Final Four teams face 'disrespect' in NCAA Tournament
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz explores how each Final Four team has experienced various levels of disrespect throughout this year's NCAA Tournament.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: Somehow, we are managing to disrespect every single team in this year's Final Four. Don't believe me? Just ask them. That's exactly what I did.
DJ HORNE: I would say, for our season, there's been a lot of disrespect, just at our whole program in general, from the head coach on down to the lowest man. And I would just say, with this run that we went on and where we're at today, I would hope that, from here on out, there's respect put on all of NC State.
DONOVAN CLINGAN: I feel like we used that to prove people wrong and try to go out there and just, like I said, just shut the media up and just quiet the fans. And it just fuels our fire. And it just gives us a reason to go out there and play harder.
DAN HURLEY: Coming into the year, I don't think people on the outside expected us to play this well. I don't know, if you stuck a lie detector on me, if I thought we'd play this well, especially in a tournament that's so hard. It's so hard to advance in this tournament.
ZACH EDEY: When you go through what we went through last year, I think it kind of either makes or breaks you. And you see how our teams responded. It shows the personalities and the type of people that we have on our team.
MARK SEARS: We see what everybody's saying about us on the media. They have the easiest route to get here, they're lucky, and all this stuff. And we love it. We love to prove people wrong. And we love to feed off their energy.
JASON FITZ: Oftentimes, athletes and teams find a way to manufacture whatever sort of disrespect element they want to give the world. I don't think this is that situation. I think, realistically, every one of these teams deserves a little bit more love, a little bit more pub, and a little bit more credit not for who they are as caricatures but for what they're doing right now on the court.