NC Central head coach LeVelle Moton met with the media after NC State defeated his team 114-66 in the Lenovo Center.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
Opening Statement…
I don't know if they missed the three that I remember, right? So, for this to be a sellout and those guys got behind him, was one thing, but it's the NIL era, too, man, and I just thought they were bigger, faster, and stronger, right? The physicality, like, them throwing them aside the way and getting rebounds, right, we got to go back and get in the weight room, ten times a day just to be able to have a chance to compete.
Those big kids, and they're strong, and they're starting lineups, and they start at 6'6", and their wing is the same size as my postman. So what you're seeing in this NIL roster, I think a $12 million basketball team versus a $0 basketball team. So we'll keep fighting, and we'll learn from this, and we'll continue, so questions?
Coach, you mentioned the fact that you're playing inside of a sold-out arena. I mean, obviously you're going to play in some bigger games as well, but what does it mean for your team to be able to play in an environment like this and we get that opportunity?
I thought it was a great experience for them. I think this was the first time it's been sold out in 2009 or something. I don't know. 1999, so it's been a while. The reason for that, I'm assuming, is because Will is coming. He's bringing a lot of energy to the program, and that program was pretty much jump-started by Kevin with his final four run in the ACC tournament in the previous year. So, look, I grew up three blocks away, five blocks away, so I know the energy that surrounds this program.
I know the craziness. I know the madness. I was a kid when Jimmy V was here with Dereck Whittenburg and all those guys, and so I know the fan appreciation. And so my only worry was, like, damn, I saw maybe a month ago where it said it was sold out, and I was like, wow, why did it got to be sold out like that, right? Because I just know after a couple of buckets how this place can get loud. It felt like when I was a kid in Reynolds, and that meter was going high. So there were times I couldn't even hear my team, and they probably couldn't hear me.
But overall, it don't get easier for us. I think we go to Virginia, so there's no time for us to hold our heads and lick our wounds and call our moms and complain. Like, we just got to go back and get better.
Coach, when you are playing games like this, and you mentioned Virginia as well, I know at the end of the year your goal is to win the MEAC, go to the tournament again. How do you take, I guess, the different what you learn from this game with your team to try to get them ready for teams like this at the end of the year to try to make a run in the tournament?
Yeah, I've had to adjust in my coaching in that, you know, last time we came in here we won a basketball game, and we were old. We were underdogs or whatever, but we led from start to finish. And I felt good about our chances coming in. I had a veteran team, guys who had been through the fire. In this era, man, I got two guys who returned from last year.
I got 11 or 12 new guys out there that I really don't know. They really don't know me, and I don't know what to expect. I was talking to Will earlier, maybe over a month ago, probably a month ago, we had this Breakfast of Champions dinner. No, a breakfast at the Boys Club, and I actually introduced him, and how ironic is that? And he's giving me all the gamesmanship in the books. Will, hey, man, I don't think we're that good. And I said, stop, you got a $12 million roster. Give me $12 million. Let's trade. Right, so stop that. This is me.
But I think one of the things that's most underrated in our era is not only the quality of player that you get to, I don't want to say buy, that's such a strong word, but give money to, right? It's not just the money that you can give to the player. It's the fact that you get to buy the winners, right? That DNA in that locker room in there, right? You have Paul, who was a continuation from Kev here, who did an outstanding job.
Then you have someone from Houston who's been to a Final Four. You have Tre at Michigan State who's bringing some Izzo DNA in here, right? You got some Kevin Sampson DNA. You got some Texas Tech DNA. All of those kids have won games in the tournament, so they know how to win, so he don't have to coach the why are we doing this and so on and so forth.
When you have guys that's lost, losers don't know why they lose, right? Winners know why they win, but losers don't know why they lose. And so it's a struggle for me right now because no one in my locker room has ever won anything, right? And so you're trying to teach them how to win, but they're still like, okay, why did we wake up at 6 a.m.? Why did we do this? It's too many whys, right?
And so I just basically told them, when your talent meets other talent that's superior to you, what habits do you have to fall back on? So I didn't kill them because my standard is you're supposed to come in here and win these games. That's never changed for me at North Carolina Central, but I got to adjust that now because I do know I'm dealing with a different type of kid.
We'll go along the same lines. How long does it take sometimes with a new collection of players to get that culture that you're talking about?
Yes, it's really tough, and I don't even know if the word culture can be used anymore because culture is just, you know, used to be habits and traditions and people that you knew and understand what you were trying to do. These kids just don't know, and, I think Will got his team up here for the first semester of summer school, so they've been at it for quite a while. When you don't have money in the NIL era, you don't get to select a team until probably mid-July because there's so many kids still in the portal hoping that they get selected so they can get some payment. So it's almost like you get the leftovers and they come to you.
So now you try to get them in summer school and get transcripts, and everybody can't get there. So it's just a bunch of, it's just so different. I'm not complaining. I'm just giving you the reality of our world, right, because you guys covering over here, like, you would never be able to step in our world and understand that. So it's always pivoting and adjusting that we have to do, but such is life. And we're here now, so when they throw that ball up, no one cares, and no one cares about the complaints. So we just got to go out and continue to make ourselves better.
Coach Moton, losing guys like Po’Boigh King, Keishon Porter, and Perry Smith last year were very pivotal for you. How do you look to revamp this upcoming season with pretty much a brand-new roster outside of, like, a couple of players?
Yeah, I kind of touched on it. It's just being able to retain. Somebody out here has to know what you're doing, like, somebody, right? And so it's just almost like just having new people around you every year when you're working so hard to teach everyone everything, right? It used to be a time where we had at least seven returning, and then five new guys, and those seven guys could carry the coach and teach those new guys and let them know, look, this is how he is, this is what he wants, this is what you expect, et cetera, et cetera.
So, we lost those guys to other schools, so we've become a glorified JUCO from other teams, right? They come and see how good a kid plays, and now they just go offer with six figures, and we can't compete. So when they come in my office, I just tell them, hey, you got to go get that money because I don't have six figures. I don't have $100,000 to give you. So those guys that you mentioned, they went to mid-majors, and they sacrificed being starters on this team to go be reserves at the mid-major level for six figures, and who am I to tell them not to go take money?
You've done this a long time, sir. Just your thoughts on NC State. I know, God bless, this is one game, but your thoughts on this team. Is this a team that can go really far?
Yes, I think they have the DNA, and again, like, I don't mean to be throwing the money thing around like it's just, you know, something bad. It's Will's done a good job, right? Just because you have the money, he's an analytic guy, so he's done a good job of taking winning DNA and implementing that into his program. Again, when you do that, you don't have to coach the intangibles because you know when those guys go out there, they all want a taste of winning, and they all want to get back to where they got to last year. I think Michigan State fell short of the elite eight.
So, regardless of what Will says to Tre, Tre, in his mind, is saying, I have to get to the Final Four. The Arceneaux kid who lost in the championship game, he's saying, I have to go win the championship. The Texas Tech kid and all those guys, they're just saying, like, I got to get back to this Final Four, so Will doesn't have to motivate them in that regard, and I think he's done a tremendous job.
I think they'll be at the top half of the ACC, right? They go at you in waves, and they press, and I just cut the tape off last night. I just got tired of watching it. It was like a re-run of a soap opera, a bad soap opera, so I was like, well, let's just go do what we need to do because they just come at you in ways, and we were so concerned about Copeland, but Paul killed us, and then Able comes in. I don't think he missed a shot, so I was like, damn, if they shoot this basketball like this, it's going to be some long nights for a lot of teams, not only North Carolina Central.
Coach, why do you coach?
That's a great question, man. I coach because it's what God called me to do, right? It's my purpose. I just honestly believe that God put me on this earth to give kids an opportunity like myself to develop them, to mold them into better fathers, leaders, husbands, and I've been extremely blessed because I get to use the game of basketball to teach the life lessons, so I don't think I'm a basketball coach.
I think I'm more of a life coach, to be honest with you, because one day for my team, the ball is going to stop bouncing, right. The NIL don't matter anymore, and they can't swipe their ID and go to the cafeteria for free anymore, so I have to prepare young men to go out here and be incredible citizens in this world that we call life, and you guys have already been out here, so you know how difficult it is, and so I'm just trying to prepare them through the game of basketball. Basketball is a perfect microcosm for us, so when their eligibility is up, 10 years from now, I want them to invite me to their weddings.
I want them to tell me about a girlfriend that they're now thinking about marrying and what they need to do as a husband, as a leader, as a head of household, and that's why I do it. It ain't to win so many basketball games, although I am the most competitive person ever, so don't get that twisted, so I do love championships, and I do want to do that, but at the end of the day, I see the bigger picture, and basketball is what I do. It's not really who I am.
