NC State guards Quadir Copeland, Paul McNeil, and Tre Holloman spoke with the media after the 94-70 win over UAB.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
Hey guys, kind of a slow start there in the first half, only a point lead, didn't have three there for a while in the first half either, kind of what was the message from coach at halftime to kind of things up for you guys?
Just keep being dominant. We're a really good three-point shooting team. And I think coach was just trying to get into our heads that we were, I think, 12 or 15 at the basket. At halftime, he was like, We can get to the basket, we have people that can get to the room. And that was opening up shots like we did in the second half. So I felt like we, it was just how I played the game, we were usually playing, you see last game, we hit 23. And so it was just that, when a shot's not falling, we had guys drop to the basket, such as you see P2 got a couple layups, Tre got a couple layups, easy ones, D5 made it easier, get his little post moves.
So he was just trying to just say, attack the paint to open up those shots, to get better three. I feel like the shots we were shooting weren't the best three-point attempts. So get into the paint to get better shots. Same thing with QC, man. He was just telling us to really trust our shot. If shots go far, we ain't worried about shots falling, we got to defend. So our biggest goal was just to get out there and defend. Our offense is going to create itself.
You guys do such a good job moving the ball around, staying within the flow of the offense. And it's a new group, and it's early. What do you attribute that kind of cohesion to, being so good together early on?
Man, just summer, man, reps, we do vitamins every morning. I mean, like, Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, we just try to keep our offense sharp, flowing, and everybody touches the ball. I feel like also just a trust factor, too. We know we're a team and we know we're brothers.
And everybody on the team wants everyone to shine, like, from on down. I want P2 to shine, Tre wants me to shine, and we both want the same thing for him. So it's just when you got that on a team and you don't have no selfish or no envy on your team, I feel like that's always the best.
I feel like we have such a great team that anyone on our team can have a good night. Matt, P2, Tre, me, D5, Ven, Musa, such as today, Jerry. So you got so many different pieces. Anybody can have a good game, and we know that.
We spent so much time in the summer, so it was just like, why not trust each other? Why not just, keep letting them fall? Even when P2's shot wasn't falling, we told them, we know what we got you here for. Don't even think to do something different. Keep playing your game, keep being you. It's going to fall.
And even if they don't fall, keep shooting them. So just instilling that confidence in our teammates, in each other, and just knowing when you look behind your shoulder, we've got somebody that got our back. It makes everything easy. It makes the flow easier. It makes the trust factor part easy.
For all three of you, what has it been like seeing Musa kind of grow in the last month and a half that he's been here? And what's it like seeing him today? Ten rebounds, nine in the first half.
Man, Musa is, I don't know, man. His, like, motor is just high. And then he's just grateful. Grateful to be here, man. Grateful to be, what's it called, a part of our team. He does all of the little things right. So, you know, man, we just trust him. And then we love him, man. So, man, just seeing Musa grow is, like, amazing, man. He always got a smile on his face every day, man. So we are happy for him. We came up with the door, and Musa came a long way, man. So we're just really proud of him. We're very happy for him, 100%. So we talked about this last game.
Q, you don't have to answer this, but for Paul and Tre, Coach Wade has a lot of fire. He picked up his second tech in as many games. But what does, like, his passion do for y'all, especially when you're kind of, getting out to a slow start?
Man, Coach just, like, wants to win, dominate, actually. So, when, like, he is fired up, we just get, like, fired up in, the second half. We just came out and then turned up. Same thing with what he said, man. Just, we know he want to win, man. He is really passionate about the game. So that helps us get our energy going. But, we all in the fire together. So, either he'll hurt you or we fall out the hill. We do what he says and we get the job done.
So, you guys, with any defensive system, there's tradeoffs. In terms of pressing all game, how do you guys determine if the press is successful and that you've met your goals at the end of the game?
That's definitely, I feel like, I don't really want to give up the sauce because we got to play another team next week. But I feel like it's just finding ways to waste some time. And everything's got to be a steal. That's our mindset. We don't got to get a stop or a steal on it. Sometimes it buys us time to get a breather. And they're not just racing it off the court. So just little stuff like that. And Coach has been running this offense. If you, like, know Coach and the history of Coach, every school he went to.
So we knew what we were signing up for 100%. And like I said, he has all the numbers and all the stats for it. It shows why it works. So when you got a leader like that and that comes with all the information and is not just putting you in something and just telling you, just trust this, I'm going to get this, like, this is going to work. And he shows you every reason to work. It's why not trust him. So just having that leader and just following him, it's easy.
