University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Post-Game Quotesheet
3/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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POST-GAME QUOTESHEET
Pitt vs. NC State • ACC Tournament • Greensboro Coliseum • Greensboro, N.C. • March 11, 2015
NC State 81, Pitt 70
Quoting Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon and Cameron Wright
COACH DIXON: Congratulations to North Carolina State. I thought Barber and Lacey were terrific, and I thought they really hit some tough shots. So they deserved it with the way those two guys played. Some off the dribble isolation plays that they made, some end the clock threes, and even that zone and Lacey at that deep three. So really a great performance by those two guys. The guys kept battling. We got down. We with stood the three point barrage. We kept trying to change some things up. But we kept battling. Got it closer, but just didn't have enough in us. So we got some good performances. Thought Cameron did some good things and played well in his last time in an ACC Tournament. But we just came up short. So congratulations to N.C. State. They're playing very well. We lost to a good team. We're a good team, but I think we can play better than we played today.
Q. Coach Gottfried mentioned Cat Barber's speed as maybe something that you guys didn't have an answer for. How did Barber's speed, I guess impact the game?
Cameron Wright: He's a very good player. His teammates do a great job setting ball screens for him. He's aggressive and hit a few shots early on so he caught a rhythm. He did a great job getting to the basket tonight.
Q. Coach, your track record for making the NCAA tournament is one of the best in the entire country. I mean, 10 out of 11 is unbelievable. What do you say to your guys at a time like this? Because the only other time you didn't make it you won a tournament.
COACH DIXON: Yeah, yeah, it's been hard. I mean, we're used to being in the NCAA tournament. We play for that. But we knew what our challenges were and we didn't get it done. As far as our guys, I mean, this is not it's something we've been aware of because defensively we haven't been good enough and we put ourselves in this position. Early on in the year we went through a stretch where we played well. We got better. We have gotten better. We got better defensively. Our numbers indicate that, but we didn't see it tonight. But it's disappointing. You have challenges, different things occurred this year, but I thought we kept battling, kept fighting, and we were written off. We came back, kept doing some things, kept getting better. Even tonight we're down big and early and we kept fighting. So this team I'm proud of these guys. They've worked hard. They come in and they practice hard, but we just have not been able to get to where we need to in the past defensively. I mean, it's been pretty clear to me from the start, we've gotten better, but it just hasn't happened. So that's why we're where we're at.
Q. Cat Barber has always had speed and can get up and down the court. But he's expanded his range of late. What do you have to do to slow a guy like that down?
COACH DIXON: Yeah, he hit the threes and he's not known for three of point shooting. So he hit those early and that got him going. He went 12 for 12 from the free throw line. So, again, it was a good day for him. He made plays. He made shots. You know, it was just his night. At times I thought we had him in the right position where we needed to. Lacey too as well where they made some shots at the end or got fouled at the end of the clock. That was probably the biggest mistake we made they kept getting to the foul line. When we had chances to cut it down and make it a two possession game, some fouls at the end I think really hurt us.
Q. Jamie talked about making the NCAAs and the disappointment that goes along with that. How do you respond as a leader on the floor and as a leader of your team to get ready to play in something that's not going to be the NCAA? Whether it's the NIT or whatever.
Cameron Wright: Whether or not we play in a different tournament or not, I'm just going to talk to the guys and tell them we still have to keep our heads up for whatever we do. Whether or not that's going to another tournament or whether or not that's our off season, then obviously I'm a senior, so I'm done.
Quoting NC State Head Coach Mark Gottfried and players Trevor Lacey and Cat Barber
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 me, and be me, and they need me down the stretch. So today I just came out with a high sense of urgency and 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.
