NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media to discuss the 85-84 loss to Stanford.
NOTE: Click the video player above to watch the full press conference!
On losing multiple one score games...
We've lost three like this with Notre Dame, this one, and Miami. When you lose close games, it's on coaching, so we haven't made the plays that we've needed to.
I thought Stanford played with great poise and composure down the stretch. Give them a ton of credit. They played with incredible poise, incredible composure.
Some of the shots they hit at the end of the shot clock, the free throws they hit, they were really, really good. We've had some lapses that really, really hurt us. We've lost quite a few.
This is the fourth game like this that we've lost. It's a difference between a good year and a great year, an okay year and a good year. We haven't been able to close these out.
At the end of the day, it stops with me.
How frustrating is it to lose a one-point game or even a one-possession game when you miss nine free throws today when you have 34 opportunities? We got to the free throw line a bunch.
We can't complain about that. We missed a technical free throw. We had some inopportune misses.
You leave nine points at the free throw line. It's tough.
What are your thoughts on Darrion's performance today? He finished one of eight. He did make the three-pointer at the beginning of the second half. Overall, just four points in this game.
We've got to find a way to get him back going. He's been struggling. I haven't done a good enough job helping him out.
We need him to play better for our team. I need to do a better job of trying to reach him and get him to play up to his capabilities. It was a tough day for him.
You talked about losing some of those close games. Two of them this season are against teams that won't make the ACC tournament. Is there an elevator pitch to make in terms of your NCAA tournament resume with those on there?
You're judged on the body of work. The last couple of weeks haven't been very good. We've banked.
I think we've got top five or top ten in terms of quad one and quad two wins. We've banked a lot of good wins. That's why it's judged on the season.
Our resume is not complete. I don't even know. What seat are we?
Seventh. Who will we play?
Stanford or Boston College.
Stanford or Boston College. We're going to have some opportunities in Charlotte. Hopefully we can close them out and take advantage of them.
We've banked a ton of quad one and quad two wins. This is a quad two loss tonight.
On starting Jordan Snell today...
I've always tried to do that on senior day. Start our seniors. Alyn's got another year because of his injury.
Scottie went through senior day last year. We had seven, so it was tough to decide. I've always started the seniors.
I feel like it's the right thing to do. Snell's made a great impact on our program. He's been here for a long time.
He's made an impact through multiple coaches. He stuck around with us. We just felt very appreciative of everything he's done to help us out and help us get going here.
Okorie had 33 points tonight. Can you talk about what the plan was for him and how tough it was to guard him tonight?
He's a great player. Tremendous, tremendous player. Early on he got going from three against his own.
Second half he got going in transition. He's electric with the ball. That's why he's going to be a potential first-round draft pick.
He's just really, really good. Their team feeds off of him. They're 2-9 when he scores under 21 points.
He can't have the scoreboard up enough when he doesn't score. He was great today. He's got a very stoic demeanor. Same demeanor at all times. It's very, very impressive, his whole deal.
Part of the thing with Okorie is that he shortens the game a little bit too. Could you tell in the last 5-6 minutes that they were basically going to go until about 4-5 seconds on the shot clock?
They ran their over-under stuff. We didn't help. We gave up two offensive rebounds, one on a jump ball.
They had the ball from 4-14 to 3-20 just based off of offensive rebounding and that sort of thing. We didn't help. We gave up a ton of offensive rebounds, 15 of them.
They were going to milk the clock and get the ball in. Give them credit. They played with great poise, great composure.
They made a lot of tough shots at the end of the shot clock. Both of 5’s 3's were deep and late in the clock. Give those guys credit.
They made some plays and we left some plays out there.
What's been the most surprising thing, coaching in the ACC this year in the regular season?
I don't know if anything's been surprising. Every league's a little bit different. I'm just disappointed we haven't been able to finish some of these games out. That's my main disappointment.
That's my main focus to try to get our guys to be better and finish these out. I still believe in this team. I think we've got some good stuff ahead of us.
I think we can do some good things the next couple of weeks, but we've got to go make it happen.
How much of the bracketology stuff will you pay attention to or do you pay attention to?
Not a lot.
Have you had a team in this position before? Obviously, McNeese is a one-bid league.
We've made it as a large multiple times.
With the LSU ones, I feel like you kind of were in.
We did it one year at VCU. We were 10th seed. We were the last group in. We had to win a game in our conference tournament.
I don't know if we had to, but we had to win a game in our conference tournament. We actually won a game. We beat Oregon State in the 7-10 game.
We were the 10th and Oregon State was the 7th. I haven't paid a whole lot of attention. I know we've got a ton of quad one and quad two wins.
Our metrics are going to be decent. There's a reason all the teams are on the bubble. They all have warts.
We certainly know of our warts because we're here every day, but all the other ones have warts too. I think we'll stack up pretty favorably. We certainly don't want to risk it by going one and done in Charlotte.
That would certainly put us at further risk. Not that winning one secures anything. You don't necessarily know that.
I think that we'd be well advised to win our first game.
Snell said anything can happen in March. Obviously, he was part of that ACC championship team. Even though this group is different, how important is it to have a guy with that perspective on the team?
We spoke about it last night. Shoot, our VCU Final Four team, we lost to James Madison on Senior Night. We needed a tip-in to beat Drexel in the conference tournament in the first game.
Weird things can happen. Anything can happen. We've got to make it happen.
How do you convince your team to hit reset after all this, once you hit into Charlotte?
We'll get together Monday. I thought we had a pretty good couple days of practice for this one. We've had some tough things happen to us this year.
You make your own luck, so I don't want to say we've had bad luck. I disagree with that. We've just had some fluky things happen throughout the course of games.
We haven't been able to make the plays. We haven't been able to grab some balls. We haven't been able to grab some loose balls, some rebounds.
We just haven't been tough enough to make those plays to deserve the opportunity to win. That's why our record is what it is. We should certainly be three or four games better than we are.
But we're not. You are what your record says you are. Fortunately for us, that includes a bunch of close losses and overtime losses.
You don't get any points for trying. You get points for winning.
