Gottfried: N.C. State players 'have to play better'

N.C. State's Mark Gottfried got a technical after throwing his coat in an 82-71 loss to Georgia Tech, but he said the officials didn't cost his team the game. Ethan Hyman photo.

Mark Gottfried cut to the chase in his post-game comments about N.C. State's 82-71 college basketball loss to Georgia Tech on Wednesday.

The first-year coach called it one of the team's "poorer" performances of the season. He gave a rather amusing philosophical answer in trying to explain what went wrong against a struggling Georgia Tech team that entered the game with a 7-8 record.

"Sometimes, we'd all like to come up with this grand answer of why your team doesn't play good," Gottfried said. "Sometimes you just don't play good. I go golf, sometimes I'm terrible, sometimes I'm a little better. It's part of life.

"Tonight, we didn't play very well, we have to play better, that's on us, not anybody else."

Gottfried got called for a technical foul at 12:12 in the second half, with the Wolfpack down 49-40. Foul trouble also hurt forward C.J. Leslie, who was limited to 24 minutes and ended up fouling out with 12 seconds left in the game.

N.C. State's players did not react well after Gottfried's technical, from official Roger Ayers, failing to get closer than 11 points the rest of the game, but Gottfried wasn't interested in blaming the loss on anyone other than his team.

"Let me say this clearly, the officials, they did not cost us the game, not at all," Gottfried said. "Everybody can have an opinion but my take on all that is my team has to play better. I'm not into excuses, I'm not into that at all."

Gottfried did add he never received an explanation for the technical. He threw his jacket after a no-call on a Lorenzo Brown layup-attempt right before the technical. After a stop in play after the call, he walked out near midcourt and motioned to Ayers, who was under Georgia Tech's basket, but Ayers never came over to the State sideline.

"I can take my jacket off any time I'd like to," Gottfried said. "That's my prerogative. I never got an explanation. I asked repeatedly and never got one, never had any communication after that from them, and that's a little bit frustrating on my side."

-- J.P. Giglio