NC State guard Quadir Copeland met with Wolfpack Sports Network to discuss the 80-76 overtime win at No. 18 Clemson.
Congratulations, you have the ball in your hands late in that tight ballgame. How did it feel to come out with a W?
It felt great, my coach trusted me, my teammates trusted me. When they were supposed to draw it up, they were telling me to draw it for me. So I just appreciated all them guys for having my back in that moment and knowing I was ready for that moment. And I was just happy to get out with the win.
16 points but 6 assists and 1 turnover in this ballgame. How were you able to value having to control it so regularly against one of the top defenses in the ACC?
I felt like Coach Wade prepared me for that last year, giving me the ball last year. And just, finally trusting me with the point guard rule and just, going all the way with it. And, I worked on my game enough.
I got great teammates that trust me, know I'm trying to give them the ball, trust the spacing. And, they let me be free out there. So whenever you got freedom and you're comfortable, anything easy.
Defensively, you play a lot of different positions. You're in the post a lot in this ballgame. Clemson's pretty big. You're 6'6 for a point guard. You're bigger for a point guard. How flexible do you need to be mentally as well as physically to go guard a lot of different spots?
You got to be, it's not even, it's more just grit and tough, of course, your physicality. But you just got to be tough. Like, you got to take on that matchup, take on that opponent and not be scared to, want to get in there and get into the fight. They got four great big men that front, that's their scheme, throw it in the post and trust their big.
So, we knew that coming in. And Coach, like you said, it's going to be a fight. Like, we got to throw punches and they're going to throw punches back. But we got to make sure we throw more and land more. So, like I said, Coach, you know what kind of player I am. You know I got green. You know I got hurt. So, I don't matter how big you are or strong you are, I'm going there.
This is a quad one win. This is a road win in a place where a team hadn't lost all year. Do you feel like you guys needed a breakthrough flag plant, flagship win?
I think we needed that. Like, we've been doing good, but we needed that little kick start to let us know, like, all right, it's time to keep it going. So, this is, I appreciate you, boss. Hopefully this, leads to the streak that we've been looking for and, just staying consistent. That's the biggest thing, staying consistent with our game and, trusting each other and stuff like that.
