North Carolina State University Athletics
Post-game quotes: Boston College at NC State
1/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
“We looked like a young team.
Boston
College came in with the mindset that they would punch us early. We told our guys to hold off in battle, but we didn’t hold our ground. They’re a veteran ball club and it showed.
“I’m concerned because we’ve talked about how we need all five guys playing. No one can relax. I didn’t see us consistently coming out with runs because we kept coming out too slow.
“We couldn’t make wide open shots and we were giving them second shots. They didn’t even have a very high shooting percentage because a lot of their points were from second opportunities.
On Gavin Grant being back at forward: “He felt more free now that he can run the wing and Engin can get passes to him. I’m glad to have him back there because he’s effective in the wing.
On Engin Atsur’s return: “He did fine. We knew it would be tough for him, but we left him in so he could get his wind up. We knew he would be tired, but he needed to work through that fatigue to build his strength. He was 40% of what he could be, and 40% is better than nothing.”
Boston College coach Al Skinner quotes
“This was a very important game for us for a number of different reasons. We hadn’t played very well on the road and I think that we were really mentally focused on what we needed to do today.
“Jared [
Dudley] is going to be a stabilizer for us. Sean [
Marshall] made some great shots for us when our offense got a little stagnant.
“Our ball handling has improved. When you run the offense that we run, a lot of people touch the ball. Jared [
Dudley] moves the ball well, distributes the ball and knows what he’s doing. He’s had a lot of experience at this point.
“He [Sean Marshall] got some great looks and he felt really comfortable shooting the ball. He put the ball in the basket. More importantly for us, he made some timely shots.
“Upperclassmen, leadership, hard work, hustle. As a team, we did all of those things today.
“It was a team attitude and aggressiveness that won us the ball game tonight.
“Everyone knows that we’ve sort of stumbled here lately and I think that this was one of the better efforts that we’ve given all season.”
