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Michael White
Post-Game Press Conference Transcript

Opening Statement:

"We capitalized a bunch in the open floor off of those turnovers. We have not been stressing pressure and have not spent a lot of time working on our press lately. We have been working on our rebounding issue, which obviously was not resolved. I think the extreme physical effort that our guys have been putting forth as of late, carried over a little bit. We are playing with tons of energy, fight and desire knowing that we are close if we can just find a way to defend our glass. Practices have been very physical and extremely competitive. Our guys have embraced understanding what we have to get better at. I thought it carried over to our energy level defensively. We forced 27 turnovers. We had 17 deflections at halftime. Those are terrific positives for us."

On offensive shooting:

"It is something that you take for granted. We have not had to take as much time working on the offense with this group. We have very good guards. We have big men that play within themselves. We have a pretty good feel overall for what a good shot is. We are very unselfish. Overall, we are a really good passing team. Offense is the least of my concerns."

On Xavian Stapleton:

"He is a super talented young man. He was really close on a couple of big plays around the rim. He scored a bunch and I looked at his minutes and he almost had two points a minute. He has a pretty good argument for more playing time with the way he played tonight. It all starts in practice. He is another guy who has been focused on improving in other areas. I know he was in the gym a lot today. I am glad for him. Jacobi Boykins stepped up and made a few shots. Dayon Griffin hit a big three. We have capable shooters and really good passers. We just have some other areas we need to work on."

On preparation for North Carolina State:

"We are going to do the same type of thing. We are going to stick with the routine that we have sold out to over the past three weeks. We are going to lift heavily a couple of times in the weight room. We are going to do a lot of ball drills and a lot of ball toughness drills. We are going to try and continue to shore up our execution offensively. We are going to continue to try and become a more well-rounded defensive team, a little bit better on the interior. Hopefully we are able to build off the performance that we had tonight in regards to pressure. I am not sure we can force 27 turnovers on most nights but maybe high teens would give us a chance to stay in the ball game in a really tough environment against a very good N.C. State team."