Ilian Evtimov Quotations

We're getting better. We learned a lesson with our last game (against Duke). We missed some shots, missed some free throws. We didn't finish it. I think (Saturday) was a big step forward.

We know we didn't play well, North Carolina just whipped us tonight. It's going to take some character for us to come back. We're either going to respond or we're going to fold. We're going to have to come out smoking the next game.

We have to go in and beat Wake Forest, that's all we can control right now.

Now we're back to work. The challenge is more mental than anything else.

Carolina and Duke, those were two games we should have won. And you know, we've learned from them. We're very tough mentally now. We don't want to give up.

I felt like Craig Smith was running at me and someone was going to have a better shot than I did. Should I have taken the shot? Maybe, I don't know that. We all makes mistakes, and that's a mistake I made. I have to live with it.

If anybody thinks that North Carolina State is not successful and thinks North Carolina State is not becoming a better program over the last few years, I'm sorry, but I would have to call them an idiot.

We stunk, we had an awful game. It's a complete embarrassment. We're going to have to come back from this and bounce back.

Guys had a little edge to them in the last couple of days in practice. The intensity of practice went from a five to a nine the last couple of days.

I think it's more nerve-wracking being on the sidelines than it is being on the court. When you're on the court, you have the confidence that you can win. You know you're in charge of your destiny, you're in charge of what happens out there. When you're on the sidelines, you don't have any control. So it was tough watching.

I think we did a good job of going inside and out, and we just made a few more. Once you start making them, it's contagious. When more people are making them, people get in better rhythms. We got transition offense in the second half, which we didn't get in the first half, and I think that got us going for the 3.

I think that will make a big difference for us. We can have a great year if we do that.

I think the reason why Seton Hall was so good was we made them so good. We beat ourselves. We didn't do anything good. We didn't play good defense. We didn't play good offense. We didn't rebound the ball. We didn't get any transition offense. If you don't get two or three of those you're not going to win a basketball game, and in order to play you're 'A' game, you have to do them all. But, you know, we stunk tonight. We were awful tonight.

Our maturity and experience showed. We finished this game like you're supposed to.... We made plays.

I was tired, I am sure everyone else was, but I felt like we were the better conditioned team and that should have showed at the end of the game. Unfortunately, it didn't.

I think he's the best big man in the ACC, no question about it. Tonight, he showed everyone he's among the elite.

It couldn't have set up any sweeter than that.

That was fantastic. It seems like every game Cam is doing something spectacular.

We need to regroup and get our confidence back. We just lost three in a row, and to this point, we had not lost more than one in a row. We have to pick it up in practice. That's where it all starts. We have to communicate with each other and become a stronger family now by staying tight.

We just couldn't stop them on defense. They just kept scoring at will.

We were two points away from making it an even game. But in the second half we didn't get those stops and convert those points in transition like we did in the first half. That was the difference.

We were two points away from making it an even game, and they just hit a big 3 that got them going.

We know that they are a good team that beat Maryland. It will be a good test for us and a good test for them.

Those are the kinds of plays we need from him. Those are the kinds of plays that get everybody excited and involved.

Those four games we had to put behind us, and this win we have to put behind us too. We've just got to put the past behind. We had a good season, we deserve to be here.

We've been sidelined for a while now, and it's affecting our chemistry on the court.

We just have not played good defense lately. That's not our character. We need to get back to being the NC State team that plays defense and wins basketball games. We can't rely on our offense to win games. Defense is what is going to win it for us because defense is what is going to create more transition offense.

We've got to be patient, and we've got to stay together and play together. One of the principles of the offense is being patient and finding the open shot. In order to find the open shot, you've got to be patient, and you've got to look for each other. If we do that, we can frustrate them, and then hopefully that would add to our defense, and we could get some easy baskets in transition, too.

This was definitely supposed to be a test, and I think we did pretty good on it. We knew they were a very good team. We knew if we didn't play our game we could very easily lose. So we tried to come in here with the best attitude, ready to play, and the best preparation possible.

We knew he likes to post up on the block, but he really doesn't mind posting up off the lane. He's going to ask for the ball until he catches it. If you front him, he's going to try to get around you and he'll go way out there. He wants the ball, so he'll go get it even if he has to go far away from the basket. So we were able to push him outside. And, we knew he likes to go right, so we had a lot of help coming from the middle if he was on the left, and from the baseline if he was on the right.

We were playing unselfishly early in the game and were in a really good rhythm. Everybody is comfortable with each other out there. When we don't play like that is when we get in trouble.

We lost two games down the stretch at Carolina and Duke, two games we could have won. We've learned from them and used those games for experience.

We're going to watch film and stuff, but nothing looked good. All of this scouting and stuff we did, what good does it do if we don't play hard enough to get the rebound or box out or get the loose ball?

There's no question we're facing a lot of adversity right now. The young guys, sometimes they just look at you with the big eyes, but they don't know what to do. They expect seniors to know how to take the lead.

These are the kind of wins you want, where you have to dig in and grind it out. Those wins are the best.

The stat sheet says it all. We are unselfish. We don't really care who shoots or scores, as long as we get the W.

Now it's our business to keep on moving forward.

That's not us. That's not N.C. State defense. That's not our character. That's not our identity. They kept scoring at will.

This is giving us a lot of experience come March. It's putting us in situations where we're finding ways to win each time. Wins like this give us a lot of confidence that we can finish games when it's close. We've been ahead, we've been behind, we've been tied. So all that experience is going to pay off in March.

They had to work really hard on offense to get open looks. We did a great job on Justin Gray, to the point where their coach had to make an adjustment because he was not touching the ball.

This is the last game at home, sure, but there's a lot of season left.

It was beautiful to watch. Everybody was playing unselfishly.

It's an ugly, embarrassing loss. We missed our shots and they made theirs.

It's going to take some character for us to bounce back, with the quick turnaround against another top team.

It's getting better every day. But I'm not going to say it feels good. I felt pain with every step.

That's part of adversity -- somebody going down and somebody stepping up. I think Gavin Grant has been playing great for us. We just need to have more guys playing well.

That's such a good feeling to get when you're on the court, and you're doing that to the other team. And you know that even though you're ahead, you're stomping and you keep playing hard, you keep playing defense.

It's a new season starting next week, and everybody's going to be 0-and-0. It's one-and-done, and if we have the right mindset, we're going to advance.

It usually comes down to who plays the hardest. Put scouting aside, and it's very important that we play hard. If you don't show up, you're going to go home.

They just whipped our tails. They're a lot better than they were earlier in the season when we played them, and unfortunately for us, we haven't improved as much.

I hope this year is not judged by our last four losses because we had a very good season. We should be judged by our good body of work.

I'm actually looking forward to it. We didn't play over there last year, and really, I kind of missed it.

Instead of winning games by two or three points in double overtime, we can win those games by 10 or 15 points, you know?

In this league, everybody knows Tony Bethel is going to hit 3s.

I guess we're going to go in under the radar now. People are going to say that we're not playing real well. But that's not a bad situation to be in, knowing that you are a very good basketball team that's just going through a bad stretch.

I just tell them to keep their poise and composure. That's the key for us winning. Duke tries to get you out of your game, they like to pressure you, they like to deny you. On top of that they've got the fans that are trying to be as loud as they possibly can in that little arena they have. When all that's going against you, you've got to stay together and stay poised.

Cameron had a terrific game; he did a great job on Justin Gray. He is a tremendous defensive player, and he did a great job on offense, posting up inside.

I don't know if it's a relief or not, because it's one and done at this point and you've got to put this win behind just like the losses you put behind. If you want to succeed on Sunday, you can't get too happy and you can't be satisfied. You've got to stay hungry. Like Julius (Hodge) said, 'When you're hungry, you eat.' And that's the mentality we've got to have right now.

I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight, but it's nothing but a bruise. We got the win, so it doesn't matter. I'll be fine two or three days from now.

I didn't quite see what happened, but I'm sure the officials went over to the television and made the right call. I think we were all frustrated. But that's something we need to do a better job of handling ourselves.

Gavin's been practicing really hard lately. He's really focusing more on defense and playing more aggressive than he had to this point in his career. I think when you do that in practice you can gain trust from Coach, and I think Coach trusts him enough now to put him in that situation.

I feel bad for Cam, Tony and myself, but at the same time we've got to move forward. This is the last game at home, for sure, but there's a lot of season left. There's one more season game, and we'll go into the ACC Tournament. We'll play as well as we can so we can get a good seed in the NCAA Tournament. It's sad, true, but it's not the end of the world.

All of this is just a distraction from the media. We're not going to let that affect us. We're going to believe in what we do, and at the end of the day that is what is going to make us successful.