NC State head coach Wes Moore met with Wolfpack Sports Network to discuss the 79-67 road loss at Notre Dame.
Coach, you had such a great second quarter in Blacksburg and it was the second quarter for Notre Dame that I felt like it was kind of the difference in this game. What did you see?
Yeah, I'll be honest with you, I can't explain it. We look like we've never practiced. We never, we weren't making outlets to our point guards, but part of that our point guards weren't getting the outlets. They were leaking down the floor. We were throwing the ball to people that didn't need to be handling it. We didn't compete hard enough.
I mean, again, Notre Dame, their backs are against the wall. They came in here seven and six in the league. I told our team before the game, y'all, it's gonna be a dogfight. You're gonna have to compete and we just didn't do that. Credit to them. They played harder than we did. 24 to 2 points off turnovers.
We just, again, we had people throwing the ball inbounds that never throw it inbounds on make. Again, like I said, not making transition. We work on it every day and we weren't getting our spots and getting transition like we're supposed to.
Again, can't explain it. And, again, this team, gotta understand this league is tough and not in, not out. You've got to show up and especially this stretch. We're on playing road games. It doesn't get any easier.
Now we get to go to the team that's undefeated in the league and play them on their home court Thursday night. So, got it. We're gonna have to, everybody look in the mirror: coach, players, everybody, and try to figure it out. Fix it.
Yeah, coach. Just, you talked about it in the scout, and what did you wanted to see? Like you said, you let them know that the Notre Dame was gonna come out fighting. I think it wasn't the, the layoff, I don't know.
They had a layoff to, you know, they took advantage of it, and we didn't, I guess. But yeah, I mean, again, there's no excuse. Again, they hit some shots early in the game. They got some momentum. And when that happens, the Virginia Tech game, we did the same thing. We dug a little bit of a hole in the first quarter, came back, and then the second quarter, uh, like I said, had a great, made a great run, got some separation, and took over the game today. They did that.
They outscored us 30 to 13 in the second quarter, and we just didn't compete hard enough. So I thought we got back to what we were doing early in the year. Also, I thought we went too much one-on-one, everybody putting their head down, going in the paint. Notre Dame did a great job of helping.
We had to be able to kick the ball and distributed a little bit instead of everybody on their own. And that's why you end up with eight assists and 22 turnovers when it's just so much oscillation and everybody going one-on-one.
I know you probably don't take a whole lot of solace. You were down 27 to end up cutting it to 12. I know it's still a loss, but metrically, analytically, that is going to look better. At least did you? Did you like the fight? You did score 25 points in the fourth quarter. Your team kept playing.
Yeah, again, you're right from that standpoint, but we can't wait till the fourth quarter. And, we got to try to put 40 minutes together. And, you can say it cosmetically, it's better, no doubt. But hey, this game was on national TV. So people that saw it knows that, we pretty much got our tails kicked. So I can't take a whole lot of consolation in that.
So, again, it's tough stretch three straight road games against really good teams. And, we were hoping we could get these first two and go over to Duke with a little more momentum. So now it's going to be tough. And then we got Syracuse over the weekend, who they have a bye this week.
So that's kind of what we've this is like the fourth team we've played this out of a bye before us. And that's going to be a big game that could very well be for the double bye, if we can take care of business in our other games, that Syracuse game is going to be big. So, we'll see.
I know you don't want to make excuses. I admitted on the broadcast that I felt a little sluggish. We were awoken from a dead sleep at about 130 in the morning by a fire alarm at the hotel. Yeah, that couldn't have been good for the energy that you want to see your team come out with.
Yeah, but again, I mean, it's yeah, you got to overcome that stuff. So and, I thought we were fine. I thought our thought our energy was OK and shoot around and all that. So, I don't have the answer for it. But it's disappointing. It's almost embarrassing, to be honest with you, the way we just didn't take care of the ball and didn't compete hard enough.
So when you look at the second chance points, you look at the points off turnovers; they dominated the hustle areas. They were flying around, making plays on D, getting rebounds, getting 50/50 balls. So, that's just something we got. Like I said, everybody look in the mirror, and all of us try to figure it out in a hurry.
Well, coach, I know it's a tough loss, but like you said, with Duke coming up on Thursday, you have Syracuse as well. So you're still in that top four right there for the double by big games coming up. That'll help determine your seating and where you are.
Right. But again, you also want to be playing well. And I thought we were playing better. We had some good momentum going in, down the stretch here. So this is a setback, definitely. So, but we've seen a lot of teams this last week or so have some setbacks, and all you can do is, like I said, get back to the ground and fix it in a hurry.
