NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - OHIO VS VIRGINIA

March 20, 2021

Sam Hauser

Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall

Virginia Cavaliers

Postgame Media Conference

Ohio 62, Virginia 58

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Sam Hauser. We'll take questions.

Q. What was it that kind of faded in the second half for you guys defensively? What let Vander Plas kind of get going there?

SAM HAUSER: Yeah, they had a lot of good action on offense. It was tough to guard. He broke loose a couple times, hit a couple big ones to get his momentum going in the right direction. He made a lot of big plays at the right time. So hats off to him. Hats off to Ohio.

Q. I don't know if any of you seniors will come back, but from what you know about this team, how do you expect they will respond to this?

SAM HAUSER: They're going to respond, for sure. Taking a loss like this is tough. Ending your year like this is tough. I know the guys who will come back are going to take this personally. I think they're going to get even better from it. I'm not too worried about that for our guys coming back next year.

Q. This season has had a little bit of everything. It's been a real roller coaster ride. How do you think you'll look back on this year?

SAM HAUSER: Definitely going to remember it. Everything was different. It wasn't a normal college basketball year. But overall I was just happy to be able to play and be able to play a pretty good number of our games.

Obviously, this last week has been hectic, but we were just happy we were able to have a chance to play in the tournament. That's where you want to be able to end your season, is this tournament. Overall a good year. ACC champs. Can't take that away from us, for sure. Definitely happy I chose to come here.

Q. Defensively you seemed really locked in in the first half. How focused were you on maybe there would be some offensive rust, but defense was going to carry you through tonight?

SAM HAUSER: Yeah, I think we've been trying to make that our mentality. Defense travels no matter what, even if your offense isn't there. I thought we played a pretty solid defensive game up until the last couple minutes where we had a couple big breakdowns. They got a couple of layups at the rim. Other than that, I thought we played hard on defense. They made some tough shots. They made crucial plays at the right time.

Q. What have the emotions been like this past week, going back to the positive case, just kind of fighting and being resilient?

SAM HAUSER: Yeah, with this year, there's a lot of uncertainty. You never know when a thing like that can happen. It happened at the last possible day it could have happened in order for us to play. We're thankful it didn't happen a day later.

It's just one of those things. It's unpredictable. You just kind of had to roll with it, do what you can when you're not around your team as much. It was an interesting week, for sure. We were able to watch a lot of film, have one practice at least. So we felt like we were confident coming into this game.

Q. What will you take away from this season as a team? Even though it was one-and-done, what...

SAM HAUSER: I think it showed a lot of discipline out of our guys and a lot of resiliency throughout the whole year. We had a couple times where we had a little COVID pause, we missed a couple games. Our opponents have had COVID pauses which caused us not to be able to play them. Everything was so uncertain. You never know what the next day was going to bring.

That's hard to deal with for however -- I think we've been on campus since July. Just dealing with that, just being able to be around each other, getting to know each other better was huge for us. We definitely got to know each other to a deeper level that I don't think we would have in normal circumstances. I think that's definitely a positive.

The basketball piece, I think overall everyone was just happy to be able to play and have a season because last year got cut short.

Q. You mentioned what a strange year it's been, only having had one practice. You are the ACC's number two three-point shooting team. So many shots fell short tonight. I know you don't want to make excuses, but were there some tired legs out there tonight?

SAM HAUSER: It's just one of those things where the shots just weren't falling. I don't think it was tired legs at all. I think it's one of those games that it happens. It happens to everyone. That's why your defense has to be real good. I thought our defense was pretty good up until they made that run in the second half.

But you can't make any excuse for not being able to make shots. You have to find other ways to score. Tonight we just left some baskets out there that we should have made.

Q. Vander Plas, what makes him such a tough guy to cover? Scored in the second half even when you had good defense on him.

SAM HAUSER: He's a great player, man. He's crafty, deceiving, got a really good shot fake. Obviously you saw he has really deep range, made a couple bombs tonight. Hats off to him. Man, he's good. He's so sound, so fundamentally sound. He's a good player. He is kind of like a glue guy to that team. Without him, I don't know what they'd be like.

Happy he played well. He's a Wisconsin guy. I know him. Happy for him and happy for the team.

Q. Jay Huff getting into foul trouble, how did that impact you?

SAM HAUSER: I mean, yeah, no, that happens. That's the next-man-up mentality. I thought we had good minutes from the guys off the bench to fill in when he was off the floor. I thought guys came in, brought energy, played good defense and rebounds. When Jay was in there, he was good.

Just one of those things. That's why you always have guys off the bench that are ready to go. I think overall they were good tonight.

THE MODERATOR: We wish you the best of luck in your career. Thank you very much.

SAM HAUSER: Thank you. Again, hats off to Ohio. Best of luck to them. Also giving a shout-out from our team to the Virginia women's swimming and diving team who just won a national championship. Congrats to them. Thank you.