N.C. State 78, Boston College 57: What They Said

The 2011-12 Boston College men's basketball season came to an end on Thursday afternoon as N.C. State drilled BC 78-57. Here are the quotes to prove it.

Steve Donahue with the full story.

I am obviously disappointed with our start, when you get off to a start like we did. It was unfortunate, but I was pretty proud of that long stretch in the game where we were outscoring them and cutting it to eight or nine, things like that from that start. I think when that happens, it is just very diffi cult to overcome that kind of deficit, especially against a good basketball team. I think that is what you saw tonight.

Donahue on what the takeaways are for this season.

Ryan and I were just talked about how in December, I wasn't sure where he would be in the ACC competition, but I think he showed that he's got what it takes now. We'd all like to make great strides over the next six months. Just because we played a lot of freshman doesn't mean we are going to be a good basketball team next year. We've got to utilize that experience and now you know what the bar is set at, and you have to go out and improve. In general, I was extremely pleased with all of these guys, how they meshed as a group and how we became competitive as the year went on.

And if he got everything he could out of his young team.

It was such a fine line, because you want to get in practice and stay there for four hours and teach them and do everything you can. I tried to teach as much as I could every day, but there was a stretch there where I had to back off. We could talk about things and show things on film, the assistant coaches were grabbing guys. It was so overwhelming at times, you just cant throw high-level ... You think about doing math-you can't throw high-level calculus out there when you haven't learned Algebra One. It was kind of like that. I had to slow down.

Sounds like Donahue is ready to get out there and start coaching next season already.

I have great confidence in that they really want it. There's no doubt. They're great kids, they really understand what it takes, and we're going to have a great six months. We have a foreign trip planned at the end of the summer, we're going to add pieces, and we're excited. I can't wait to get going-I wish we could hop in the gym right now and start teaching.

Ryan Anderson on how frustrated it was not to be able to close on N.C. State in the second half.

I think it was very frustrating for us. We fought really hard in the second half, and I thought we played with a lot more energy than the first half, and the deficit was cut. We just didn't make enough plays in the second half.

Anderson on ... whatever it was that happened at the end of the first half.

We made a good push late in the fi rst half. Turnovers are always going to hurt a team. It's always good for a team to go into the half with momentum when you are trailing, and we were on that track. They took the momentum back late with those last two plays, and that gave them a lot of push going into the second half.

And Humphrey's take on the end of the first half.

Yeah, I think we could have closed that gap, but then we made silly mistakes and big turnovers that lead to a three or a dunk. It's a momentum factor too. NC State got the momentum on their side, and they played with that.

And on how hungry the team is toward building toward next season.

I think coach (Steve Donahue) made a good point that it's good for our bodies to rejuvenate after a long season like this. A lot of us freshmen are tired and worn down from a long ACC season, and it is going to be good for us to get a little break. All of us are going to be really hungry after how that defeat just ended with tip dunks at the end of the game. That is really going to motivate us going into the off season in preparing for next season.

You can watch the full Donahue press conference here.