Shaun Kirk wants to take advantage of opportunity at NC State

RALEIGH, NC (WWAY) — The NC State men’s basketball team is off to a 2-0 start. We caught up with 2015 Whiteville High graduate Shaun Kirk after Sunday’s win over St. Francis. “No spot is guaranteed, so everyone must fight to earn their playing time,” Kirk told WWAY’s John Rendleman on Sunday. “Coach even said it, everyone gets an opportunity so you have to take advantage of your opportunity.”

Two weeks ago in an exhibition game against Lynn University Shaun Kirk took advantage of his opportunity. He scored 11 points in NC State’s win. Kirk scored 10 points in NC State’s exhibition victory over Barton College.

Breakdown of our interview with Shaun Kirk from Sunday is below:

WWAY’s John Rendleman: “What was your favorite dunk in the Lynn game?”

Shaun Kirk: “It had to be the put-back. All my teammates love the put-back.”

“How did you have 5 dunks in the Barton game?”

“Our coach tells us every day in practice that he wants us to run, run, run so whenever I get on the court me and Dennis we’ve played together before so running was like cake for me, so everytime I get a chance to get out and run my teammates fed me the ball and helped me get all my points.”

“This is your second year at NC State. You feel this is a better team than last year?”

“Oh yeah definitely. This year we have more depth on the bench and everything so it is a lot easier for each individual player to play and everything because one player gets tired the other player comes in.”

“How good can this team be?”

“Oh we can be great. It’s just everything that we do it’s we have to put in the effort and hard work in practice and everything will lay out for itself.”

“Could it be a special year for the Wolfpack?”

“Oh definitely if everybody stays on track and keeps fighting for this one goal that we have then definitely.”

“And your goal is?”

“Hopefully win a national championship. We’re just working hard and hopefully we’ll get a chance to be there.”

“You remember the last one?”

“Oh yeah.”

“1983 Jimmy V. The one before that was the 1974 Norm Sloan coached team.”

“Yes sir I remember those. Coach talks about em all the time.”