NC State standouts Darrion Williams, Paul McNeil, and Alyn Breed met with the media after their 110-64 win over UNC Greensboro.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.
Yeah, how do you guys feel about your performance, just overall, if you don't mind?
Paul McNeil: We felt great about it. We've had a slow start, if you ask me, but we were in the locker room. We fixed it, had a couple of techs earlier in the game. So we had to sort it out, calm it, get our guys settled.
Alyn Breed: Yeah, I think we did a good job towards the middle and towards the end. Just extend the lead and kind of just put it away. We got to come out better as a team. And we know that team, before a coach even gets honest about it, we were all talking about it. So I think we got to be better with that.
Darrion Williams: Yeah, I feel like they got a good point. We had a couple guys down today, so everybody had to step up. I feel like we did a good job doing that.
Alyn, first of all, for you, I mean, just being able to have that opportunity after what you've gone through in the last year, what did that mean to you to be able to step in? Obviously, it comes with Trey having to leave the game, but what did that mean to you?
It meant a lot, man. I've been with Wade for almost two years. He got a lot of faith in me and I got a lot of faith in him. So I knew my time would come. I knew I had to step up for my teammates today. So I just made sure I went out there and I played hard and did the best I could.
And for the two of you, what did it mean to have him out there on the court and doing what he was doing tonight?
Paul McNeil: It felt great, because we know what A.B. can do. Honestly, in practice, man, he's been looking great. You look for a lot with him. He can put a lot of minutes for us. So when he was out on the court doing his thing, it wasn't a surprise to us. Definitely not, because I know what he can do. He believed in himself and we believed in him. So it was good for him.
Darrion Williams: Yeah, I think just the time leading up to the season, he was in the training room every day just trying to get better. And the first few games, the minutes were the minutes, but he stayed ready. He never pouted or felt bad for himself. He stayed ready, and you've seen it tonight.
Darrion, you obviously get some big threes there. But also, Q was on the bench.There was a little bit of encouragement, but there also looked like maybe he was coaching you a little bit. What is your relationship with him like? And what does he bring to you specifically?
Darrion Williams: Q is one of a kind, I think. If you're around him enough, you'll understand that. His energy and just relentlessness throughout the game. Me and him just talked about trying to bring the energy.
I think the energy was slacking in the beginning, kind of what I said earlier. He just wanted to make sure he didn't start the second half, but when he was coming in, he was ready to go. He was trying to make sure we were ready from the bench.
For Paul and Darrion, career highs were forbidden tonight.Talk about what that means for you all.
Paul McNeil: It's a blessing, if you ask me, man. We put the work here for it, man.Work is always going to show. You can never hide your work ethic, you know what I'm saying? That was our biggest, like I said, going to the game. Whatever the team doesn't do, we're going to do. For me, man, I'm just thankful for God for giving me the opportunity to play out here at this level. It was amazing for me.
Darrion Williams: Yeah, I mean, it felt good for me personally, but I was more proud of Paul just because of the work I've seen him put in, the work, the growth he has since the beginning of summers when I first met him to now. I think when we were going to all the media stuff, everybody was saying, Paul McNeil, and everybody was like, why do you keep saying that? I think people are starting to understand it now, so I'm really proud of him.
For Paul and Darrion, how much of a common force is Alyn at point guard? It seems like he's a little bit different than the other forces that you've had.
Darrion Williams: I think he did a great job.He came in, like you said, controlled the game, got our rhythm together. It felt like we played together for a little while. Still got a few things we can fix, but I think him just being aggressive and him just being himself, that's all we ask of him. I think he came in and did a great job controlling the game.
Paul McNeil: Yeah, Alyn, like I said, he's a great player, man. He got a good pace to his game. I think it helped us get our shots also because he's a three-arm offense. He can't score the ball in a hot clip, but this game, we had a goal, so he was another type of point guard just passing the ball to us, getting us open shots, but definitely Alyn is definitely one of a kind.
Darrion, what was your perspective on, I don't know what you want to call it, but what happened early on in the game with Tre? What was your vantage point, and what happened? What did you guys sort of see?
Darrion Williams: I didn't really see what happened, to be honest.It kind of just happened. Yeah.
Paul McNeil: He's our brother, man, so if you feel like somebody's messing with one of his brothers, obviously he will say something to them.I don't think he deserted and jetted out of the game. I think that was a little too much, but the refs made the call and did everything. We're not worried about that too much, so we're just blessed to win the game.
Darrion, 10 boards for you. How important is draw rebounding with this group in particular, and how important, as far as the points of emphasis, has that been with your conversations with Will?
Darrion Williams: Yeah. The first couple games, I did a terrible job rebounding.I think I had like two or three defensive rebounds, and Coach got on me about that privately and in front of the team, so I just wanted to come out here and rebound. Get back to the old ways. Yeah.
Last year, I took a dip in it, but I want to get back to where I was as my freshman and sophomore year and rebounding.
This is for anybody. At NC State, there's been a lot of expectation. Do you feel like that's a responsibility? And then the second question, at times, like when you guys are up 20-30 late in the game, are you playing maybe not against the other teams unless you've got to play against the school board to keep up the standard?
Darrion Williams: Yeah. I mean, we're just playing to our standard regardless of the score, regardless of who's in. So Coach made an emphasis on that. Whether you're in late or just throughout the game, when you go in, you've got to be effective and play to our standard. There's no lack for it. If we don't play to our standard, we pay the price next time in practice.
Paul McNeil: To piggyback on what he said, just playing to our standards, doing what Coach wanted us to do, no matter what the score is, no matter what situation it is, do our job, keep the job done, keep the W.
Alyn Breed: Yeah, exactly what they said. Coach is on us hard no matter who we're playing against. We just have to play to our full expectations and get the job done and not let up off the gas.
Paul McNeil: God bless y'all.
