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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE OPERATION BASKETBALL


October 16, 2013


Tyler Lewis

T.J. Warren


CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

JEFF FISCHEL:  I'm glad to be joined by North Carolina State.
You were the two guys that saw significant minutes that are back.  Tyler, talk about how much the team has changed.
TYLER LEWIS:  Well, this season the team has changed a ton because we lost five people that played a lot last year.  Just knowing that me and T.J. played some good minutes last year, we have to step up and be leaders and lead by example throughout the season.
T.J. WARREN:  With the new faces to the program, we got a good group of guys that want to get better and improve every day.  Me and Tyler have been doing a good job of leading them on through this process.
I can't wait to get out there with them guys.
JEFF FISCHEL:  We'll take questions.

Q.  How much do you think you need to score this year for your team to be successful?
T.J. WARREN:  Whatever my team needs me to do, I'm going to do it.  I got their back, they got mine.
With the coaching support, anything can happen for this team this season.

Q.  Are there other guys on the team that can fill it?
T.J. WARREN:  We have Rolston, Billy, Des Lee comes from a strong background, Tyler Lewis.  We got a good group of guys, everybody is going to get a good feel for this season.
JEFF FISCHEL:  T.J., you were incredibly efficient.  The pressure of putting up more points might hurt some of the ways you were dangerous because you were so efficient last year.  Do you have to be careful about when you attack?
T.J. WARREN:  I'm not focused on that.  I just want to go out there and focus on winning and playing hard.
JEFF FISCHEL:  Tyler, how do you look to this guy?  You're going to be relying on him a lot.
TYLER LEWIS:  A lot.  T.J. is such a great scorer.  I have to put him in positions where he likes the ball.  He's one of the best scorers in the ACC, if not the country.

Q.  I know last year in the NCAA tournament that early exit to Temple, how much does that motivate you coming into this year knowing you have some unfinished business?
TYLER LEWIS:  That loss definitely played a big toll on me and T.J. just because as soon as we got back, the four returning players that we had coming in, we gave everybody a week off, the next week we got back to workouts knowing we want to become better this year.  We have to play our best basketball at the end of the season, too.
Now that we have so many great incoming freshmen, as T.J. comes along, just knowing we're going to struggle a little bit probably at the beginning with the newcomers, just pick it up throughout the whole season, hopefully play our best towards the end.
T.J. WARREN:  We just want to build off of last year.  The early exit really hurt.  We moved on from that with the new players.  They know what we want to do, how successful we want to be.  Just all going to start in the gym working.

Q.  Every team loses players.  You lose four players.  How do you possibly have the same expectations this year as you did last?
T.J. WARREN:  The expectations are a little bit different.  With this new team, there's a lot of question marks for the media.  We know what this team is capable of.  In games, we'll show you guys.
TYLER LEWIS:  It's going to be hard to replace the four thousand‑point scorers.  At the same time we have a great group of guys who can obviously step up and get their roles, do their roles very well.  People that we rely on, we have a lot of confidence in them.

Q.  Is this an opportunity for you guys as a unit to under‑promise and over‑deliver for this coming season?
JEFF FISCHEL:  Do you feel like people are underestimating you and you can do more than that?
TYLER LEWIS:  Yes, I certainly agree.  People are underestimating us a lot.  I feel like we have a lot of people with weapons that people haven't heard of.  Des, Cat, knowing they're going to be great for our team, along with T.J. right here.
Hopefully we're going to surprise a lot of people.  I think we will.
T.J. WARREN:  Being the underdog throughout this conference, being picked low to win, we just want to go out there and show people.
JEFF FISCHEL:  You have new faces coming in.  You mentioned Cat.  How do you expect the new guys to contribute?
TYLER LEWIS:  They're going to contribute a ton to our team.  I mean, they still have a long ways to go, as long as everybody else on the team, because they're all freshmen.  I have a lot of things I have to improve on, as well.
Just knowing they're really good freshmen, they're going to come in and make a big impact.
JEFF FISCHEL:  What do you feel you have to improve on?
TYLER LEWIS:  I mean, certainly I still got to become a better leader to this team.  Also I got to be able to, when things aren't going well, be able to take over the team as the point guard, as the leader, hopefully calm everybody down.
JEFF FISCHEL:  T.J.?
T.J. WARREN:  Definitely on the defensive end, staying consistent.  Definitely rebounding on both ends of the floor, staying consistent on that, too.
JEFF FISCHEL:  What has coach been saying to you about the season?
T.J. WARREN:  He's been telling us it's going to be a little struggle.  When we face adversity, we have to pull everybody together and just fight through it.
TYLER LEWIS:  Coach Gott is telling me in my ear every day I have to become the leader of this team, bring intensity.  If I bring intensity, everybody else will bring intensity.
JEFF FISCHEL:  Good luck this season.

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