Mark Gottfried Breaks Down The Schedule

The full NC State Men’s Basketball 2015-16 schedule was released, and Shantel Jordan sat down with head coach Mark Gottfried to get him to breakdown the schedule. Watch the video below, or read the transcript underneath it.

Transcript

On how the non-conference games are scheduled…

“We try to every year to make sure that our schedule is going to be as competitive as possible.  We’re always going to play some teams from the other BCS conferences.  It’s good for us.  It’s exciting for our fans.  Then we also try to find those teams that aren’t in the BCS conferences who are going to have great records and great teams.  We go back and look over a 5-year period, and look at their average RPI, which players they are returning, and how strong they’re going to be.  We actually are trying to find those teams that are going to be very good, who might be 20-25 game type winning teams.  There’s a lot that goes into it, but at the end of the day, I think we’ve put together another schedule that is going to give us one of the more competitive schedules in the country.”

On playing Arizona St…

“I think it’s going to be exciting.  A lot of our fans remember Levi (Watkins), and he was with me for two years on my staff here.  He probably knows us, and knows what we do better than anybody.  I’ve actually laughed with him about the fact that he’s going to do a pretty good job with the scouting report.  They’re going to be a good team for us to play out of the Pac 12.  With the other two teams, Marquette and LSU, you have two talented really good teams.  It is a great tournament of us to be a part of, and getting to go to New York City, and play in the Barclays Arena where the Nets play in the NBA.  I think it’s going to be a fun couple of days.”

On the chance of a rematch with LSU…

“LSU lost the two big guys inside.  Both guys got drafted pretty high in the NBA draft.  The perimeter is going to mostly be the returning players.  Their guys around the basket now are different.  Ben Simmons, if he could have entered the NBA out of high school, I do believe would have been the #1 pick out of high school.  Extremely talented player.  If we end up playing them, we will be playing a talented team in LSU.”

On the ACC slate…

“I think with our schedule in the league, like everyone in our league, it’s a difficult schedule.  When you look at the way ours shook out, we’ve got UNC twice, Duke twice, Florida St. twice, who I think is going to be really good this year.  They’ve got all 5 starters back.  We play Wake Forest twice, which is a good rivalry game for us.  Then when you look past that, you see that we have to go on the road to Syracuse, to Notre Dame, to Virginia.  Now our schedule becomes one of the most difficult of the 15 teams in the league.  Sometimes if you have three in a row here, or two in a row there, sometimes you don’t know exactly how that’s going to play out.  Maybe you’re on a roll playing well, or maybe you’re not playing so well.  One thing different this year, than in years past, is that we only have one BYE in the schedule.  Last year we had two BYES, with two breaks in the schedule.  That will be a little bit different for us this year.  We won’t have that opportunity to get regrouped like we did a year ago.”

On the road challenges in league play…

“I think if you’re going to be a good team, a team that gets to play in the NCAA tournament, you have to be good at home and on the road.  We’ve been fortunate over the past couple of years to have some great road wins.  Last year specifically at Louisville, at North Carolina, those were big games for us.  We’ll see how it works out.  Every team is different.  Every team has to develop it’s own identity and ability to go on the road and win in a tough environment.”

On playing the top teams in the country…

“I like playing the tough teams in the ACC.  Sometimes there is a part of you that wishes your schedule was a little bit easier.   On the other hand, when you play a majority of the teams that are going to be towards the top of the conference, it makes the schedule harder, and also gives you the opportunity to beat good teams, and help our overall RPI.  At the end of the day, the goal is to be in the NCAA tournament, and eventually have a good high seed, and a good opportunity to advance.  If that means we have to play more games against the top half of the ACC, then I’m all for it.  At the end of the day, our goal is to be the best team we can be, get in the NCAA tournament, and have a chance to play for an NCAA championship.”