Uh, if you’ve got a question for Will, uh, just use the raise hand tool. If you need access to record, let me know that as well. Uh, first question goes to Royal Howell. Go ahead, Royal. Good morning, coach. How are we doing this morning? Good. Uh, coach, when you look at the matchup you got tomorrow, um, at Virginia, a team that I believe is, uh, 13-1 at home, only allowed about 68 points a game, um, and from your first matchup, what have you learned more about your team going into this matchup tomorrow night, uh, that you, you know, think they’ll be the difference maker in coming out with a victory? I mean, look, Virginia’s playing great. Um, you know, they, they got great personnel. They’re huge. They’re, they’re, they’re, they’re kind of the opposite, um, of who we are and, uh, their physicality poses, uh, a lot of, uh, a lot of issues, uh, a lot of issues for us. So, so it’ll be a, a, a, a monumental task, uh, tomorrow and hopefully, we can play better, and get off to a better start than we got off to in the first game and Um, you know, we’ve got to not let our offense, cause it’s gonna be tough sledding, the, the, the best, you know. The best defensive team in the league, and, and, um, you know, we can’t let our offense, uh, affect our, uh, affect our defense cause any, any chance we have, it’s gonna have to, we’re gonna have to Uh, you know, Be better defensively and, and get, get a few more stops than we’ve been getting. Thanks, coach. Greg Medea, go ahead, sir. Yeah, hey, hey, hey, Will, I’m just wondering with, with UVA, are there any big differences that you see from compared to when you saw them the first time around as, as you’ve scouted them for, for this matchup? I mean, the first time, the first time around, they didn’t have White, uh, he was out, um, so he’s kind of value added, he’s made him even better, uh, you know, he’s instant offense, you could argue he won him the Florida State game with how he played, did the same thing against Miami, um, as well, so it’s another player that you’ve got to. Really, really, uh, account for. So I think, I think they’re even better than the first time we played them. And then Sam Lewis played well against you guys the first time. He’s, he’s kind of come on even more for them lately. What, what, what makes him a tough guard? We had 5 3s against us the first time, so I mean, you start with, he can shoot, he’s physical, can, can finish inside, good offensive rebounder, just does a lot of, uh, you know, just does a lot of uh of of winning uh of of winning things. So, uh, does a good job in transition, getting to the rim. Um, so he’s just a, he’s just an all-around very, very good player, very, very efficient player. Corey Smith Well, on your side of things, what do you feel like has changed about your team since that last game? Obviously that came very early in the ACC season. Well, we’ll see tomorrow. I mean, I don’t know. Everything’s in theory until we, until we see if we can do it tomorrow, but I mean, we have to match or exceed their physicality. I’m very worried about that. Um, they’re extremely physical, they’re one of the best offensive rebounding teams, uh, in the, in the conference. Uh, they’re number one going into the Miami game, uh, and offensive rebounding, and that’s defensive rebounding, certainly an area that we’ve, um, that we’ve struggled. And Will, another aspect I wanted to ask you about the last week, having the full week off, and what types of things did you guys do to prepare for keeping them on track, uh, with, with a full week off from the court? Well, we didn’t do what we did the last time we had a week off. Um, so hopefully we’ll try something different and it’ll, uh, it, it’ll, uh, it’ll help us out. We tried to simulate a game last time and then we came out and we’re, uh, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re awful, uh, against Georgia Tech. So, um, hopefully, um, hopefully some of the changes will work a little bit better this time around. Thank you. Noah Fleischman, go ahead. Hey, Will, what’s it been like for you seeing Matt Abel, you know, come into his own, especially in ACC play? Uh, we, we, we expected it, you know, he’s a great player, he works hard, he’s diligent, uh, he studies film, he does everything that you ask him to do, and so, you know, you knew it was coming, it’s just a matter of, of him, uh, you know, growing, uh, throughout the year, but give him credit, man. He’s, he’s stuck with it. Um, he’s, you know, he’s had some really, really good times the last couple of games, but he had some really, really, uh, low moments earlier in the year, and, you know, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help him more, uh, earlier in the year. I think we’d have gotten to this point. Uh, a little bit quicker, uh, but I’m glad we’re here now, and we expect, we, I, I expect him to continue to build, continue to grow, and be able to finish the season, uh, strong force. And then just follow up. What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned about him or his, you know, mindset ability to, you know, bounce back from things like that and be able to, you know, click at the right time. Got incredible mental tough. Uh, he’s got incredible ability to be able to move on to the next thing, be able to be able to, uh, to, um, you know, not let what happened the game before, the day before, the play before bother him and just stay in the present moment, which is really, really, um, a superpower, and, uh, you know, he’s, he’s, he’s got that, and he’s had that, uh, you know, he had that long before we got him. And so that’s a credit to, you know, his, his, his parents and Uh, his upbringing and just his, you know, the way that um he’s been developed basketball-wise. James Henderson Yeah, well, it seemed like you guys were better on the offensive glass against UNC. Was that a point of emphasis? Has that been something you’ve been wanting to improve on or focus more on down the stretch? I wish, um, I think the balls just fell in our hands against those guys. I mean, um, uh, we’re just not a very good offensive rebounding team, so, uh, you know, I wish we would be better. I wish we could be better, but we just are who we are, so we’re not gonna grab a bunch of them. Ben works his tail off down there. Uh, but outside of that, we just don’t have a lot of help. Terrence flies in there when he’s in there, Mussa gets a couple, but, um, you know, to be a good offensive rebound team, you gotta have 3s and really 2s and 3s, if you’re gonna send 4, you gotta have guys and go in there and get it, and we just, we, uh, you know, we don’t have that, so we kind of put a premium on getting back and trying to stop the ball in transition a little bit more than worrying about offensive rebounding right now. Thanks, Will. Jayden Watson Fisher. Yeah, well, the last time y’all were on the road was the Louisville loss, you know, have you seen a sense of urgency to kind of respond with another win on the road and kind of get back in the win column, um, in that respect? I don’t know, really, in the respect from Louisville being our last road game. I mean, that was a while ago, it’s a couple weeks ago, um, you know, look, this is NC State versus Virginia. Uh, Virginia is a great team, they’re in 2nd place in the league. Um, and so this is more about just us preparing to play, uh, a great team, and look, when you go on the road and you play really good teams, Louisville is a great team, you know, um, you know, sometimes, you know, different things can happen. So all we can control is our preparation, and, um, you know, hopefully we’re, we’ll, we’ll be prepared, uh, tomorrow when we get up there. Mike Barber Similarly, you guys have this stretch here of 4 of the top teams really, um, in the conference. Did you sense that your guys were, you know, up for this little stretch and particularly here with Carolina, Virginia back to back? I, I don’t, I don’t even really look at it that way, Mike, till you just said that. Um, I mean, look, every game’s independent, every game is different, and so, um, you know, we, we, we certainly know that the back half of our schedule is a little tougher than the first half front part of our schedule, um, but just take it a game at a time, and, and, uh, you know, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll play, and the one we got in front of us is Virginia tomorrow night. And, uh, Virginia’s bench has been so effective for them, uh, and they do some different things, they bring some different guys off that bench. Um, what’s the challenge of facing a team like that that can, um, really kind of change the look of the game with, with their substitutions? Yeah, and they did that against Miami, they’re down 11 and came in and, and, and made some 3s and got going offensively. Look, they’ve got a great team, they’ve got great depth, they’ve got great pieces and parts, the, the, the, the team fits together really well, looks like they’ve got. Really good connectedness and chemistry from what I can see on film and those, those bench guys are, you know, those guys could start at a lot of places and they’ve bought into their role and, um, you know, they, they, they can come in and, and change the game. You certainly have to pay attention to everybody that’s on the, uh, that’s on the scouting report. Thank you. Last question I’ll go to JC Zemel. After the first time he played Virginia, he talked about the hammer pass with Sam Lewis in the corner. How do you kind of take that away? Uh, we, we gotta work on their baseline drives, I mean, they just got mismatches and drove us and beat us one on one. They did a lot of stuff driving a baseline, like I said, throwing the hammer and then playing out of that, and so, uh, that’s something that we certainly, uh, we’re gonna have to, uh, have to be aware of and have to do, uh, have to do a better job with. All right, well, that’s all the time we have for you. Thank you. Appreciate the time. Thank you. All right, uh, next up.
