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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2015Cat BarberMark GottfriedTrevor LaceyGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA NORTH CAROLINA STATE – 81 COACH GOTTFRIED: The biggest thing was Cat's speed. I thought they had trouble containing him and stopping his penetration. And then we got ahead and they tried to press us. At that point it becomes really difficult to contain Cat. So, great win. I thought collective by everybody, played well. So we're excited about it. Q. Cat, when you played pit back in January, you only had nine points. What was the difference today? CAT BARBER: I think the difference is today I was more aggressive. Teammates and coaches were telling me to be confidence that I'm going to put the team on my back, and that's what I did. Q. You knew with a win you guys would play Duke, and you obviously had some issues with that Boston College game getting caught up there and all the stuff that was going on the schedule. Did you have any worries today of looking past Pittsburgh? And how quickly did you feel your guys were in the right shape? COACH GOTTFRIED: I really never felt our guys look past the game at all. I really didn't. Our practices the last couple days, I thought our players were focused in on this one game, and I thought they did a great job with that. So it's not something we've talked about. It's not something that, hey, if we beat Pitt we then get to play Duke. We've never mentioned it one time, and I'm not sure they have any. So they handled it the right way. Q. Cat, you had one field goal attempt in the second half until Trevor went out with some foul trouble. What was the thought there? It seemed you really turned it on once he went out of the game. Did you feel like you had to take over there? CAT BARBER: I think, yes. The first half I had it going, and the second half I didn't come out as I was in the first half. And Trevor came in and made some big shots, so we were giving him the ball. When he went in he was hitting big shots, so when he went out we knew it was time for me to step back up. But with Trevor in the game and I'm not going, I know him lost then somebody else would be going. Q. When Trevor has the ball, how have you made yourself a better offensive threat for him as a passing option to kick out to you? CAT BARBER: When Trevor has the ball I try to get in the open spot. I know he's one of the best when somebody's on him, he can create for himself. So I kind of just try to fill in in the spot. If he drives, I try to fill in in another spot where he can give me the ball. But normally in my head I'm like that's a bucket, so... Q. Trevor, in the stretch in the first half when everything was going really well for you guys, Cat spun past some Pittsburgh players, dribbled under the basket, and bounce pass out to you, you take the three, doesn't go in, you slap the floor. Why were you so angry at that point? Was it just that things were going that well? TREVOR LACEY: No, I mean, I'd never seen a play like that before or been a part of one of those plays. The way this game was going for him, that's a play that would have been with him for a lifetime. If I would have made that shot, that would have been one of the plays for him for the rest of his life, so I felt like I messed that play up for him. Q. Cat and Trevor, the last three, four minutes of the game it was a situation where you could have pulled the ball out and run some clock. You guys didn't do that. You attacked in transition. Was there ever any thought to pull back and run time or was it just go, go, go the whole time? TREVOR LACEY: I think we learned from previous games where we had leads and kind of got complacent and stayed aggressive. We let teams get on a run and get momentum. So we've learned from that and we just keep our foot on the gas. We're not going to go in and make crazy plays, but we're going to take advantage of the opportunities we do have, and that's what we did. CAT BARBER: I think in that situation we had times where we had like the advantage to score the ball, so I mean, we took it. We didn't try to hold the ball when we had the advantage. We had people out running, get the ball, go to the pass to the big man. So I think for us in our eyes we weren't going to turn down the opportunity to be aggressive the whole game. Q. Coach, you had a pretty good performance from your three in bigs in your rotation. But I think you had a fair advantage in the paint. How important is that when you have Okafor tomorrow? COACH GOTTFRIED: Well, it's important for our team for our big guys to contribute offensively. And sometimes that's scoring basket, sometimes that's passing, sometimes it's rebounding the ball. We thought a big point of emphasis tonight was Young and Artis. More than anything, they had to guard those guys. Obviously, tomorrow night we've got a big job with Okafor, but we need those guys to contribute. We've had a lot of scoring from our guards throughout the year, but when our bigs have scored and done some things, it's really made our team better. Q. Coach, six wins in the last seven games, kind of coming on the heels of I think it was six out of eight losses. What's the team done differently that it seems to be peaking at the right time? COACH GOTTFRIED: I think we've gained some confidence peaking. I think we've gotten better defensively. I think when we inserted Lennard back in the lineup at Louisville, it gave us a better defensive team on the floor, and I think that's kind of helped our team all the way around. You know, I look at Cat, and he's raised his game to another level. Trevor has been sensational all year, Ralston has been really good. So BeeJay's playing better, Cat's playing better. We're getting good play out of Lennard in there. Our team is just beginning to gel. I think we can improve a lot still, but we are playing some good basketball right now. Q. Cat, Trevor, a lot of fans have been asking for gray uniforms. What did you think of the new digs? TREVOR LACEY: We like them. We say you look good, you play good. But you know, we stay on our KBS, our equipment manager. We just come out ask we're just going to play. We like them. Yeah, we like them and we're going to keep playing in them hopefully and wear them out. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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