NC State F Darrion Williams and G Quadir Copeland met with the media to discuss NC State's 93-64 loss to No. 1 Duke.
NOTE: Click the video player above to watch the full press conference!
On how they stayed competitive in the first half...
WILLIAMS: Scottie was great. I think he's been waiting for this moment. And I think he was ready to go today, yeah.
Guys, you lost five in your last six. What's kind of the game plan to kind of keep things together, try to make a push more?
COPELAND: The best gameplan there is, not to lose the games, so.
And then, to follow up, what was Coach Wade’s message after the game?
COPELAND: It was in the locker room, so I just want to keep it in the locker room. We just have to get better.
Duke had a lot of corner threes. What was it about the scheme that just got them open so often?
COPELAND: I don't think it was really the scheme. It was, they hit corner threes. Like, they got corner three shooters. Like, some shooters shoot corner shots.
Like, that's the shots, the main shots they work on. So, it wasn't no scheme. I feel like it was just random; we're in the zone. And sometimes that's the open spots that the shots can be given up, and we just made them, so.
Yeah, Quadir, you mentioned the zone. When did Coach Wade tell you that was going to be the game plan?
COPELAND: We were told right after the game, right after we lost to Notre Dame, so. And then we ran the zone. It was effective in the beginning. Everything, every team adjusted. Still the number one team in the country, so. No excuses at the end of the day. I think with our group, we can beat anybody. Just, they made great adjustments, and it worked, so.
What do you guys need to move on from this one? Get ready for Saturday, then move on to next week, and get ready for the postseason?
WILLIAMS: Just know the importance of Saturday. We should go out, play harder than Stanford, and beat them. And then play hard, we play an ACC tournament. Keep going from there, turn it into a one-game season after that.
How much are y'all thinking about the resume, and kind of how these are stacking up? Or are you just trying to flush them and move on?
WILLIAMS: We're just trying to win games.
COPELAND: That's it. That's the main focus, winning games. We win games, no one gots nothing to say. And then we won over six games, everybody was happy. And we've been losing, and now everybody's happy. That's how it goes.
You don't ride when it's good, and you don't wanna get bad. People won't get attached. We just gotta win games, that's all. We're gonna stick together, stay with each other, and we're gonna win games. Simple as that.
