What they’re saying about NC State’s upset of Villanova

statelogoThe 8th seeded N.C. State Wolfpack is going back to the Sweet 16 for the second time in the last four years after an 71-68 upset of top-seeded Villanova on Saturday. The last time the Pack beat a regional No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament was during the run to the title in 1983. Here is what they’re saying about the victory.

“I want to give credit to N.C. State. They played a great game, and I think they were able to impose their will and do the things that they did well all season and take us out of what we do well.”
– Villanova coach Jay Wright

“In my opinion, (the ACC) it’s an undervalued conference right now for how strong our league is. So when you went on the road like we have and beat North Carolina, or on the road and beat Louisville or beat a Duke team, it’s not that we don’t respect — we respect Villanova, but we’ve seen good teams. We’ve seen a lot of them in our conference. You see them about every night. So a league like that prepares you for games like tonight. But again, our guys don’t — it’s not something we make a big deal out of, whether they’re the 1, or whatever. We’re going to play, and that’s our next opponent.”
– NC State coach Mark Gottfried

“In terms of talent, N.C. State is in top 15ish range. I’d argue they’re more talented than Villanova. Wolfpack just didn’t always show up.”
– NBC Sports Rob Dauster

“Seriously, did the entire Villanova team get food poisoning last night? One of the best shooting teams in country putting up airballs.”
– Fox Sports Stewart Mandel

“If the Wolfpack can control the pace and tempo in the Sweet 16, they could very well make a surprising run.”
– Bleacher Report’s Nate Loop

“All the close calls that went against N.C. State during the regular season are suddenly going the Wolfpack’s way in the NCAA tournament.”
– Raleigh News & Observer’s Joe Giglio

“We came out today with the feeling that everybody expected us to lose to a one seed, but we believe in ourselves and that we’re good enough to beat anybody in the country and we went down and did it.”
– NC State’s Beejay Anya

“The Wildcats have one more March failure to tack on the list. They shot a season-high 63 percent in the tournament opener against Lafayette. Against the Wolfpack, they fired ’em early in the shot clock, got stuffed at the rim and twice airballed 3-point attempts. These were the top-seeded Big East champs?”
– Associated Press’s Dan Gelston

“Before the game, a team manager had passed around a blog post suggesting that even N.C. State’s finest effort would not be enough to fell the Wildcats, losers of just two games all season and 9.5-point favorites coming off a 41-point thrashing of poor Lafayette. It would not let that go by easily either.”
– Sports Illustrated’s Dan Greene

“We used all that to add fuel to the fire.It s houldn’t take that, but we like those things to get us over the hump.”
– NC State’s Trevor Lacey, who scored a game-high 17 points.

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