NC State head coach Wes Moore met with the media to discuss the 71-60 win over California.
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Opening statement...
Yeah, I'm proud of the way our kids hung in there. It's a tough day, obviously, without Tilda who's out ill. We knew it was going to be a challenge. Walker for Cal had come off a game where she scored 19 and obviously her 6’5” presence was a concern. But I thought a lot of people stepped up when we had to have it. And, a little disappointed in the rebounding, which, again, I'm sure we missed Tilda because of that. That was an area we normally are pretty good at. We didn't get it done today.
But defensively, to hold them to 24 points in the second half was, I thought, a good effort. And also 18 assists, six turnovers, something I'd love to see consistently. So a lot of good things there. But, yeah, it's been tough. We came back, practiced four days, played a game, practiced two more days, played a game. So it's good to survive it and not be able to catch our breath a little maybe.
Wes, you guys obviously without Tilda. You put Maddie Cox in now. You can work them both inside-outside. Does that give you a flexibility in terms of your four-out-one-in?
It probably does give us some flexibility. But I just do not have that flexibility. I'd rather have Tilda. But even Tilda gives us that flexibility because she can step out and shoot it and do some things there as well. So, again, Maddie Cox, I'm proud of her. She didn't have a great day today, but she's been playing really well for us. And I know she's been under the weather as well.
So I think we've got to do a better job with maybe getting them to buy in on flu shots next year because we've had a lot of people that are sick and we've got to try to do a better job staying healthy.
I know it broke really early, but any update on Zam?
Zam, I saw the same thing you all saw. I went out there and talked to her a minute. And then I did see her downstairs. And, of course, for caution, they had her in a wheelchair. You would assume it's a bad sprain. She was in a lot of pain, though. And, I've always heard a sprain hurts more than a break does. I've had a few of them, and I know they're no fun. So I hate that for her. But I told her when I was out there, hey, I'd rather see you with an ankle than a knee. So, but, I'm sure it's going to be tough because, it looked like it hurt pretty bad. But we'll see. We'll know more later. But, yeah, tough blow. Our trainer's been out a little bit and saw him on the fire, our new trainer, that's been filling in because she let Tilda get sick and she let Sam turn her ankle.So we got to do better than that.
You were able to turn them over 20 times. What were your thoughts on the defensive performance?
Yeah, like I said, first half we gave up 36, I believe, something like that, 34, 36. It was 36 first half, so I wasn't real happy with that. Second half gave up 24 points, so much better. And I think off those 20 turnovers, we scored 23 points. So, that's the difference in the ballgame, to be honest with you. We're not a pressing team. We don't really get in the passing lanes a ton. So for us to get that many turnovers is a good sign that maybe we're at least on edge, ready to make plays, getting deflections, things like that, which is something we've been kind of trying to stress a little bit. And obviously it was a big part of today.
You had mentioned that you told her to kind of play like she was under like 10 nerves.
Yeah, again, we got high expectations for Q. Probably should have got her out some today, to be honest with you. I did think she was doing a pretty good job defensively.And, you know, again, she's a better three-point shooter than we're seeing. So hopefully that comes around.
But just her help on the boards today with Tilda out and her ability to guard people with some size on the perimeter, because with Zoe and Z, we're a little bit smaller, so it's good to have that third guard that can match up. So, yeah, I mean, again, hopefully continue to trend. And now we're going to need all the guards probably with Zam's ankle. We're going to have to be prepared to go a little bit deeper.
Q said that she feels more comfortable now that shes knows her role and the same thing with Khamil being a transfer. Do you feel like this team feels more comrotable in their personalities and roles?
I probably overdid the schedule, from a competitive standpoint not only that, but with logistics as well, we were on the road a lot. We played an exhibition game away, we opened up with two neutral site games, we went to Oklahoma, and Davidson, a really good team. So we were just really tired, and didn’t have a game or two where you could really get more comfortable.
So, that's probably on me, but I do think the trip to Miami was good for us. We finished up classes. We actually went down a day early and it was warm and there was a shopping mall very close and everybody got happy. So, I thought that was a good trip and then to get a break, six days off was definitely much needed. So I do think we're coming together a little bit better. We have new players. We have returning players in new roles. So I do think maybe they're getting a little more comfortable playing together now.
4-0 in the ACC, have you spoken about the league yet? How big is that to be still above the herd, 4-0?
Yeah, like I said, I'm still kicking myself over a couple of our losses to ranked teams, where we lost on a possession or two and as a coach maybe you've done something a little different. You win those games, but I think at the same time, if you flip that, if we had won a couple of those games, you could argue we'd be ranked probably maybe top ten even, but we didn't do it.
And so now, that's okay, I don't mind lying in the weeds a little bit and just being overlooked and you know, hopefully we keep taking care of business. You got to show up every night. We've already seen some upsets in this league and you got to show up every day. And I'm proud of, like I said, I'm proud of our kids today to bounce back short-handed and that's what you have to do to find a way to win.
Kind of spoke to us a little bit, but is this going to have to be an all-hands-on-deck situation with the way the fluidity of the roster, the injuries, flus and things? Is this going to be, like I said, a kid may play five minutes one game and say, look, you got to be ready for the next one. How are you managing that?
Yeah, that's a great point. I don't know how I'm managing it, but again, yeah, that's a great point. I mean, you're right. One day you don't play a ton and the next day you're going to have to step up and be a key part of what we're doing and you try to tell people you got to be ready, you got to be ready. Your time's coming, but it's still hard to do sometimes.
I thought Mallory did some good things today when she was needed and obviously Maddie Cox had to play a bunch, Khamil had to play a bunch, and obviously Q played a bunch as well. So yeah, I agree, it's a good analogy, all hands on deck.
