Postgame Quotes: NC State

POSTGAME QUOTES
Boston College Men's Basketball vs. NC State
Conte Forum | Chestnut Hill, Mass.
January 11, 2017

Boston College Head Coach Jim Christian

"I thought, first half, our offense was a little stagnant. We weren't doing a lot of the things we usually do the first three minutes. After the first three minutes, we obviously came out and played well. Sometimes you have to grind one out and you've got to win at home. That's what I told our team: we're 2-0 at home. We're 2-2 in a very difficult league to win on the road. I don't know the other two outcomes were (tonight), but going into tonight's games, in the last 13 ACC games, 12 of the home teams won. We've got to be with those teams if we want a chance to compete. And as we get better, we want a chance to compete."

"We're a team that gets to the rim anyway. That's what we do. We actually shoot a really good percentage from two, and that opens up our threes. We have two guys in Jerome (Robinson) and Ky (Bowman) who can get to the ball, especially in transition. That's where we really get to the basket. They're really good at it, both of them. That helped us."

"(Tonight) was North Carolina State at home. They're a good team. They've got great players. I don't care about any of the stuff that happened prior to this year. I really don't. It's way over. We've moved so much past it. The only people who care about it … you have to ask the questions but you're the only people who think about it. I don't even think about it."

"We had 10 turnovers in the first half and I thought a lot of them were careless turnovers again. In the second half, only four. You have to try to play as best you can with 12 or under. We've done that now twice in the second half of games. You don't want to have high turnover numbers in the first half, but in the second half in a close game, I thought that was a huge thing. And keeping them off the backboard. To only give them eight offensive rebounds is huge. They're a load in there. They've got length and size. (Abdul-Malik) Abu at the 4 is a premier offensive rebounder – one of the premier ones in the league. So I thought we did a great job. Our guards got in and got some rebound and we made free throws. We did the things you need to do to win. We went 18-for-19 from the line, only four turnovers in the second half and took care of the ball. If you do that, and guard, you're going to have a chance."

"I want (Connar Tava) to look at the basket more. I think he's a guy who's such a good facilitator of offense, but he has to look for it – especially when teams sag off of him like they did tonight. And he's got to shoot the ball. He made a huge one if the first half and I want him to shoot more."

"Second half, I was proud of A.J. (Turner) because he didn't have a good first half. That's what we talked about at halftime: we were going to need some people who didn't play well in half one to step up and play well. And I think that's the maturity of our team. That's where we're grown. We've become more mature because respond to that. So A.J. goes out in the second half and plays better. Niko (Popovic) plays better. Mo (Jeffers) rebounds the ball better in the second half. And that's what good teams do. That's why there's a halftime. You get a chance to regroup. We're up by two and we're still not playing … everyone's not playing to the level we know you can play at, and now we've got to step up. And that was the whole message."

Boston College sophomore guard Jerome Robinson

"To me, out there, it felt like another Raleigh pick-up game. I grew up with a lot of those guys and played with them every day in the summer, so it was normal. It felt comfortable. No big deal, really."

"(Playing against a team from North Carolina) may be easier. I know a lot of those guys' strengths and weaknesses – and they probably know mine, too – but for me it's not a big deal. It's just playing basketball."

"You can tell when we're out there. We're moving the ball, we know what each other are going to do. It's definitely a good feeling. As Coach says, you're staying connected. And I really feel like we're connected right now."

NC State Head Coach Mark Gottfried

"I wasn't surprised (in the outcome after the UNC game). I was proud of them. I told our team that we got better tonight. We took a big step forward. Now we don't have a win to show for it, and it hurts. I feel bad for our players. But we took a step forward. I thought the biggest thing tonight was our turnovers. It's hard to win on the road when you have 17 turnovers in a game like that. Defensively, I thought our guys played extremely hard. We've got to get some more scoring out of our inside guys right now around the basket. We're putting too much pressure on our perimeter players to score that many points. Whether it's we got careless with the ball or we made some lazy passes, 17 turnovers was the Achilles heel tonight. That was the difference."

"I don't really care what anybody thinks (if this is a step backwards) … We got better tonight. We've played four games in the league. Three have been on the road. Most people think Boston College and they're just not very good. But they're wrong. They beat Providence; they beat Syracuse. They're a good team. So, our team got better and it's a long season and we've got a lot of young players playing. It's like Omer (Turtseven). I love the guy, but he's a freshman. He's learning. On the road. Markell (Johnson) was fantastic. Dennis (Smith, Jr.) was really good and played through getting hit in the face. We had a lot of great things happen for us tonight. I know our team got better and we're going to keep getting better. We'll just go from there."

"We fought through adversity tonight. We defended better. We ran our offense better – so long as we don't turn the ball over. We executed much better than we have. We got good shots when we didn't turn the ball over. A lot of times they didn't make them, but that's part of the game of basketball. We executed our offense, got better shots. Defensively, I thought our guys did a heck of job. Jerome (Robinson) and Ky (Bowman), those two kids stepped up and played really well. But they had to earn every one of them. We got better. We fought through adversity better. And we just can't turn the ball over 17 times."

"Markell (Johnson) had a shoulder (injury). I think his shoulder kind of popped out of its joint a little bit. He's had it a couple of times this year. And Dennis (Smith, Jr.) was inadvertent – it wasn't intentional – but took an elbow right there to the eye pretty heavy. I thought it showed great competitive spirit. He wanted to play and I thought he came back and did well. He played hard. It's a part of the game."

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Players Mentioned

Jerome Robinson

Connar Tava

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