North Carolina State University Athletics
Coaches Quotes
12/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
JIM VALVANO, NC State head coach
"I went in the East Carolina lockerroom the first thing and told them they played a great game. I've been playing East Carolina for the last 12 to 15 years, and that's the best East Carolina team I've seen in terms of enthusiasm, offense and discipline. The credit belongs to Coach Harrison. They'll beat some people, I guarantee that. I congratulate them and their effort. They're a well-discipline, well-coach club.
"We needed a game like this. We've played three games, counting Marathon Oil, and they've been 30-pointers. We needed a tough game, and this certainly was one. Our guards carried us. We need better inside play. We're going to work our little fannies off on that, starting tomorrow. Their quickness took us out of our offense. We've got another game like that against Michigan State Saturday. I'm concerned about George McClain (ankle injury). We need him in games like this. I'm afraid he might be out a while. The doctors won't know until they get an X-ray.
"The good thing is we won. That bad thing is we lost George."
ON STOPPING EDWARDS IN THE SECOND HALF: "We fronted him in the first half, be we decided to let him get the ball. We thought he might have trouble shooting over our height. After all, Thurl (Bailey) is 6-11, and he's 6-6. Edwards is a fine player. I was very impressed with the job East Carolina did. We feel fortunate to have won. We played more solid defense the second half. They're a very tough club. They use their quickness well.
CHARLIE HARRISON, East Carolina head coach
"I was pleased with certain things. We knew we would have to execute extremely well and control the tempo. At times we did that, but at other times we had mental lapses and got sloppy. We did not take advantage of their defensive breakdowns when we should have. Our kids are doing some good things, but we need to be more consistent.
"We are still a step slow on defense. We are a very young team. We had a little communication problem due to the noise. Later the kids will learn to control themselves and not have to follow me from the bench. I thought (Tony) Robinson did an excellent job running the team in a pressure-packed game. Not having Curt (Vanderhorst) hurt. We missed him, as we did Thom Brown.
Johnny Edwards is a talent. But give credit to his team that they recognize that and get the ball to him. Charlie Green was in a shooting position last year, but this year he's playing a new role. He's getting the ball to Johnny a lot. But you got to remember that Johnny is still a freshman."
