Coach Rice spoke with the media after the loss to NC State.
Opening statement...
LEON RICE: I was proud of the way we battled. The team we played, NC State, they've got a lot of talent. They're a well-coached team. They showed up to play, and we showed up to play, and it was a good battle, a lot of punches, counter punches, punches, counter punches, and they came out really aggressive defensively, and then we responded and kind of got our thing going.
Then they counter punched then and then we started the half great and took the lead, and they just had that one little run in the middle of the second half that got just enough space that we couldn't come back.
RJ, you hit those back to back threes, got the lead there. How were you feeling at that point and what was the difference there? I think you had a five-minute stretch without a field goal.
RJ KEENE: Yeah, it felt good, but B.J. is hoops, man, and this tournament is won on toughness and during that stretch kind of out toughed us a little bit. But we played hard and we fought and five minutes didn't make the whole 40 minute game.
We had a lot of chances tonight with free throws and a lot of stuff that we're going to look at and better.
What were they doing defensively. I mean, only five turnovers in the second half but 15 for the game that led to 24 points for them and some of those were transition, just momentum plays. What did you see on some of the turnovers?
RJ KEENE: Not much, man. It was just easy fixable stuff that we're going to get better and look at the film and we're going to move on and get better tomorrow for sure because we have a chance to bounce back and get a W in the column on our way home.
Dylan, you had your shot working from the outside today. You guys couldn't get in the paint as much as yesterday. What did you see? I think only 14 points in the paint tonight and you shot more threes than twos?
DYLAN ANDREWS: I mean, 100 percent. The 3 ball was falling so we just going to it, but we seen that NC State were in the gaps heavy and they were switching everything, so we just -- that was the read.
I know you played a lot of big time basketball Dylan and these two games you've had to play in the first two days, I know you're 0-2 and not where you want to be, but what can you say about the level of competition you've played and the battles and what you guys can still take from these two games?
DYLAN ANDREWS: Yeah, we're 0-2. When you really look at it, we lost to a top-25 team and just went to a dogfight with them. So I'm really proud of the guys and proud of what we've got going on, so I just can't wait for the next one.
The 11 missed free throws, you lose by 11. I know that's got to be tough, too. Does that make it sting a little more, that it is things that were easily correctable or usually don't happen?
RJ KEENE: Yeah, a loss always stings. It hurts. But at the end of the day, we've got to bounce back and control what we can control. I believe in Coach and I believe in our guys, and we're together as a group and we have a great culture. I believe we're going to bounce back tomorrow and show everyone what we're made of.
DYLAN ANDREWS: 100 percent.
Coach, I'm sure 0-2 is not where you want to be but what will be your message to hopefully get in the winner's column tomorrow and what positives will you take from the last two losses?
LEON RICE: Well, this time of the year, everybody is trying to figure their team out. Everybody is trying to figure their identity out and establishing it. We're no different.
Good competition shows you some things you've got to get better at, shows you what you have to do to play at your best. And like B.J. said, sometimes it's as simple as when you're playing a really good team and it's going to be a tight game, we just tell our guys, free throws don't win all the games but they win all the close ones.
You left 11 points there, so to beat a really good team like that with great players, great coaches, all that stuff, you've got to capitalize when you have those because you don't get many free looks against their defense. They were really locked in today, NC State.
Like I said, they responded. Our guys responded. We had a quick turnaround. We played a little bit later, and I was really proud of the way we just kept competing, and we adjusted in the game.
That's the thing that good teams and good players have to do. They had to do it after we burned three time-outs in the first half because there was no -- you get one challenge and so you're trying to keep that one in your pocket that one time-out, but there was no stemming the tide when they had that little run a little bit. Your players have to solve it.
We gave them 16 points in the first half off turnovers, and we adjusted and did a little bit better job of that in the second half. Our guys were a little tougher.
But that's it. I want to -- our signature of our program is we're tough and we can deal with whatever is thrown at us. It's not always the things you want, but it's the things you need.
We will respond and we'll keep getting better. It's November; that's why we came here, for good competition, to get better and to keep improving, and the like the way these guys keep doing that.
When you look at between the paint points and also where they shot from the three, were there things they were doing offensively that were giving them looks, putting pressure that you want to kind of tweak in terms of rotations, things that you want to just improve a little bit defensively on some of those?
LEON RICE: Oh, no doubt, no doubt. But they're a hard guard. You've got to -- Darrion, we played against him when he was a freshman. He's one of the most efficient players in the country, and the guys around him, they're really good players. They can make shots.
It's a little bit -- when they're clicking, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. I mean, so that's why they're good, because you try to close off the lane for him, those guys made the threes.
I mean, when we were pressing a little bit, I think we were down eight or six maybe, I don't know, and you're pressing and they throw ahead to the corner and it's the shot you want them to take, but you need them to miss it.
They're good enough to make it. And then they made all their free throws down the stretch. That's what good teams do. They close out games like that.
I know what I saw was a good team we played against because it was a battle. We did some great things in stretches.
Your depth has to keep developing, and we're doing that. We got some young guys -- one time I looked out there and went, oh, we've got a lot of young guys out there. And against their physicality, there was just too many turnovers, too many careless things that turned into points. 16 points off turnovers is about half their points in the first half.
We would have been better off punting on third down, letting our defense go back, and then it eliminates a lot of their offense.
Only four shot attempts for Meadow. How do you get him going a little bit more and get him more aggressive in some of these games?
LEON RICE: Well, also, you've got to have a lot of weapons and you've got to have different guys do different things on different nights. That's the way this team is going to be. So if they choose to face guard Meadow, that can be fine.
He can get stuff going to the rim, that kind of stuff, too, but he's got to create some stuff off the feel and off the -- and our players will. But the problem was it wasn't about getting somebody a shot, it was about not turning it over. You can't decide, oh, we need to get this guy shots when you can't even dribble the ball.
When NC State lost yesterday you go into that game thinking whoever loses has to face a top-25 team in the second game. I know the competition is great but to have to play the two best teams in the field in the first two games and you had a lead in the second half in both games, you're not going to see two back-to-back games like that the rest of the season in terms of the competition you'll probably see.
LEON RICE: Well, we've got a pretty darned good league, pretty darned good schedule. But we're pretty good at focusing on whatever is right in front of us, and that's how we're getting better, in the response and the keep fighting to get better.
I've got guys that like to be coached, that want to be coached, that want to -- and you can see the difference in them when it starts to happen. You see the difference in peanut. You see the difference in Drew when he's really locked in and good and when he's not. All these guys.
So getting them to see what their best looks like and then live there, and when we get everybody doing that, we've got a chance to be a really good team.
I wanted to get your thoughts on the performance of Terrance Arceneaux today, a guy that came off the bench, has a lot of length but hasn't really played for NC State to this point. How difficult did that make for when you're scouting this team and when you're trying to go up against their defense for him to have the type of performance he did today?
LEON RICE: Yeah, that's where their depth and -- we know who he is. He's a heck of a player. He's had a really good college career, comes from a great program into there.
Yeah, the scouting report has to be as minimal as you can make it and get all the information, and about what was until the scouting report, that kid is just a good player, and they've got a lot of them. Good players go and make plays like that and make shots. They've got a lot of weapons, that team does.
