Erick Green on the Tech offense: “Driving to the hole, spacing, kick outs, driving, dish-offs. Coach wants us to play fast and put up shots. …. I love the free space, I think all of us do. …. We love to go one on one, making plays for others, coming off ball screens, using ball screens. Coach Johnson does a great job with us. We sat down and all talked about what kind of an offense we want and he did this off of us.”

 Green on the Tech defense: vs. VMI “Taking them out of transition. We watched film on them and I looked at the transition. They got a lot of wide open 3s and we took them out of that. …. We stopped them out of transition, stopped them on the second chance points and stopped the 3 point shot.”

 James Johnson on the offense: “The guys are buying into it. They’re doing a very good job of doing it. When you talk about running and you talk about playing fast, everybody wants to play that way, but conditioning-wise it’s tough to do. The guys are buying into it. Our strength and conditioning coach, David Jackson, got our guys in condition to play that way.”

JJ on the defense: “I was pleased with the defense until that last couple minutes they went on a 16-0 run.”

JJ on putting the starters back in: “You make your decisions to try the ball game. When we take them out, we tell those guys, ‘Stay involved in the game, … you never know when you might have to go back.’ Those guys know what we preach and they were ready to go back. … I would’ve liked that (backup) group to have played better.”

JJ on Barksdale’s showing: “He bounced back. I’ve been pretty tough on him and he responded. He’s been in the gym shooting, he’s been in the gym watching film. I knew at some point he would come around. … I’m happy to see him come out of that shell.”

JJ on Rankin not playing till the end: “He’s a little rusty. And those guys, Marcus and Will, they’ve been doing a great job for us. So I wanted to stick with the same rotation. ….. He just needs some game time, he just needs some minutes to shake it off.”

JJ on the double figure scorers throughout the starting lineup: “Those guys are capable. We don’t want to get in a situation where we’ve got to lean on Erick Green every night. As we get into the season, teams are going to scout us more. They’re going to try to take Erick Green away from us. We’re going to need other guys to step up. So I was pleased to have four other guys in double figures with him. We’re going to need that.”

JJ on why the offense fits this team: “It gives Erick Green an opportunity to not have to come up and grind it out against a set defense every play and everybody is focusing on him. Pushing the ball up the floor, if Eddie gets a rebound and Green can get out and run the lane, in transition defense it may be hard to spot where he was, whether he’s running to the corner or he’s running to the wing. We’ve got athletic guys like Robert Brown, and Jarell Eddie can get out and spot up, and we’ve got our athletic post guys that can get out and run the floor. … We’ve got athletic guys that can get out in transition and run and spot up and shoott.”

JJ on the Tech offense and Tech defense: “We want to take the first available shot that’s a good shot. … We want to get stops, rebound the basketball and then run. Tonight taking three charges and taking baskets away from the opponent and going down the other, those are things that’s important and they lead to good offense.”

JJ on van Zegeren: “I’m pleased with the big fella. He’s very productive. Each game, each minute he plays I think he’s getting better. … We’re going to need another post player to emerge and I think Joey’s doing a great job.”

JJ on the pace: “I’m not going to tell them to slow down. That’s the way we want to play. We’re not slowing the baskteball down. We’re pushing it up the floor. Etick Green, to have a senior point and a leader out there on the floor like that, he’s got a great feel for the game. He knows when to get us in the offense. He and I are connected on the hip. He knows what I’m thinking about calling.”

JJ on Johnston: “Will is going to be a good guard for us hopefully. … I don’t want the 3-pointer to just be what he’s known for. He’s going to have to be a really solid, good guard for us.”

 VMI coach Duggar Baucom on Tech: “Virginia Tech’s good. Their big three, we thought the game revolved around stopping Eddie, Brown and Green. Green was good throughout and Eddie certainly came to play the second half. Raines is the real deal too.”

Baucom on Tech’s 3-point shooting: “They certainly didn’t come into the game shooting 46 percent from 3. … Eddie the second half was really really good. Will Johnston’s barely on our scouting report and he goes 3 for 6. Marshall Wood is 0 for 8 going in the game and he goes 2 for 3. Those guys right there, that’s 15 points — and it’s a 15-point game — that we really didn’t account for. … If they shoot it 11 for 24 in the ACC, they’ll be pretty good. Really good, actually, if they can do that.”