Wes Moore: "We've Got to Be a Better Defensive Team"
NC State head coach Wes Moore met with the media following the Wolfpack's 77-62 loss to No. 11 Duke Thursday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Moore’s press conference.
Opening Statement
First of all, you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Duke, Kara Lawson, the roster she’s put together, the team they’ve put together, how well they play defensively, and how hard they play. We’ve got to do better. That’s the bottom line. In second-chance points, we got outscored, 17-4. We lost by 15, and there’s 13 of them right there. It’s pretty simple math. We’ve got to defend with more urgency. Again, it’s disappointing to give up 77 points. We can’t win that way. Hopefully, it’ll kick in, and we’ll realize that we’ve got to be a better defensive team. Again, great job by Duke.
On Duke creating separation in the third quarter…
They did a good job of getting to the rim and getting to the offensive boards. They had 17 second-chance points, and I don’t know how many of those came in the third period. They did what they needed to do. It starts with them on the defensive end. I told Kara before the game, “That’s what wins championships.” They’re committed to defending. Tonight, again, we didn’t defend very well. That makes for a bad combination [for us] and a perfect storm for them. Again, it’s disappointing, but hopefully we can learn from it before it’s too late and try to fix it here in the next week or two.
On what made the battle on the boards one-sided…
They play hard, and they’re long and athletic.
If he believes his team didn’t play hard…
I’m not saying that. I’m saying Duke played really hard. Again, we didn’t play as hard as Duke did. They wanted it, and they went and got it.
On the physicality…
Again, they’ve got some size and some length. They’ve got some size on the block, and they’ve got great length at the three and the four. You add Celeste Taylor to that, and that’s why it’s hard to keep them off the glass. They’re long and athletic, and they’re committed to going and getting rebounds. We did a pretty good job on the boards at our place. Transition killed us at our place. I think we gave up 24 fast break points when we played at our place, and I don’t think they got a lot off of the offensive boards, so they probably came in trying to commit to that. We knew those was the two areas where we had to do a good job because, again, they defend so well. You’re going to have to take away easy points from them, and that’s transition, and that’s offensive boards. We didn’t do it, so here we are.
On younger players stepping up with other players out injured…
We got beat by 15, so I don’t like much. I know we’re a little shorthanded. Hopefully, we get Diamond [Johnson] back for the postseason. Still, we had to sub for everybody. We could rotate a little. I’m not going to use that as an excuse. We’ve just got to do better.
On Aziaha James as the point guard…
She’s done fine. Again, fast break and transition, she tried to force a couple. Like I said, she did a fine job. She needs to probably settle down a little bit offensively and turn it up a little bit defensively. That’s probably true of most young players. We’ll see. We’ve got to try and get there.
On James’ skillset being valuable for her down the road…
I don’t know. I like her on the wing better, so I don’t know that we’re looking at her long-term as a point guard. It’s good experience, and I think the more people you have out there handling the ball, [the better.] If I’m coaching baseball or softball, I’d recruit all shortstops, make somebody a second baseman and somebody a third baseman, and go from there.
On how the players are handling the adversity of the season…
Better than me. Again, kids get over stuff quick. It’s killing me. It’s been a roller coaster. We’ve got to bounce back. We’ve got a big game Sunday. There’s a lot of breakdowns. Inbounds plays, we gave up open threes. We have a scheme how we want to handle those things, and we didn’t do it. We gave up threes off of inbound plays, and that shouldn’t happen. There are things we can fix, and it starts with boxing out and keeping people off the glass. I know it’s hard against those guys — they’re good — but you’ve got to be able to do that if you want to have a chance. You can’t get outscored, 17-4, on the offensive boards. A lot of that stuff, you’ve just got to compete, and that’s what Duke’s done. They’re competing hard, and that’s why they are where they are. You’ve got to tip your hat to them.
On the seniors to be honored on Senior Day…
Yeah, they’ve been a part of three ACC championships and the regular-season championship a year ago. They played significant roles on those teams the last three years. It’s hard on all of us to go through the season where we’re at right now. We’ve just got to keep getting up and fighting. We’re running out of time. We’ve got to fix some of this stuff in a hurry.