Dec. 7, 2008

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

NAVY HEAD COACH Billy Lange
Opening Statement
"I want to thank John Feinstein for putting us in this event. It is a great opportunity for us to be in a great venue here in Washington, D.C. I give credit to Virginia Tech for a great comeback. They played an outstanding second half. We don't have any moral victories here. We don't feel good about leading at halftime or competing in the second half. We just need to look at the film and see the areas we made mistakes and try to get better at them. Hopefully we will get an opportunity like this again and be able to close the game out."

On the Virginia Tech depth:
"I don't think their depth was the overriding factor. I think we did a great job [guarding] A.D. Vassallo."

On team mentality:
"I think we could have been a little bit stronger in our mentality and try to keep the game a little closer down the end."

On the start of the second half:
"We made some transition defense mistakes. I really thought the tone of the game was set when we get two stops to start the half and there are two loose ball rebounds and we don't get them."

On playing Virginia Tech: "You have no margin for error when you are the Naval Academy playing against Virginia Tech."

On playing hard for the entire game:
"I don't think we completely understand the value of every single possession against every team."

On overall execution:
"We played a pretty good offense in the first half, regardless of our shooting percentage, our execution was pretty good. In the second half we did not execute well."

NAVY SENIOR GUARD Kaleo Kina
On team leadership:
"We seniors need to take a little bit more of a leadership role."

On the opening of the second half:
"First five minutes of the second half, they came out and hit us in our mouth. Good teams like Virginia Tech, they don't give you a chance to recovery. We just need to be solid for 40 minutes."

On leading the game at halftime:
"It feels good to have a lead at the half but we play and expect to win every game. They are a great team but we came in expecting to win the game. We didn't come out the way we wanted to in the second half."

VIRGINIA TECH COACH SETH GREENBURG
Opening Statement
"First, I just want to say how much respect I have for the team we competed against. Like I told our guys before the game, this is their reward, getting a chance to play a game and get off base. What they do on a daily basis is a lot more important than any game we're going to play all season. To me, it was an honor to compete against those guys. That's the best of the best, that's a special group right there. Billy's done just an unbelievable job. They play so hard and they play to win and they really believe in each other. You can hear them talking to each other. That's what I told our guys before the game. I said, "You have to understand, no matter what happens that team's going to be a team. They're going to stay together and be there for each other." I watched a little bit of that Army-Navy thing yesterday and it really gives you a good appreciation of something a whole lot bigger than a game. Having said that, I'm really proud of our guys for hanging in there."

On his message to the team at halftime:
"The message was we're going to the driving game because I think we can beat them off the dribble. I told them they were going to be tough. They've won seven in a row, so they're feeling good about themselves. We've lost two games, and we've had 3-4 days of practice. We've got to be a little bit tougher, we've got to take some people off the dribble and move it a little bit. There was no ranting, raving, kicking, screaming, yelling. It was these are things we've got to do and let's come together and do them."

On the team's participation in today's event:
"We played in this event because John Feinstein is an unbelievable guy that really cares about his community. If he asks you to do something that you can do to help, you should try to do it. It's a great cause and it was the right thing to do, even if it didn't fit our schedule."

# GO NAVY #