Postgame Quotes
December 08, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2007
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Postgame Quotes
East Carolina vs. NC State
December 8, 2007
East Carolina Head Coach Mack McCarthy
"I told the kids after the Clemson game I couldn't wait for Saturday because there were enough things that were correctable that I thought we could compete tonight. It still took a great effort and still took an outstanding individual effort from Sam [Hinnant] but I could say something positive about everyone who played and who didn't play."
"We were able to mix things up defensively to the point where we at least kept the guys from dominating from the inside. We never really found an answer to [Gavin] Grant. He's a pro and he's really hard to guard. I thought we kept them off balance and had them going to different things."
"Sidney's really good at adjusting. If you show him the same thing twice, he'll eat you alive. We tried to change constantly and give them different looks and different match-ups. We even had some bad match-ups at times just because we didn't want to give him the same look two times."
"Offensively, even though Sam had a lot of the points, I thought we were pretty balanced in how we attacked them. We cut down on the turnovers and we won the rebound margin."
On ECU's first-ever victory over an ACC team
" I'm not sure that I'm the one to address what it means to the program. It was a lot of fun and it was an unbelievable atmosphere. I've coached a long time and in a lot of great places. I don't think I've been in a building as loud as this was. There was some times where it was deafening in there. There's no question that the crowd played a factor in the outcome."
On guarding J.J. Hickson of NC State
"We decided we were going to gamble some and double off a couple people and try to come from different angels at him. Sometimes we were effective and sometimes we weren't. He's really good and he plays really hard. They did a really good job isolating him and moving him around and catching him at different places on the floor. I did think we could slow him down a bit if we got our rotations right."
How did playing George Mason Sunday and Clemson Wednesday prepare you for this game?
"Both of the games this week were a factor in tonight's effort. The fact that we came up from being behind at George Mason on the road played a big factor in tonight's game. Wednesday, we had to get used to the loud crowd and the level of intensity that an ACC game plays."
N.C. State Coach Head Coach Sidney Lowe
"It was a tough ball game tonight. I thought they played extremely well. They made the plays down the stretch when they had to. They made the shots and got the rebounds that they needed to and we were not able to do that. Three of our starters were 6-for-26 and that makes it tough to win. I thought that we did something's well and at times we were patient on the offensive end. Down the stretch when the game is won or lost in the last four or five minutes, we just did not execute and they did."
On fatigue and missing free throws down the stretch:
"I don't think fatigue was a factor down the stretch. Gavin played 37 minutes, but he is used to that and normally makes those free throws. Unfortunately we missed them tonight."
On Continuing the series
"We have just as many ECU fans in the Raleigh area as Greenville does NC State fans. I think it will continue. I thought this was a great experience and environment for our guys. We knew it was going to be loud and tough and we just have to play through it. This is the second time we have had an experience like this. We went to Michigan State and it was loud there as well"
On Sam Hinnant's play
"Sam made some unbelievable shots tonight. He made some when we had guys right in his face. But there were a couple of times that we gave him set shots. Sometimes guys don't understand that when I tell them in practice `don't ever leave him' that is exactly what I mean. A couple of times we loosened up and he came off and drilled the shots."
On ECU's guarding of J.J. Hickson:
"They had two and three guys down there at times. That was ECU's game plan and they wanted to force us to make some shots on the perimeter. That's part of getting a game plan and stopping the teams best weapon, which is what they did."
