Matthew Mitchell on NC State: "They Deserved The Victory"
Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell and several of his players met with the media after the NCAA Tournament loss to NC State.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview. Select quotes from Mitchell are provided below.
“Let me say how appreciative we are of North Carolina State and how they hosted us. We were treated in an unbelievable way, welcomed warmly each day... I can’t thank everybody enough. A first-class operation and we’re very appreciative of how we were treated.”
“Sad tonight for this season to end mainly because of the quality of the people involved in this season. Our players started back in June working extremely hard and just gave a tremendous, tremendous effort.”
“I’m very proud of our players... sad night for this season to end for our three seniors.”
“I’m a very, very proud coach tonight.”
“The last thing I’d say is how can you not be impressed with the Wolfpack tonight? They were so tough, well-coached, and really, really played hard. They gave tremendous effort and hustled, I thought we did too but they came out on top.”
“They deserved the victory. We wish them well going forward.”
“You have to credit North Carolina State and how hard they played. They were focused on trying to take away Maci and Rhyan and making it hard to score. We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket.”
“The reason we shot a low percentage was a credit to the North Carolina State defense. I thought they were really tough and extremely physical. It was tough getting open all night.”
“They’ve overcome a lot of injuries and stuck together.”
“I wish we made more shots and could have executed better but at the end of the night it was two tough teams going at it and North Carolina State got it done tonight.”
“[Elissa Cunane] is really impressive. Wow, how much improvement she’s made... she’s really made a lot of progress through the year. You have to give her credit for that. She was a concern.”
“You have to give the Wolfpack credit for making those three’s tonight. They were outstanding from the three-point line. It was a pick-your-poison deal tonight.”
“They played a really good game tonight.”
“They pounded the boards, did a great job on the boards.”