NC State head coach Justin Gainey met with the media to discuss the roster, the offseason, and much more!
How have things been since we last talked? I think the last time we talked to you was back in Greensboro, after the UNC game was announced. But what have you seen from your team here recently?
We're continuing to improve. Really excited about the way our team's been able to gel and connect over the past few weeks since we've been back. I thought this summer was as quick of a bonding as I've been around.
And they continue to do that and work hard and be resilient as we've gotten back to school here in August.
What's it been like coaching Ven-Allen Lubin on the court now that you have him with the rest of the group?
Yeah, Ven-Allen's been awesome. I had small interactions with him when I first got here. But having him back, his maturity, his wisdom, his work ethic, his approach to everything he does is professional and at a high level.
So having him back and having the experience of going through the ACC before and being able to share that with the guys has been invaluable. So it's been great having him back.
What did you see with Preston in the recruiting process? Does a former point guard coach point guards a little harder than other positions?
Yeah, with Preston, I saw toughness. I saw a guy who had a chip on his shoulder. Obviously, he had a great freshman year and a great NCAA Tournament, but it was just a phone call with him.
Being around him and understanding where he came from excited me even more about him. And he reminds me of a point guard I had the chance to coach for four years, from the same area, Long Island, New York. And so that all together just got me excited about him, and he hasn't disappointed me.
He's been a joy to be around every single day.
Paul took a pretty big leap from year one to year two. Where do you see him taking that in year three?
Yeah, Paul continues to evolve and develop. When we were meeting in the summer, and he was going through his decision about whether to come back, I promised him I wouldn't put him in a box. And we were going to continue to always develop and get better.
And so he understood what that meant. He's already an elite shooter, but there's room to improve. But on the other side of the ball, from a defensive standpoint, there was room for improvement.
And then also from a leadership standpoint, there was room to get better there. And he's accepted that. He's been coachable in all of those areas.
And so it's just been fun watching him develop through this process. And it hasn't always been smooth sailing. That's a part of development.
But it's the willingness to be coached and the wanting to learn that has really excited me about Paul in his next phase.
I know you mentioned that after he decided to come back, your relationship was really strong. You met him in high school. What do you remember from those early days of recruiting him when you were at Tennessee, when he was coming out of high school and just being the first guy off?
I just saw a young man who obviously had the skill to score. His game was a lot more mid-range. He did a lot more with the ball in his hands.
So I got to see that with him. But also, just a hunger and a drive coming from Rockingham, North Carolina, where I don't know how many players have come out of there. So to make it, it was going to be tough.
It was going to be a challenge because it's one of those areas where not many people will find basketball players. And so it wasn't like he was at one of these basketball factories and he had a bunch of talent around him.
He willed that team to a deep run in the state tournament. If I'm not mistaken, they made it to the championship game. And he was the reason.
I don't know if there's another Division I player on that team. And so seeing him do that was very impressive and just continued to draw me toward him.
Is it cool to see this version of him now, a few years later, to see what he's like three years from now?
Yeah, it is. I mean, you can see him at that young age and that stage. And now, being with him at this stage has been good.
A lot could have been made about Paul staying, but you have Zymicah Wilkins, who committed under Coach Keatts, was here last year, and decided to stay. What does it mean that a guy like him, who really wasn't in the system, decided to trust you?
Yeah, and I've had a relationship with Zymicah as well. I've always liked his game. I thought it was a good fit for where I was at the time, given his size, versatility, and skill set.
And so when we had conversations before, I spoke with his parents and everything. So when I was going through the process, his mom had texted me as well. And so it was a welcoming text, and it was great.
Zymicah is a young man who has been working really hard. He's gotten so much better. He's changed his body.
He's changed his mindset. He's changed his eating habits. He is focused and determined to develop and improve.
And when you see guys like that, you're a part of stories like that; it just reaffirms why you do it.
When it comes to a guy like Darius Adams, how much did you have to weigh what you saw last year at Maryland compared to the guy you helped recruit out of high school, and what you see for him coming into State?
Yeah, you've got to take it all into consideration. The good and the bad. And I knew what I saw in high school.
But also, from an evaluation standpoint, I knew where he needed to get better. I knew he needed to get better. And then to see him at Maryland, he had moments. If you watched him down the stretch of that season in the tournament against Iowa, he was really, really good.
And I saw him playing in a position that he was still growing in. But he always wanted to have the ball in his hands. He always wanted to be a combo guard.
So last year at Maryland, I saw it as, again, another development phase for him. And he learned from that experience. And maybe it wasn't how he had expected it to go, but it was how it was supposed to happen, because that's how it happened, and he became better from it.
So you think about when he decided to come here. I think he was the first guy to get to campus. And he was working.
He was in the weight room. He was down here on the floor. It brought out a determination and a chip on his shoulder.
Those guys are dangerous when you have that talent, McDonald's All-American, and people giving up on you and throwing you away. And now you're coming back to prove that, hey, I am that guy. Those guys are dangerous.
And so our relationship before, me watching him before, it excited me. But talking to him about where he was mentally at that time really excited me because I knew he was going to be relentless in his work.
Biggest areas of growth for Darius Adams...
Everywhere. I think handling the ball. And last year it was a growth year.
And now if you see him with the ball in his hands as a secondary ball handler or even primary sometimes, he looks a lot more comfortable. He continues to shoot the ball better. This summer he really shot it well.
And he's gotten stronger. He's up 15 pounds. Going into that year at Maryland, he couldn't work on his shot that summer because he had to undergo wrist surgery.
So he's been continuing to work in that area. But his whole game defensively, because he's stronger, he's a little more athletic, and he's able to defend a lot more physically. So I've seen growth in all areas.
Now, he still has areas where he can grow, too. So that's the exciting part, and that's what we've got to continue to pull out of him.
You've coached a lot of young guys in the past. What's it been like seeing Kingston adjust to playing college ball against guys who've been doing it for a lot longer?
Yeah, it made me reflect a little bit on my freshman year. Sometimes I've got to pull back a little bit with him because he is the only freshman, and I understand that all of this is new to him. He's the only one.
But it's been fun watching him, or watching the guys take him under their wing and talk to him and coach him and teach him about some of the details and how important the details are.
Kingston is ultra-talented. Ultra-talented. Athletic, can shoot it, physical, can be a capable defender.
It's just the experience part. It's all new to him. So he's continuing to grow.
And sometimes it's like you're beating his head. You're like, "Man, come on, Kingston. You've got to figure it out."
But he is a freshman, so you've got to be patient.
As a point guard for you when you came here, you were kind of like a steady hand. And the point guards you have now seem like shot hunters, guys that are scorers. Is that just how the game has gone? Or are you looking for a guy that's a steady hand? And do you think you have one that could emerge?
Yeah, it's a good question. What I'd say about these guys is that, if you compare them to me, they score way better than I did. I had to be a steady hand because I couldn't score like that.
And if I could score like that, I probably would be a shot hunter. But I'm excited about my guard group because of the ability to do both. And I think I'm able to see the game from that perspective of playmaking, of setting up teammates, and try to coach them up to do that, but not take away from what they are, who they are, and what makes them great.
The game has changed a lot, a lot. And so you've got to have guards that can put the ball in the hole. And those guys can do that.
And so I'm never going to pull back from what they do and what makes them great. It's just a matter of continuing to add to that game and become a complete player.
And then let me follow up real quick about Ven-Allen Lubin. So coming in, before he was eligible, you had two fours that were stretch fours. Did you have kind of a different idea of what the offense might look like before Lubin, and how has that changed since he's joined the team?
Yeah, it has changed a little bit because of Lubin's efficiency around the basket and closer to the basket. We're still developing him as a guy who can stretch the floor. But I think he gives us a different look.
And so the beauty of it is he can play with any of those guys. He's already shown he can guard anybody on the floor. And those other guys also have size.
And so they're fine switching off with each other as well. So adding Lubin did give us another dimension to our offense, and it's added to it. And so it's been good.
You said that you've been surprised by how well this team has gelled together despite having so many newcomers. Why was that possible for this group? And did you see anybody take control of it and be like, yeah, we've got to get along?
Well, I think my staff did a great job of identifying the characteristics that I've had. And so when you get them together, and you see how they interact, you're happy about that. And so I think the kind of guys that we have, they are selfless.
They care about others. But more importantly, they care about winning. All of those guys came from situations where they have won.
And I don't think any of them really care about personal stats. They want to win. And so when you get a group of guys like that together, you put them through some really hard situations. And, man, we had a grueling summer.
We had a grueling summer. And to a man, it's the toughest summer I've ever been a part of. But winners, RJ says it every day, and he says it perfectly.
Winners win. Winners win. And when you're in those environments, whether we're at the football field running the stadium or we're here running, you want to win.
And he knows that winning takes us all. And we've all got to pull together. And so I am surprised that, in today's climate where things have become less about team and more about me, that you're able to find this many guys that are so focused and bought in on winning.
What do you want to see, or what are your expectations for your frontcourt now that you have your personnel set?
I want them to be tough. I want them to be physical. And I want them to dominate the backboard.
That's my expectation as well. They're all skilled. They all have their own skill set, and they can shoot.
They can score it inside. They can do all those offensive things that make for a good combination of post players. But it's the dirty-work plays.
It's the rebounding. It's the blockouts. It's the blocked shots to protect the rim.
That's the stuff. When it comes down to those last four minutes of the game, that's what will win the games. So that's what I expect from them every single day.
You mentioned your coaching staff. What's it been like working with the guys you hired for the first time, having them all together over the summer, and now?
It's been great. It's been great because we all came from different places. We all came from different experiences.
We're learning from each other, learning about each other every single day. I'm not a guy who's stuck in my ways, a coach who's stuck in my ways. I have my beliefs.
I have my philosophies. But I love to hear new stuff, new ways of doing things. I'll take it in, filter it.
Maybe I use it. Maybe I don't. But I love to take in and soak in all that information.
And so all of these guys, just like our players, came from different situations. They've all won. They've all won wherever they came from. So they have some great ideas.
They've been great in all aspects, whether in recruiting or in the position they coached. They've all had a lot of success. And so, for me, it's been great just to be able to soak all that info in and be able to filter through what I want to use and what I'm going to hold on to.
How helpful has it been to keep Patrick Stacy on the staff, too, and have him as the GM, a guy you could hopefully start this roster with early on and now see how those analytics work for the team you have on the court?
Yeah, it's been great having Patrick back. And he has been here at NC State. But as much as I have played here and have had a lot of different experiences, I have been away for a while. And things change.
And so having him as a guy that's been here and understands how things work has been very advantageous. He's obviously highly skilled at what he does. He's a great worker, has a strong work ethic, and is a great team player.
And so it has been instrumental in keeping him, having him back, and helping put this roster together. I thought he did a great job of doing it. When I got here, it was me, Riley, and Patrick.
We walked into that office. It was just the three of us, here till midnight, 1 o'clock in the morning. So those were long nights when he had rolled up his sleeves. He didn't know me prior to this.
I didn't know him. But he just went to work, and he proved his value.
Christian has a very smooth, efficient game. Has it been an easier adjustment because of who he played for in the past?
Christian is a guy who has a lot of confidence, but it's a quiet confidence. He's not a poke-your-chest-out-and-bang-your-chest type. He knows who he is, what he's good at, and he's good at not doing what he's not.
Not trying to prove he can do something that he can't. So that's what I think makes him really efficient. Last year at Santa Clara, if you watched him, he was a three-level scorer.
Got it at the rim, mid-range, shot threes. He has a complete offensive game, and when you have a game like that, if something's not working, you can move on to the next thing that is working. I think that's what Christian does a great job of doing.
You see Paul kind of, I don't know, is Paul more introverted off the court? What is it like when you see that switch light up on the court?
He's become more extroverted off the court now, and I've encouraged him to do that, to be more of a voice. And he's wanted to do that and take more of a leadership role.
I'm excited to see it on the court. It shows up in practice sometimes when it gets really competitive, and that fire, it's exciting to see. It's fun to see because, as we all know, he can run off some really tough shots and knock them down in a row.
Some days, I try to get him fired up. I'll say some things to get him going, just to kind of light that fire. But he does a good job of not allowing it to take him out of his game, not allowing it to force him to do things he's not comfortable doing.
You guys have an exhibition against Mississippi State in Greensboro. How helpful is playing a game like that against another conference team, just for you in the process of figuring out what the team is before we get to that?
It's very helpful. One, playing in Greensboro, where we'll play in the Tobacco Road Challenge and the ACC Tournament, it's great to be able to get a live rep in there. So that's going to be huge.
Coach Jans is a great coach, and he's a guy I've had the chance to compete against over the last few years. I admire how hard his teams play, how defensive-minded he is. He has a phenomenal player in Hubbard who probably is going to be an All-American, so that'll give us a test there.
I think it made sense in so many different ways. So it'll be great to go up and play against that really good Mississippi State team.
You do have one roster spot left. Are you planning to keep that now, or hold on to it to see if something opens up during the season?
Yeah, we have one spot open. If the right piece comes along and makes sense, we'll look at adding it. It's getting pretty late right now in the season.
You never know. That's the luxury of always having a spot open.
