North Carolina State University Athletics
Georgia Tech-NC State coaches quotes
1/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NC STATE HEAD COACH JIM VALVANO
"Ernie Myers is, what I said before, a scorer, not a shooter. You don't think he is getting as many points as he does. He's a very active player. He scores off fast breaks. It's nice to see a freshman do that.
"Give a lot of credit to Georgia Tech. We've gone from a veteran team to a young team. We had three seniors with defined roles. Now, we start a freshman, two sophomores and two seniors. We're sputtering a little bit. I think it's going to be a learning process again. I thought I'd be talking like this next year, not this season.
"You have to understand how much Dereck (Whittenburg) meant to this cluib to realize how much his loss means. It's a big loss offensively and defensively."
NOTE: Ernie Myers' 27 points ties the freshman school record, set in 1977 by Clyde Austin against Maryland.
GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH BOBBY CREMINS
It's always tough tto play here at NC State. Valvano always has his team pumped up. I felt we had a chance to win this game. It was competitive, but we just couldn't get over the edge.
"I thought McQueen's bucket was big. He threw it in from the ocean and then hit the free throw. We were closing in on them, but they got the momentum back and didn't let us back in it.
"Ernie Myers is a great player. I recruited him out of high school. I know him and I was not surprised by the way he played. If he continues to play this way, NC State will not suffer from the loss of Whittenburg. I thought going in that we might have an advantage without Dereck in there.
"I'm proud of our team. We made some early mistakes and then settled down. Price was pushing everything and his shooting was off today. We can't be compeititve unless we shoot well and we didn't put the ball in the hole today.
"I thought John Salley really exerted himself out there. He is still very skinny and not real strong. But he was scoring and rebounding with them inside. Bailey got some big blocks, but usually our perimeter people missed the open man inside.
"This game should help us for Virginia. Bailey is not the intimidating player inside that Sampson is, but he is a big shot blocker inside. McQueen's size, with Bailey, is really what makes them sound inside."
