Kevin Keatts: "This Was the Most Complete Game We've Played"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 84-60 win over No. 16 Duke Wednesday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.
Opening Statement
I thought this was probably the most complete game that we have played the entire year, especially on the defensive end. I have to give our guards a lot of credit. I thought we did a good job picking them up and forcing them into turnovers. We worked the last couple of days. We didn't like how we finished the Clemson game; we didn't like the game at all, and we thought that we kind of got out-toughed, and so the last couple of days, we have been talking about toughness, playing together, and playing hard. It may be the best defensive game that I have coached since I have been here for two halves. I thought we played on both ends. We talked about it at halftime, the big lead by 22, and we talked about winning the half. I didn't want it to be a game where they made runs. We came out in the second half and played entirely like we played in the first half. Our two guards were really good: Jarkel Joiner with 9 assists and no turnovers [and] Terquavion [Smith] hit some big shots, and the new “crowd favorite”, D.J. Burns, was really good.
On the team’s large lead in the first five minutes of the game…
You know what I worried about in the beginning of the game? My team has struggled this year when we weren't scoring. In the first three or four possessions, neither team scored. I was like, “This is going to be a problem because our defense usually struggles when we don't put the ball in the hole." We just kept playing. We stayed focused. I would say we grew up as a team. We’ve learned from our few losses that we have. It was a good first half. It was fun to watch.
On importance of rebounding…
I thought we did a good job. What we talked about in scouting reports was that Ryan Young has been tremendous. He's done a good job rebounding the ball. I think, between him and [North Carolina’s] Armando Bacot, they're the two best offensive rebounding guys in our league, and so we focused on rebounding as a team. With Jack [Clark] out and Dusan [Mahorcic] out, they were our two leading rebounders, so we had to find some guys. I thought we had to do it by committee.
On breaking through after a few close losses against top-tier competition…
Defending home court is going to be huge here. When you look around the ACC, on any given day, anybody can beat anybody. I said this the other day: it’s 31 games, and every team has a Quad associated with it. I remember back in the day, I always said, “If you were 10-10 in the ACC, you were getting in [the NCAA Tournament]. It's not like that now. You have to get Quad 1 wins and Quad 2 wins, and we talked about it. Here is an opportunity on your home floor. You’ve got a Quad 1 team coming in. No matter what the name is, you’ve got to do a good job, and you’ve got to win the game, and that's what happened.
On the potential for 90 teams in the NCAA Tournament…
I think it should be 120.
On the atmosphere in PNC Arena…
It was great. When we made runs, you could hear them. These are always the toughest games because all of our students are not back, so we have to rely on the community to game and people to come to the games. I personally want to thank everybody that showed up to the games because I thought it was electric, and it was a powerful game for us. It's the first game that our guys have really felt what PNC can be like on a good night.
On Burns getting touches in the second half…
It’s funny now, and I’m saying this jokingly so don’t print it the wrong way: Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner do all the hard work. They get the big lead, and D.J. Burns comes in and scores all the points — and he was really good — and everyone's saying, “D.J.! D.J.!" like they forgot about the two guards. Listen, I don’t know if there's a better back-to-the-basket scorer in college basketball than him, and it’s weird because everyone has gone more to the face-up five man and guys who can shoot the three, and here’s a guy that can back you down and score. He’s got a great touch, and he’s been really good for us.
On when he realized defense was going to rule the court…
I think that, in the first four minutes, we were locked in. Now, could we sustain that? I didn’t know that. The last couple of days, we've really concentrated on defending. I did more in shootaround talking about our defense than I did our offense. I would say that, the first four or five minutes, I thought that we were going to be locked in, and I was just hoping that we could play that way for the entire game.
On the lack of consistency and bringing more intensity to the next game…
We're growing. We’ve got an elite guard that came back, and I've added some new pieces, and I know, because they're transfers, everybody thinks that we should gel right away. We're still growing, and this was a great teaching moment. We learned a lot through losing to Clemson, but I would rather learn a lot through winning a game against Duke by 24 [points]. We're growing, and we're going to continue to get better. I never liked the "next man up" mentality, I know people say that all the time. When you lose Dusan, and you lose Jack, it completely changes our team. The other guys are good players, but they do it in a different way, and so I give credit to Ernest [Ross] and give credit to Greg Gantt who I know people were surprised to see out there, but they played today, and they were good.
On arena security stopping students from storming the court…
I’m not surprised, and I kind of want that. Duke, Carolina, and good teams like Virginia are all in our same league, and we’ve got to get to the point where, when we win those games, it’s not like our Super Bowl. I’m excited. I was hoping that nobody would storm the floor, and it happened that way, so it's a good win.
On the big spotlight moments for Joiner and Smith…
I’m still learning Jarkel Joiner. It was funny because, yesterday before practice, I sat those two guys down and told them, “We’re going to be as good as you guys are, and you guys can’t be average.” When I looked at them against Clemson, I think that they were 7-for-3, and that’s not good enough. "I give you a lot of offense freedom. You guys have to be better as a group.” I thought they stepped up today. We are going to go as far as they take us.
On if it was surprising his team made blocks despite the absence of Mahorcic, Clark, and Isaiah Miranda out…
No, Ebe Dowuona blocked shots. We are still trying to figure out now with Jack out, and we didn’t know that Jack was going to be out. If you look at the end of the Clemson game, it’s almost like he fell on a wet spot. We got an MRI on him, and we don’t know how long he's going to be out, but that was a big concern because I had to figure out right away who was going to take those minutes. If we weren’t playing against Duke, I probably would have started L.J. Thomas and kind of went with four guards, but we needed size because Duke started two 7-footers.