North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State-Memphis State Coaches Quotes
1/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NC State head coach Jim Valvano
"I thought the turning point was the foul call on Bailey. They missed the shot on a possible three-point play a fed seconds later, and it appeared someone was on our back. But there was not a call. Still, we had the ball with a tie score, but we made nothing happen.
"Now you can see what the clock does. Without it today, we showed we can play. Had not we made a couple of turnovers at crucial points, we could have had a big win. It's another disappointment in what has become for us lately a series of disappointments.
"We out-rebounded them in the first half, but in the second half, they really went to the offensive boards. Everything has to go right for us in a game like this, but we seem to be a little snake-bitten.
"That tap-back on the missed free throw was such a key play. We could've had the ball and the lead. It seems that Murphy's Law is working against us. Everything that can go wrong does.
"Right now, I'm concerned with Lowe's knee. I don't know if you noticed it, but he asked to be taken out. While he was out, we had a couple of turnovers.
"But we did some good things today. I hope the kids understand this and will be ready to go Wednesday against Duke."
Memphis State head coach Dana Kirk
"Whoever said North Carolina State couldn't shoot from outside must have been crazy. I'm really glad someone turned the heat down in there. The last time I was here (for last year's NCAA playoffs), I'll bet you I lost 12 pounds. This time I guess I didn't lose but seven.
"All through the game, I knew if we ever got ahead we would spread it out. We went to the spread early in the game just to see what kind of defense they would be in. When we finally did go to it, Phillip (Doom) Haynes did what was supposed to be done.
"This was probably a more important game for us than North Carolina State because it was a conference game for us.
"It was a cat-and-mouse game for both teams and in the end, I guess they ended up chasing us. Their offensive rebounds in the first half hurt us bad. We told the players in the lockerroom during the first half that we had to have those rebounds on their end of the floor."
