LOCKER ROOM REPORT: Wolfpack Players
NC State’s D.J. Burns, D.J. Horne, Ben Middlebrooks, and Casey Morsell met with the media following the Wolfpack's 67-64 loss to Pittsburgh Wednesday evening.
Burns scored 19 points against the Panthers with five rebounds, one assist, and one steal. Horne led the Pack offensively with 25 points on 8-for-14 shooting from the floor, 5-for-10 from three-point range, to go along with three rebounds and one assist. Middlebrooks tacked on nine points off the bench while also pulling down four rebounds and blocking one Pitt shot attempt. Morsell contributed five points, four rebounds, three assists, and one steal on the night.
NOTE: Click on each player’s respective thumbnail to watch each interview in the player above.
D.J. Burns
“I’m used to it at this point.”
“They’re not going to call it, so it doesn’t matter. It’ll be all right.”
D.J. Horne
“We’re going to need to pick up our intensity. We were kind of out there lackadaisical, not playing NC State basketball. We came in with three deflections at halftime, and that’s a big thing for us. To only have three when we try to get 40 a game, that’s ridiculous. The energy just wasn’t there.”
“I have no idea, man. I don’t know.”
“I can’t really speak for everybody else. We’ve just got come out and be ready to play.”
“It’s a little frustrating. Every game like this matters, especially if we want to play in March. That’s why I came here.”
“We felt good. The way we started in the first half was absolutely not good. To come out in the second half and make it a game, I thought we did really well, but when you look at the overall score — 6-of-15 free throws, and they make 18 of 20 — and we only lost by three, it shows you right there we could have won the game.”
Ben Middlebrooks
“One hundred percent. I think I had a couple of fouls out there that I probably shouldn’t have had. Rebounding-wise, they had multiple offensive rebounds that I probably should’ve gotten. At the end of the day, that’s on me. Regardless of where the ball goes, I needed to get those. Rebounding-wise, I probably needed to do more on the defensive end to finish possessions.”
“A lot of it was the guards. They were doing a lot of stuff with the ball screens and the pick-and-roll kind of stuff. They were able to make some great passes for some easy finishes for me. Burns was dominant in the post all game. They couldn’t really stop him, and he kept on going at them. He was playing great.”
“We’ve just got to get back to work and get back in the gym.”
“We’re definitely not finished. We’ve got a lot more to do. We’re able to come together as a team. We’re able to learn from our mistakes in these past games. We’ll be able to do some big things this year."
Casey Morsell
““It was a lack of energy from the beginning. I felt like it played a role in us coming out pretty slow. It snowballed in the first half. We came out in the second half with a little more sense of urgency, but it wasn’t enough to pull it out.”
“Yeah, I thought it was going to go in, but it didn’t. It is what is. All we can do is go back to work and don’t let this snowball.”
“There’s opportunity in the future. We just can’t let it snowball. We just have to learn from this game. I’ve got to do more. Everyone has to do more to help this team be better. It’s all we can do."