NC State F Darrion Williams and G Quadir Copeland met with the media to discuss NC State's 84-83 road win over SMU.
NOTE: Click the links below to watch the full interviews!
F Darrion Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILcCgUNWbxQ
Darrion, huge quad one win on the road. What was going through your mind just throughout the whole game, throughout all those runs?
With the style of basketball that they play, we knew it was going to be an up and down game. They were going to make some runs, but we knew not to get out of our... How we played, we didn't want to play out of that game, basically. We knew we'd come back at some point, and then once we started rolling, we got to do a better job not letting them come back in the end. But other than that, I kind of knew we were going to win.
You had some defensive breakdowns at various points, but I guess what was the mindset? How did you overcome those?
Just play basketball. Play by play, unlike other sports, you get to play next play immediately.
NC State gets 6-0 in the road. What is it about you guys and these atmospheres, do you think? Is it just happenstance, or is there a rhyme or reason?
I don't know. I think we just enjoy playing on the road. We love playing at home too, but I think it's just something special. You can go to quiet another arena.
When you guys are shooting 35, 43-pointers, did y'all go into the game thinking that would manifest itself, or did it just sort of...
No, it just kind of happened. We all work on our shots, and we're all confident in it. We got a couple of rim outs, so I probably should have made a little more, but no, it just kind of happened that way.
When it's a game and it's just so fun like that, to me it was entertaining to watch. How do you feel playing in a game like that? Do you feel that, or is there tension? How is that?
Yeah, those are always fun. Those are highly competitive games. Those are games where you want to play, and you want to be in at the end, and try to make the play to win. One day we made more plays than them, and we came out with a win.
You guys have a unique opportunity now in Va. Tech, and there's some good games coming up. Obviously, quad ones and opportunities within the ACC. Where is the room for growth for NC State in February?
I don't think we're anywhere close to where we need to be. We make a lot of mistakes offensively and defensively, wasting possessions, and there's a lot of stuff we can get better, and we don't want to be hitting our peak now.
We'd rather be hitting our peak in a little bit, in a few weeks or so. So, we've got to keep going game by game, and we've got a game in ten minutes. So, we'll see how it goes.
You've played college basketball a long time. Have you ever seen anybody influence a game, only shooting the ball four times like Copeland did today?
No. Even with his personality, I've never met somebody like him. But he's great to have on your team. I know it's probably annoying when he’s not on your team.
But, I mean, just influencing the game the way he did, with all the rebounds, all the assists, his leadership. Just speak to that if you don't mind.
Oh, yeah. I mean, he's just trying to— We, as a team, want to be unselfish. We never know whose night it's going to be going in. And we try to feed the hot hand. He does a great job distributing. I think we had 16 assists, maybe.
So, I think he did a great job of that. And he wasn't really bad. He wasn't shooting. I think he banked in the threes today. So, I'm going to make fun of him for that. But, other than that, I think he did a great job.
Obviously, Tre had that huge block at the very end of the game. What does it say about him to go up in traffic, through a bunch of guys who are quite a bit larger than he is?
Yeah. I mean, he always talks about he's a lockdown defenderr. And he got to show it at the end. He gets one of the best guards in the conference. So, yeah, props to him.
They have a lot of balanced scoring. How do you game plan the defensive side of that and try to guard all those guys?
I mean, I think we had a lot of different things we wanted to try. But, I think, at the end of the day, we just had to sit down and guard our matchup. If you're on the ball, you definitely have to sit down and guard it. That was the main thing we did.
G Quadir Copeland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlgbNS4gZPg
Team assist today, career high, it was four shy of the program record. What was kind of going through your head when you were dishing those out?
They did a good job, clogging the paint for me on my job. So I just trusted my teammates like I do every game. They stick with it, even when shots were to fall in the beginning, I told them keep firing, keep firing, and they led the way.
I asked Darrion, but when a team like this has so many effective scorers, how do you try to gameplay that defensively?
Oh, when you got good players like that, you just got to make it hard for people, the same way they try to do with us, just try to make it hard anyway for us. So, they got a bunch of talented players, as I think you guys know.
And, we just stay with it, stay consistent, play defense, play hard. Even when we were down by eight, we know to keep fighting, we know to keep going. And that was just the message, keep fighting, keep digging it out, keep fighting, keep fighting, and we stuck with it.
What is it about these road environments?
Oh, man, I think this is where we thrive the best. I feel more comfortable when I'm not at home. I feel like, all the fan stuff get me going, and I think my teammates feel the same.
Speaking of that, emotions were a little high between the two teams today, a little chirping. Does that fuel you?
Of course. Of course, and I think my coaches know that. That's why they always try to calm me down and get me back on track. But, it fuels me. It gets me to get my teammates going, and it gets me to, take that next step and play with that edge I've got to play with.
How do you balance, having that edge and not going too far and getting, getting a foul or something?
My teammates, they do a good job, like I said, of calming me down when I'm on the court. It's a level I can go to, and then it's a level where they know they got to pull me back to. So, just trusting them, putting my trust in them.
I think, sir, this is my 15th year covering NC State. I've never seen anybody influence a game taking only four shots like you did. What does that mean to you? Obviously, shooting the ball, scoring is one thing, but you didn't have to do that tonight.
Like I said, it's trusting my teammates. Like, we put in work every day in the summer. So, who am I not to trust them? They trust me all the way with having the ball at all times.
I'm dribbling around the court and stuff like that. I got to make those guys happy. They got to be comfortable out there with me. So, that's the least I can do. I feel like giving them the ball in the right spots and giving them easy shots.
And then when success happens, the trust grows. Now you guys are building. You guys have a unique opportunity in the month of February to make noise NCAA tournament-wise, ACC-wise.Speak to what's ahead and where's the growth for NC State.
I feel like the best thing to do is just keep our feet where we're at. Just keep on winning. We got our next focus is Virginia Tech. That's the next focus. I'm not really trying to think too much ahead, think too much. Even in the past, just trying to move on from this. 16 assists felt good, but tomorrow we're back in the gym like nothing happened.
What was that atmosphere like out there?
Amazing, amazing. I love that crowd.Boopie and all. I've been playing against Boobie since I was a sophomore. So, it's good to see the old guys and the old players that when you meet now we're older and stuff like that. So, being able to compete and compete on this level and the stage that we're at is always amazing. And I never came to SMU, so.
And I have to ask you this, because you have a stretch now. You have Va. Tech, but you also have Louisville two days later. That simulates an NCAA two and three days. Was this like an NCAA tournament game out here today?
A thousand percent. This is an NCAA team, I feel like. This is a great team. They got great players. They got skilled players. They got people that can go. So, I feel like we're ready for these environments. We're ready for these times.
What makes you want to include your new friend here?
She gave every single one of us fist bumps when we walked out and we walked back in. She probably had 200 fist bumps today. She showed us love, even though we're the away team. So, I definitely wanted to include her in my interview.
That's probably a career high.
So, the love you make is equal to the love you take?
Exactly. She played a part in this, too.
It's a pack of wolves.
Everything play a part.
It's a pack of wolves. Outstanding.
