NC State head coach Wes Moore met with Wolfpack Sports Network to discuss the 93-43 win at Pittsburgh.
Well, coach, a 50-point win, but most importantly, a win by any scorer, securing the double-bye. Congratulations on the ninth time you get the double-by, and I know that's always one of your goals when you start a season.
No doubt, it's a big deal, and we obviously prefer to be a top-16 seed as well. We didn't get that done, but going into the ACC tournament, if you have aspirations of trying to win it, which, again, is a big challenge, but if that's your goal, then getting the double-bye is really critical. So, except for, again, Coach Keatts and his crew proved different, but for the most part, it really helps to have that double-bye.
Coach, one of the things that you have to make sure you're locked in on is scout, and that was one of the emphases that you had in film. How do you feel like they did in that regard, holding Pitt to 43 points?
Yeah, I mean, I thought it was really good. We came in knowing that Vegas, I guess, is how you say that, maybe? Viegas? Viegas, the three-point shooter. Unbelievable three-point shooter. I thought we did a great job on her for the most part. The post player inside, the... Diakhate. Diakhate?
Diakhate.
I'll never make it in broadcasting, okay? But, again, did a really good job on her, only allowing her one offensive rebound and six points, and then Hagans, the point guard, was another point of emphasis, and, again, held her to nine.
So, again, I do. I think we took away what we had to and did what we wanted to, and, again, great performance. 21 assists, seven turnovers, and we turned it over twice right there at the very end of the game. It would have really looked good. And then also 17 steals. I don't know the last time we did that. It's a season high for sure.
So, again, it just goes to show that if you have energy and you come out and you fly around and make things happen, it's going to lead to offense. And that's what happened today.
Well, coach, you said you got the double by, and you said we'd like to be a 16 seed, but we didn't get that done. Now, I don't know if you win the ACC title, if you could host, but I'd love to find out. That would be interesting. I would love to find out.
Yeah, good point, Andrew. I should... I forgot about that, yeah.
Yeah, we'll see. If we can hop that high. We have not seen a team that did not earn a double bye win. So you've played for the title five of the last six years. You were a part of three straight ACC title-winning teams. So you're in the mix with that double buy and with the Wake Forest win, and then translating here to a 50-point win. How do you feel about this team entering March Madness?
Now, this is your first game in March. First game in March. That's a good sign. And then I think, as you brought up and I mentioned to the team, a couple of years ago, we were 13 and five in the ACC, and we went to the final four. So I'm not predicting that. I'm just saying there's some karma there. But at least I told our players, you've got to believe. And so hopefully, we'll be able to get on a roll here.
You've got to get hot. That's the biggest thing. And got to get a break or two. And again, it will be tougher because, again, we're going to have to go on the road, and you're going to have to go through some really good teams at the conference tournament as well. So it's a lot of hard work ahead. But excited about, again, where we're trending.
And coach, I thought Devyn and Mallory played a great game with the minutes that you gave them. Does that add to the depth of this team as you go into this?
Yeah, we hope so. Mallory's been out for a while, and with some illness. And it was great to get her back out there and feeling well enough to get up and down a little bit. And obviously, Devyn shot it great in the Wake Forest game. And then she comes out here again today. So it's good to see her maybe getting her confidence.
I'm excited about that. But, you know, I thought a lot of people played well. We ended up with four people in double figures and could have had more. Obviously, we played a lot of people, and that's good when you can do that. And we also keep everybody healthy and fresh, hopefully.
Yeah, and that is maybe the biggest other thing, getting the win, right? You want to be able to play everybody you hadn't had because of the strength of your schedule and non-conference. And they weren't able at times to have games in which the lead was 20, 30, 40 points.
But some really good programs just play 10, 11 games against non-power fours, things like that. And that is the good thing about it. They get to play everybody, give them opportunities, and probably make everybody happy, at least till Christmas. So, probably there's some definite advantage in doing that.
But nice to be able to get that in the final game of the year. Make sure everybody's sharp going into the postseason, coach. We will see you, but we won't talk to you on the air until Friday. How about that?
All right, man. Double bye. And we're excited, like I said, to be able to have a little bit of time to catch our breath here. And like I said, go down there. Hopefully, we can put 40 minutes together, three days in a row.
