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NC State Basketball

Kevin Keatts: "We Won the Game Like We Needed To"

February 4, 2023
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 72-64 win over Georgia Tech Saturday afternoon.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.


Opening Statement

Well, first I want to start off with this: I feel for Josh [Pastner] because he does a really good job. In this league, you can have a really good basketball team and not always see success with winning. They’re really tough for us because they do a good job of mixing up their defenses and playing a unique offense in the Princeton offense. We really couldn’t disrupt them even though, if you look at the stat sheet, they had 17 turnovers, but I thought some of those came late in the game. They did a good job. They kept us off balance. It’s the second time that we’ve played them, and the first team we played them, they jumped out to an early lead. It was kind of an identical game because we closed the half ahead, and we finished the game here like we did in Atlanta. That being said, I’m proud of my guys. I know one of you is going to ask me this question: “Do you think you could ever win a game with your two guards not scoring a lot of points?” We found out tonight. I thought our front court was tremendous. Ernest [Ross] was great. D.J. [Burns] was great. Greg [Gantt] gave us great minutes. We found a way to win when our two big superstars didn’t play their best game. That being said, I thought Terquavion [Smith] was really good having 10 assists. I thought they stayed locked in.

On Burns being the main guy on the team…

I’m turning into a post coach. He had 26 the other day and 21 tonight. I’ve got to be careful. He’s been great. What a great personality this kid is. During this time of year, I try to stay off Twitter as much as I can, but everybody's telling me he’s inviting grandmothers and everybody to the games. He’s a great personality. When you talk about NIL, he’s probably working his butt off with that stuff. He’s a good player with great touch. I love what he brings to our team. I’m playing him way too many minutes. He played 37 minutes today. I didn’t come into the game wanting to play him 37 minutes. I actually had 25 in my mind, but it didn’t work out that way.

On Ross’ impact…

He was good. He did a good job. Getting to the free-throw line, he was 7-for-7. He gave us energy plays. When he continues to get better defensively where he’s not a liability — the way we play, we like to switch one through four, and sometimes it’s tougher for him to guard some of those smaller guards — his numbers will continue to increase.

If Ross a better shooter than he thought he’d be…

No, I knew he was going to make that corner three. We called the play for that to happen. No, he’s getting better. I thought late in the game, and we hadn’t played this in a while, when we went to our 22 full-court press, I think it kind of changed a little bit, and we forced some turnovers. The reason I switched to that is because we couldn’t get steals late in the game. D.J.’s man was coming up and just getting the basketball, so we went to a zone press more than anything. I thought that created some situations for us. Give our guys credit; we hadn’t played it in a while, but I thought they executed it.

On Casey Morsell’s shooting touch…

Casey’s been good. This was the most points Casey’s scored in an ACC game with 17. He’s been really good. He’s improved so much. He’s starting to get comfortable with our system and our program.

On his frustrations at the under-12 timeout in the first half…

I wasn’t frustrated. I was just straight up mad as hell, excuse my language. I was bothered by us not defending. I didn’t like the way we played. Here’s the great thing about this bunch: they will allow me to coach them. They understand that, when we’re not together and playing like we should, I’m not going to always be the happy guy. I thought we closed and responded right after that.

On Burns getting the national attention he deserves…

I don’t know. I don’t follow that stuff. I know he’s very important to us. If you’re in the ACC and have played against him, you know what type of player he is, but I don’t follow whether he’s getting the attention nationally that he deserves.

On if Georgia Tech’s intensity impacted Smith’s and Jarkel Joiner’s off days…

Good players sometimes have off days, and very seldom do you see them both happen at the same time, and they did. This is a tough game. The last two games we played against Florida State and Georgia Tech, both of those [teams] are capable of beating because they both have unique defensive styles: Florida State switches one through five, and Josh switches defenses up. The unfortunate thing is that, if you lose those, it really hurts you because they’re Quad IVs, and they’re better than that. Even though you look Georgia Tech’s record, they still beat Miami. I know it was at home, but if you lose the game, it really hurts you. I told everybody that they had to be locked in. If those two guys aren’t having a good night, we’ve got to find other ways to win. I thought we did that today.

On grinding it out during the final four minutes…

I may be wrong on this, but I think it was 2:59 on the clock, and we were down one. I just said, “Hey, we’ve got to lock in. We’ve got to get stops from this point on.” We got the steal, and we made some plays, but it was really good to see us finish. We talk about getting three consecutive stops. I think we finished the game with three or four consecutive stops to win the game.

On getting complacent with the current hot streak…

I think, when you win, it brings energy. I think winning is fun. I think winning brings confidence. We’ve won eight of the last nine. I think that brings confidence. I’m not worried about that. I don’t think we have the type of bunch that’s really cocky. When you look at the two guards, because they didn’t play well, I think in a twisted way that'll help them the next time they play. I always try to give them challenges and something to always shoot for. We didn’t play well. We won the game like we needed to. I didn’t think we played a great game, but we still won.

On what he wants the team to work on with Virginia next on schedule…

I just thought [Georgia Tech] kept us off balance. This is traditional, and it isn’t just me: anybody that plays our system typically has a problem with teams that play the Princeton offense. They make you pay for how you deny and everything. I don’t care if it’s Richmond like last year or whoever we play in the league that plays that offense. It’s always tough. We’ve just got to get back to being defensively and stay stingy in that area.

On the team buying into supporting each other non-selfishly…

We can make the argument and Greg Gantt and Ernest Ross have been two of our most valuable players during this stretch, and they’ve done it almost without really scoring the basketball. Ernest is more of a run-and-jump rebounder. Ernest is a little bit better defensively. When we lost Jack [Clark] and Dusan [Mahorcic], we had to figure it out because we didn’t know. To those two guys’ credit, they’ve stepped in, and we really haven’t missed a beat. I’m happy for Ernest. He deserves it. He showed flashes last year of being a really good basketball player, and he’s had a couple of games this year where I felt he helped us win. Today and against Miami, I thought he was really good.

On finishing the game on a 14-3 run…

It’s good. I think we finished both halves the right way. A lot of that comes down to having some veteran guys who can be able to finish halves. They understand what you want. They can take care of the basketball. We got to the free throw line. We made shots.

 
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