CHICAGO – Virginia’s basketball season ending in difficult fashion Sunday night when Syracuse erased a 16-point second half deficit to win 68-62. That loss wrapped up the careers of Malcolm Brogdon, Anthony Gill, Caid Kirven, Evan Nolte, and Mike Tobey.
Those players led the way to 89 victories over the past three years, a new program record. The Sabre caught up with Nolte after the game for a few quick thoughts on the tough exit in the NCAA Tournament.
How are you feeling? What is going through your mind?
Evan Nolte: I think I am just thinking about this is my last time doing anything like this. I have a lot of emotions. I don’t know how to describe it. I am just thinking about that this is my last game with these guys and the program. I can’t really describe how it feels but it is just hard. It is hard. I don’t know if it has absolutely hit me yet.
Leading 35-21 at the half – What did Coach Bennett say to the team?
Evan Nolte: He said that we started rough with turnovers and he talked about how what ended up happening to us is what they did to Gonzaga and that we needed to watch for the press, to keep our foot on the gas. We put in a couple of tweaks defensively and he just said to put our foot on the gas for the last 20 minutes. That we were 20 minutes away. He told us to play like it was zero/zero and to be aggressive and to not settle for shots on the offensive end.
It was 56-43 with 8:34 to go in the game and then they started to make their run keyed by Malachi Richardson? Can you talk about the momentum shift in the game?
Evan Nolte: I don’t know exactly what it was. They made a lot of tough shots and they got a lot of offensive rebounds that led to more opportunities to score and we struggled a little bit offensively [with] possessions scoring and it went from there. They made some tough plays. I don’t have any specifics to tell you. They got a couple of turnovers. They made a couple of tough plays.
Was breaking their press the main factor in this game?
Evan Nolte: I don’t think it was solely the press. We broke it a bunch of times. I think we had a number of turnovers. We had opportunities when we broke it and didn’t finish at the end. It was a combination of things. I don’t think it was just one thing at all. Basketball is a game a runs and we had a run in the first half and they had theirs in the second half.
How did you try to combat their momentum once they got it going?
Evan Nolte: We just tried to contain them on defense. We work on defense every day and just needed to get stops. They made a lot of tough shots and a lot of those contested ones.
What do these guys on the team mean to you?
Evan Nolte: It is hard to explain because how many different characters guys are on the team and how much everyone cares for each other. These guys are the people you spend four fifths of your college time around. You don’t get to enjoy it unless they are a joy to be around. Each of these guys cares about each other and every one of us gets along great. I don’t know how to describe it. It is a lot of emotions for sure.
What did the Coach Bennett say in the locker room after the game?
Evan Nolte: He touched on the game and talked about what the program has done in the last couple of years and talked about each of the seniors. Coach thanked us for everything and then we brought it in one last time. He reinforced that even though everyone is down that if you look at things in a few weeks that we will realize that we had a great year.
