But obviously I think no question with the additions of the recruits, the young guys coming in, the first years with a really high-quality transfer, that makes us have quality depth. Last year our depth wasn’t great and we probably didn’t shoot the ball at the level we needed to, so we tried to improve in those areas.

But experience is golden, I think, in college basketball, and we have that. Actually walking around, there’s a lot of teams with a lot of experience in the ACC, which will make, I think, for a tremendous ACC league. It feels like that.

Q. I’m going to direct this to Jayden. Jayden, now that you’ve been in the system a while and you’re beginning to really understand the defense, what is your outlook for your role in this year’s team?

JAYDEN GARDNER: I think this year, just the defense just slowing down for me and just getting accustomed to it and knowing where to be, and also encouraging the young guys as they go through their first year because I just went through it, and I think that’s been a big step for my development on the defensive end, being ahead of the game, ahead of the curve, so I’m just excited for this team. I’m excited for my growth on the other end of the court.

0 0 votes

Article Rating