Mike O'Connell, Mo Diarra, and Ben Middlebrooks Discuss Oakland Matchup
NC State standouts Mike O'Connell, Mo Diarra, and Ben Middlebrooks met with the media to discuss the NCAA Tournament second round matchup against Oakland.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
What is it like to have to guard D.J. in practice?
BEN MIDDLEBROOKS: I can definitely say it comes with challenges for sure but at the end of the day it definitely makes us better. I don't think there's another post presence in the ACC, really in the country, that is much of a force as him. So I think it really honestly has made us part of the players that we are today having to go against that every day.
MOHAMED DIARRA: It's easy. (Laughs). No, I'm playing. Yeah, we compete against each other every day, and D.J. is a tough guy, and we make for him complicated to get his spot. That's why he does so well right now on the block.
In your study session so far, what have you seen from their zone defense and what have you seen from them offensively?
MICHAEL O'CONNELL: Yeah, I think from offensively, obviously seeing how they played against Kentucky, they're a very talented team. They can score from each level of the court. Obviously, they can shoot really well from three, a few guys that can really get it going and they also have a very good post presence. So just kind of today still watching film, game planning, seeing how we're going to approach and attack. From a defensive standpoint it's going to be huge. If we let them get going, it's going to be tough to get the win.
MOHAMED DIARRA: Yeah, we're going to play against some zone, maybe 98 time at a time. My bad. And yeah, we're going to be prepared for this game and we're going to be stay locked in in what you do.
BEN MIDDLEBROOKS: Yeah, absolutely. I definitely agree with what they said. They're a very solid team. They obviously had a great game the other night. They do run that zone, which we're going to have to be ready for, but I feel like we do what we do and if we keep on playing the way we've been playing, we'll look good out there.
Michael, when you look at having to potentially guard a guy like Jack Gohlke who just went off the other night, what are the challenges that come with guarding and preparing for a guy that gets on a hot streak, and what's it like to watch that film and kind of see all the attention that he's gotten nationally?
MICHAEL O'CONNELL: Yeah, it's definitely impressive. He's obviously a very good player. It's not like he hasn't been doing this or making shots all year. He's very talented. So going into the game, we gotta have the same game plan as what the coaches think we gotta do to take away his looks and not let him get clean looks if anything because he's going to get shots off because he's a great player. It's what he does. So try to limit his touches, limit his looks in that area of the game will be huge for us and just try to force him to take tough ones and get the rebounds.
You guys, maybe all three of you answer this question. This will be your seventh game in 12 days tomorrow night. How are you able to do it? Are you exhausted? You haven't been home too much to settle down, have you?
BEN MIDDLEBROOKS: I mean absolutely. I mean we definitely -- I don't know about fatigue. We've been hearing about fatigue for a long time. You said we have played a lot of games. I don't see any of my guys getting tired. I don't feel like we've lost a step at all. As far as I definitely do miss home a little bit and miss my dog a little bit, but I'm still trying to win some more games.
MOHAMED DIARRA: Yeah, we tell everybody we gotta compete, like we gotta stay on top of what we gotta do because we're here for that, and we can't complain about like we're tired, oh, we gotta play like seven games in 12 days. Yeah, we're going to stay on top.
MICHAEL O'CONNELL: Yeah, at the end of the day, too, obviously we have a common goal in mind to keep playing the game to end the season, finish the season with a win so at this point even if your body is hurt or you're tired you're not really focusing on it too much because you want to do everything you can to win that next game.
Michael, you guys have quite a few graduate players like yourself, quite a few guys coming in from different schools to make up this team. How much of this run is kind of the benefactor of so many different experiences coming together to know how to handle yourself in different situations?
MICHAEL O'CONNELL: Yeah, I think it's been huge that we have a team full of mature guys, guys that have been here, whether played in March before or they've had experience playing through a lot of games where they're coming to the end where it's a one shot, one possession game and things like that. I think it's just experience is always going to help you out down the stretch especially when things aren't going your way you can have guys that are able to ride on what they've been doing or what they've experienced with other teams or this team they've been with for a while. Definitely helps keep everyone together and keep everyone on the same common goal.
For everyone, obviously this is generating a lot of enthusiasm back home in Raleigh. Now it's starting to become national. Your take on that, how surreal is it to see NC State, they're calling you guys America's team and things like that, and the love that you receive both from Wolfpack Nation and now from the nation itself?
BEN MIDDLEBROOKS: I mean, I would say especially me, back home in Raleigh, the fans' appreciation back there definitely means the world to us. We definitely feel that. When the crowd gets loud and starts cheering for us and we're away from home there's not a better feeling than that. And I know D.J. Burns, when he gets the ball and the crowd turns up for him and there's nothing more fun than that, just seeing it. I know it's fun when it's on the court, and hopefully as far as America's team, I mean I guess we'll try and keep that going.
MOHAMED DIARRA: We appreciate that, because we need that. We need that. Like you're talking about we're tired, but we got good cheer, screaming for everybody for us, for D.J. Burns. Like they give us energy and we really appreciate it.
MICHAEL O'CONNELL: Building off what they said, I think it's huge since we're not on our home court right now we have a lot of fans that are traveling, and just other fans that aren't NC State fans still cheering for us. I think when we're at these neutral sites and you have a fanbase there for you and getting excited, it helps when you go on a run. It helps you keep it going, and then when things aren't going well, it helps you get you back in the game.
Oakland was pretty clear last night that they don't want to be considered a Cinderella team, that they believe that they can beat anybody. Do you guys feel like you're a Cinderella team and is tomorrow night's game almost a battle of would-be Cinderella teams that could make a run in this tournament?
MICHAEL O'CONNELL: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of like what people have been asking us, too, is how we feel about being the underdog or lower seed in the games, but we don't really focus on that because at the end of the day, we just focus on what we can control and whoever the opponent is we're going to scout for them. I don't necessarily know if we want to be labeled as a Cinderella team. I think we just want to be labeled as a great team that goes out there and competes and gives it their all. At the end of the day, everyone in this tournament is great the seeds can go back and forth. So we don't really focus on the number of the seed or anything like that. We just focus on whoever we're playing and then just controlling what we can control.
What would you say the song that best describes D.J. Burns is?
BEN MIDDLEBROOKS: Y'all got nothing? I don't even know. Mo, you got this one.
MOHAMED DIARRA: I don't know. I would say King of the Galaxy, I think. That's a good one. He loves that song.
Of all the challenges that this team's faced in the last six games, what are you the most proud of as far as being able to overcome those challenges?
MICHAEL O'CONNELL: I think the biggest thing is just sticking together. Obviously the season hasn't been perfect by any means. We didn't win every game and blow out every team. We've had some ups and downs. And I think at times we really could have easily just given in, caved in to what was going wrong and embraced that lifestyle, but I think it's huge for us that we all banded together and no matter what we were going through, we always stuck together and had each other's backs. I think it's been showing on the court at least through the ACC tournament, even when the odds were stacked against us, it didn't really matter. We didn't really care. We were going to go in and just fight with your brother. That was kind of the biggest thing. You want to have their back in the same ways you want them to have yours. So I think that's been huge for us going through that stretch, and even coming into this now when you're playing new teams you haven't played before is just rely on what you guys have been doing all year and making sure you have each other's backs. That's it.
The Pack had some up-and-downs offensively, but you take a look at the last six games all of a sudden NC State is averaging 81 points. So if each of you will just give your take on what's happened?
BEN MIDDLEBROOKS: I would say it absolutely did have a season full of ups and downs, full of a lot of adversity it feels like throughout the season, again, I feel like this is something a lot of people don't really take into consideration, but we were -- when we started out this season, we had half of our team won, half of our team was new guys. We'd never played or been on the court with each other before. That takes a long time to figure out. Obviously, we came out pretty hot but we still had to deal with those issues and things like that and I feel like a big part of the ACC tournament was us coming together and figuring those things out fixing mistakes and issues we had had. And really just kind of like Mike said come together. When we play like that and we're playing together and everything is clicking we're a tough team to play with.
The mental and physical toughness that you guys have displayed over the last six games has been pretty incredible. What's that -- what's brought that sort of to a peak?
MICHAEL O'CONNELL: I think just we know this is it, really. At the end of the day when you lose you go home. So you're kind of just, at the end of the day you're going to go out there and give it your all. Even if things are tough, you're banged up or body's not feeling great or you missed the last shot or anything like that, you're not going to focus too much on it because if you get caught up with what's going wrong the next thing you know it can be over. So I think just trying to focus on what we have at hand and the opportunity we have in front of us, that helps you look past everything that's going wrong and all the tough times.
All the guys that are playing are transfers. Do you think that this season and particularly the back end when you guys are starting to succeed is sort of a testament to saying, okay, you need to be patient with this, sometimes it's not going to click in the beginning. You got a lot of new guys from different systems coming to a new place and this thing needs time sometimes. Do you think this is a testament to that?
MOHAMED DIARRA: Yeah. Like he say, we have a lot of transfers, and everybody comes from different schools. We build a chemistry all year, so yeah it take a little bit of time. But that's why right now we play so good, because we know each other and we got each other's backs.