PC: Freeman, Yurtseven, And Dorn Meet The Media
NC State's Al Freeman, Torin Dorn, and Omer Yurtseven met with the media today to discuss the NCAA Tournament game against Seton Hall.
You've been to the NCAA Tournament before with Baylor. Is there any experience that you can take from that to sort of clue in some of the guys on your current team that haven't been in this position before?
ALLERIK FREEMAN: Yeah. If you don't want your season to be over, compete as hard as you can and win.
For Omer, what do you know about Angel Delgado and Seton Hall's big men?
OMER YURTSEVEN: I know that they've been playing good. I know that he's the leading rebounder in the Big East, and I'm just going to go out there and basically try to win. There's nothing special that I'll focus on. I know he's a strong dude. But that's it, just try to be physical with him.
Torin, you guys have seen a great transition with your first-year head coach getting into the NCAA Tournament. How were the adjustments?
TORIN DORN: Anytime you have a new staff come in, it takes a little time for you to buy in to their system. But once everybody bought in and we were able to take a trip to Italy and coming together as a team, it's been smooth sailing since then.
ALLERIK FREEMAN: Yeah, a lot of similar things to what T.D. just said. We got together in the summer and were just able to come together every single day in practice, grow closer, learn each other's tendencies, get on the same page, buy into the system and really believe in our coaching staff. Our coaching staff really believes in us.
So no, it's been great. I think we've really done a lot of great things, and just looking to continue it.
OMER YURTSEVEN: I wasn't here. I wasn't with them in Italy during the summer and all, but when I came in, they welcomed me like a family, and we've been just trying to build -- like we built a pretty good chemistry since then, and I feel like we've become a really good team, mentally and physically. We're ready. I feel like it's going to be a great game tomorrow.
What kind of hurdles does Seton Hall pose?
TORIN DORN: Yeah, Seton Hall is a pretty big team, physical. Their Big East style of play is to beat you up and bruise you. It's the contrasting styles. You know, we're a fast team. We like to pressure you and get after it. So that's probably the biggest challenge for us, just matching their physicality.
ALLERIK FREEMAN: Like T.D. said, very physical team, but our goal is just to do us and try to play our style and try to implement our style in the game as much as we can. We can control the tempo and be the best version of ourselves, that just gives us all the confidence.
OMER YURTSEVEN: Yeah, they said pretty much everything. Just our style is just running up and down, and their style is just playing physical and trying to be tough and like beat you up through the whole game.
And that's what they'll focus on and we'll focus on our game on our side of the job. And it's going to be a battle, but I think our style is going to wear them down towards the end and we're going to win the game.