LOCKER ROOM REPORT: F Musa Sagnia, G Quadir Copeland, F Ven-Allen Lubin

NC State F Musa Sagnia, G Quadir Copeland, and F Ven-Allen Lubin met with the media to discuss their 70-57 win over Wake Forest in their ACC opener. 

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Wade’s statement. Video from the full press conference will be available soon.

For all of you guys, first game in ACC play. What was the atmosphere like out there? And how much relief was it to get that first win?

COPELAND: I feel like me and Ven, we've already played in the ACC. So this is your turn, champ. Musa, how was your first game in the ACC conference play? How was it?

SAGNIA: It was good. The crowd was electric, like as always, and the team. We didn't get up to a great start, but later on, we came together and made shots. 

COPELAND: And for me, I'm just happy to be back in the ACC and just comfortable with my guys, having the pack behind me. On my side, just helping me through the whole way, and I'm helping them through the way. So being here in the ACC with this team is just, I feel so comfortable.

I was comfortable out there today, even with the mistakes they picked me up every play. I put my head down, and that's just what I know I need. I know my brothers, so I enjoyed this first win.

LUBIN: Yeah, I'd say it was great. Obviously, playing ACC last year, but with a different jersey, it's just something that I've always been experienced to and know what's to come. 

So we're just trying to get my guys prepared and to be able to know the type of energy, the type of intensity that the game's gonna take, and just continue to stick together, stay focused, stay locked in, and finish through. Because it's gonna be a long season, conference play's not gonna be easy, but I know what we're capable of doing and what things I wanna achieve.

Musa what have the first few months of your time in Raleigh, NC been like for you? 

SAGNIA: It was good, it's been great. Since I got here, everybody's been really nice, our teammates, the coach, the staff, everybody. It's been great, just since I got here, they've been trying to help me all the way through, even some bad days, they'll pick me up and help, so it's been great, very happy. 

For Ven and Q, what's it like for you to see him grow? One of his most complete games, I think, of the year so far.

COPELAND: It's amazing, just being able to see everybody get comfortable and have their games, and you just watching the comfortability just come every game. Like I said, Musa, he learned so much over the summer, but he already came as a prospect, as a great, we knew what Musa can do. 

And Musa was just trying to find his way, find other ways he could help us. And I think today showed, even last game with Ole Miss, we showed how his intensity, his aggressiveness, his offensive rebounding, him and Ven, them two together, they make it work every single time. 

So just seeing him and his motor pick up, and we just feeding off of each other now, feeding off of Musa's energy, he hyping me up when I'm down. It's just amazing seeing him get comfortable and just accept everything. So it's a great feeling.

Musa, you had some bets with your team last year, like Derrick Alston. How much did you kinda learn from them?

SAGNIA: I learned a lot from them, even before coming here. They gave me a lot of advice, how is it down here, and it's great. It's great, yeah.

Quadir, it's been a couple of games since, you guys probably saw the press conference, where Wade had, saying kindergarten's over, and that the team wasn't tough. Two good wins in a row since then. Was that, how did that kind of resonate with you guys, did it make an impact?

COPELAND: Yes, and I think we also knew that we had to pick it up. We was having our own team meetings and things like that, to pick it up ourselves, we knew what we had to do. 

But coach always finds a way to put a battery in our back, so 1,000% that definitely motivated us more. But even when I said last week, we kind of listened to messages more than the delivery. None of our teammates felt like he said anything wrong. 

Now, we might not like how he said it, but he didn't say anything wrong. We needed to pick it up, we needed urgency, and look what it did. We won both our major games back to back by double digits. You can't complain about that.

We're getting comfortable, we're getting used to each other, and we're just playing much harder. We're playing like we all got a battery in our back. We're playing like everybody's against us, and I think we all love to play like that.

And just sticking together through the tough times, doing no matter what people say, and we got each other. We know that's our main thing. Every time we break it down, we always say us. We know we got each other, we know no matter what, I can lay it on him, he can lay it on me, I can lay it on Ven, he can lay it on me, so.

How big of an opportunity is it now, looking at Saturday, having a ranked UVA team coming in?

COPELAND: Real big opportunity for us, get back on the page that we was, and just enjoying the moment, of course, but being ready to move on and understand that we understand that we got back to back games, back to back. It ain't no rest period, so we gonna recovery up and get ready to go get that win.

Musa, you smile a lot when you're on the court. Even when Coach Wade is yelling at you, where does that positivity come from?

SAGNIA: Just being myself, I don't know, to be honest, no, but play hard and just have fun with it.

Question for Ven, it seemed like maybe a little bit of a slow start, holiday break, understandable, but what was it that allowed you guys to kind of lock in?

LUBIN: Yeah, we know we had a slow start, we're just knocking the rust off ourselves, just knowing that Wake Forest is gonna come out with fire, and they did, and they had to jump on us, and so we just came back in the locker room ahead of time, and just knowing that we gotta pick it up, we gotta bring the fire back and fight with more force, play harder than them, and just be confident, and just know that the work that we put in is trusted, have faith in ourselves, have faith in the guys next to us, and just trust what Coach is saying, and go out there and play hard, and that's what we did.