VCU head coach Phil Martelli, Jr. met with the media following the Rams' 85-79 loss versus No. 25 NC State Monday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Martelli’s press conference. An abbreviated transcript is provided below.
Opening Statement
First and foremost, I'm very appreciative of Will [Wade] and the people here at NC State being willing to play us. We make a lot of these phone calls, and the fact that they would do it as a home and home — we make a lot of these phone calls, and a lot of them don't get answered, or we get a flat no. These are important games for both teams. It’s two pretty good teams. That team, I just said on our radio: don't be surprised on Selection Sunday when you see 25, 26, 27, 28 wins next to their name. I would tell the fans here: “Keep your weekends open in March because you might be busy for a couple of them.” I'm proud of our fight. The disappointment for us is we didn't play well. We didn't play well, and we were right there. We just left too many plays on the board in a two-possession game.
On how much the Utah State played into the Rams’ fight…
They have a belief about them. Some of it is from the Utah State game, but some of it is just who they are in their own experiences. there was no flinch. Again, it was seven, it was this, it was that… It’s like, "Okay, we need one stop right here," and we would get it. “We need one good possession”; we would get it. We just didn't have enough of them to turn those tables where we could separate. We got a quick lead, and then it was gone. We need all these experiences, and I told them in the locker room, “Remember this date: November 17. Remember NC State because there's going to be a point somewhere down the line where I'm standing in front of a joyous locker room, and I say because we did that, because it was NC State, because it was November 17, that's why we won this game.” It's going to be a big win, so I'm very confident of that, but we have to continue to take the right steps forward.
On free-throw discrepancies and schematic differences…
No. To be honest with you, I'm more disappointed that we gave up two offensive rebounds on free throws, and that was a big emphasis that we couldn't do that to them, including a big one down the stretch. We've got to continue to step up. We shoot a ton of pressure free throws every day, so we got to step up and make our free throws. I need to do whatever Will did because he talked about the free-throw discrepancy the other night, and it flipped real quick tonight.
On building collective moments…
That's why we're doing this. Don't quote me exactly because I haven't studied it — I usually I look these things up — but is there another team in the country that, in their first our games, played two top-40 teams in non-buy games? Not one of these teams that's going around just collecting checks and getting their brains beat in, but a team that went, played a neutral game against Utah State who's going to be an NCAA tournament team and could win some games there, an NC State team on the road that can win many games in the NCAA Tournament… I don't think anybody else has done that. There's probably those teams that have just collected checks and played those types of teams, but to go be competitive and be three possessions away in those games, that's what this is for. Like I said, what sucks about both of those games is like we did it to ourselves. Not to take anything away from those teams — you see the respect I have for them — but we did it. We did it, including me, very much me. As a group, we did it to ourselves, and if we can just clean up those two or three possessions and flip that, then we're looking at different outcomes down the stretch.
