Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay met with the media after the 85-45 loss to NC State.
Opening statement...
It says, whatever Will and his staff have said to their group, they came out with an urgency and a defensive purpose that was significant. And they dictated the play for 40 minutes. So very complimentary of that group. They played connected and you gotta solve some problems when you're playing NC State. The biggest one is you gotta pick the way you're gonna defend them.
Because they have so many different-
*Fire Alarm Goes Off*
May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? There has been fire emergency reported in the building. Please evacuate the by the nearest-
Coach McKay: Wish that would have happened about an hour or so ago. I mean, when they shoot the ball like that, and Williams and Copeland are such a matchup problem, especially for us. Because we started, we play a little bit smaller, but I don't have anything to say other than be incredibly complimentary of their play. Questions?
Coach, you guys came in as one of the best three-point shooting team in the country. What was NC State able to do defensively to kind of keep you guys off the road?
We have nights like this. You can't shoot 43%, I think that's what we're shooting every night. So this is part of our process, but they have great length. And they are forcing us down the sideline, down the baseline, and we kept going down there, and that's on me.
I gotta make sure we do a better job of that. We kind of knew what they were gonna do, they were just great at it. Very active hands, I mean, we had 17 turnovers. That might be double what we've had all season long. I think we averaged eight or nine, so yeah, they were the biggest problem.
So what does it mean, being able to play a team like this that's highly ranked and powerful, it's pretty close to have-
Yeah, it was a great idea before the game. But again, I appreciate Will because he's unafraid, and he's a great guy, and he's a great guy to play anyone. We've had trouble getting Power Five teams to play us. And they've got a scheduling philosophy where they try and play teams that they think might have a chance to compete for a conference championship.
And we're gonna be a team like that. We still have some things that we gotta get better in, but grateful that we had the opportunity, and this will help us. They played harder than us for the first 20 minutes, and they out-executed us. If we're gonna be who we wanna become, then we gotta have that same disposition.
When your team is down 30, 40 points, what are you telling those guys as the game progresses and things have gotten away?
Whatever I told them didn't help. Any suggestions? No, I mean, again, this doesn't happen to us much. It happened last year in the NCAA tournament with Oregon. But our guys, we have an unbelievable group of young men.
Their character is high. They won't give up. It was not our night. NC State had a lot to do with that. We never got in a rhythm. And I think we let sometimes our feelings override our commitment. And you can see that in multiple possessions.
Coach, Josh Smith, close to ten minutes tonight. It seems like he's gonna be pretty important for you as far as getting an extra important body out of him coming off the bench. And I think he started there in the second half. What did you see from him tonight? And what do you wanna continue to see from him as he kinda works his way back into a full load? I know he's been coming up all night-
Yeah. Bryce, thanks for coming, by the way. Yeah, he never got in a rhythm. He got in foul trouble early. And the way they were matching up, if we didn't capitalize on the switches and we weren't doing that, we were allowing their guards out, physicalists down there.
And that can't happen. But I think between Josh and RJ, one of the two or both, they'll keep getting better. And Zander Yates will, too. He's a little bothered by a hand injury. But yeah, I like Josh. I love him. I think he's gonna really help us.
Quadir Copeland, a unique player, 6'6", but finished with seven assists tonight and 11 points. Just what makes him such a difficult player to guard and limit offensively?
Yeah, he's their engine. And Will knows it. Put the ball in his hand, he can create for himself or a teammate. He's unselfish, he knows how to play, he sees the game. I can give you, he's unbelievably good defensively, great hands, and he's tough physical.
He's the kind of dude that, you get mad at him when you're coaching against him, but you want him on your team. And we played him last year, and I'd say the same thing about him. He's improved his outside shot, and he's got a lot more weapons around him.
Coach, you said this game will help you long term. What are some of the things you think that this, once you put it on the tape and go over, how will this help you long term?
Just the urgency and the physicality that they played with. If we wanna be a player in this thing, we gotta emulate that. I'm not concerned with a game in early December that the scoreboard gets away from us like it did. I know that will sound a little bit like coach speak, but it happens more and more in college basketball now.
I mean if, not to indict any of those, but if Gonzaga can lose by 40, or Kentucky can lose by 40, or Purdue can get beat at home, this can happen. So I just think we'll- we know that we got to value each possession in its given instance and not look at the scoreboard and think oh man we're down 20 we got there's no 20 point plays so I think we'll learn from.
