NC State head coach Kevin Keatts, forward D.J. Burns, and guard Jarkel Joiner met with the media following the win over Dayton.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Kevin Keatts

“I’d like to complement Dayton and how hard they play. Anthony has done a tremendous job with their program.”

“Dayton is in our mind a Top 25 team who won a lot of games last year and return pretty much all of their starters. We knew it would be a tough game.”

“What you worry about as a coach is you’re playing the name of Kansas and when you play the next day, would there be a letdown.”

“I thought Jarkel was aggressive and we were able to throw the ball inside to D.J. to give us another dimension.”

“It was a very good win for us... we’re excited about our opportunity tomorrow.”

“I thought our energy was great. They listened in the timeout. We had a mixed bag of stuff we wanted to try. We wanted to try and get the ball to D.J. and obviously we did that.”

“We were able to get some steals and create some opportunities.”

“Maybe the best thing that happened to us in the game was Jarkel Joiner getting two fouls and he was able to sit on the bench in the first half and get some rest...he had 20 points in the second half.”

“We knew this was a great rebounding Dayton team and to win the battle on the boards for us was good.”

“When you look at the way they shot the ball last year, they shot around 40%, some of the same guys. I was concerned because I knew they were capable of making shots.”

“They put pressure on you with paint touches, either throwing it inside or driving the basketball. We concentrated more on trying to get the ball out of the paint. At one point in the first half, 15 of their points came within the arc, and we didn’t do a great job in that area.”

“He was really good in the second half. He was active and locked in... we switch a lot one through four and it was a good matchup for us when Casey was on their four man... he did a great job for us. A lot of the stops came through Casey.”

“I thought they were great. Dusan is one of the guys who does a lot of things and I don’t know if there is a better low-post scorer than D.J. Burns when you get him the ball. He has a tremendous touch... those guys have been really good for us so far.”

“That’s the experience of this group playing together.  We finished the game... we still ended up with a 12-point lead. At times we got a little erratic but when we settled in... I’m proud of our guys.  You beat a good team like Dayton by 12 on a neutral court. That’s some good basketball.”

Jarkel Joiner

“We were able to get the ball to D.J. and he played fantastic in the post.”

“They had their run and we had ours.”

“In the second half Coach emphasized we had to punch them in the mouth and that’s what we did.”

“Coach said we had to turn the next page and prepare for Dayton.”

D.J. Burns

“Coach said to go out there and play harder than them. That’s what we did.”