Kevin Keatts: "It's Important That You Evolve"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media Monday morning during the ACC's weekly teleconference.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.
On his coaching staff…
We have a new staff, and I’m doing it a little bit differently than I have in the past, meaning I’ve taken a little bit of a football analogy. I’ve got guys who are on the offensive side, coaching on how we score against teams, and then I’ve got a couple of guys who concentrate on how we defend. It’s actually worked out well for me. It’s something different that I’ve never done in the past. It’s really been good because it keeps everybody engaged in every game that we play.
On if he regrets not using this tactic in the past…
No, because we’ve had great years where we’ve done this a little bit differently. It’s important that you evolve. As we go along, you’ve got to give different things. When I added a new staff — my other staff was really good, too — it gave me different energy, and I wanted to take advantage of doing something different because I had new folks. With the other coaches, it was more about being consistent to what they had done and what they were good at.
On the goals ahead of the team being motivation for the games ahead…
I took the opportunity about two weeks ago to say, “We have six games left, and it’s a six-game regular season.” That was probably as far as I’ve looked ahead with this group because we typically just concentrate on the next game. I know our goals have changed, but our goals aren’t attainable if we don’t win the next game or put ourselves in a position to win the next game. Going into Carolina, we didn’t talk about anything other than having an opportunity to get a Quad II win against a good team. Unfortunately, the way things are set up because of the NET, everything is about Quads. No matter who you play, you’ve got to figure out the Quad; it’s either going to be a good win or a bad loss. In our situation, I haven’t looked at what we can achieve. We concentrate on what can affect our NET in order to get to a Quad win.
On the importance of in-state wins…
I will start with one part of it: the recruiting part of it is a little bit different. We and Wake Forest probably recruit the state a little bit harder. There could be some disagreement in that. It depends on who you talk to. As far as our fans, I’m tickled for our fans. They have the chance to go to work today or tomorrow and have some bragging rights. I’m happy for our kids. Whether we say it or not, our kids read that stuff, and they grew up playing AAU against a lot of the players that they play in-state. Is it more important to win in-state? I wouldn’t say it’s more important. I would say each year presents a different challenge because it just depends on who’s a hot team and what their Quads are, and there are certain teams you have to beat in order to put yourself in a great situation. Not to diminish a win against Carolina or Duke because I think they’re all important, but at the end of the day, the system has changed the way you look at everything.
If the Carolina win means more for the in-state players on the team...
I don’t know. I’m not one of those people who use whether or not a team recruited them as leverage to play harder. We believe in who we have on our roster, and we know we have guys who are ready to go. I know Levi [Watkins] told Terquavion [Smith] if he didn’t win the game, he probably couldn’t come back to Raleigh because he didn’t beat Carolina. Maybe that was a little motivation piece for him. He was completely joking with him, but I thought it was funny for him to say that to him.
On potential ACC Tournament destinations after the 2024 tourney in Washington, D.C….
That’s a good question. I’m going to make my pitch for Charlotte. I like Greensboro because it’s close to us, and I have no problem with D.C. To be quite honest, I have no problem wherever we go, especially if we’re seeded high enough and put in a good situation. I think Charlotte is growing, and I think it’s a good place for everybody to be able to go, enjoy themselves, hang out, have great dinners, go to bars, and then go to the games. The reason being is because they’ve already got it set up for an NBA team.
On defending Armando Bacot…
I’m happy as I-don’t-know-what. The guy’s put up video game numbers against us. 23 [points] and 18 [rebounds], I didn’t like that at all. I think he had 16 [on Sunday], if I’m right, and he had to take 14 shots to get there, and I was happy with that. Armando Bacot is a really good player. He’s tough to guard. He puts a lot of pressure on your defense. Even the shots he misses, he tends to get back and score. For him to have to take that many shots to get 16 points, most people would be disappointed that you gave up 14 rebounds, but I’m actually excited about it. We cut his rebounds by four and his points by seven, and he still had a great day.
On Jarkel Joiner’s influence on Smith…
We don’t have a lot of five-star guys or McDonald’s All-Americans out of high school, but we got one in the transfer portal, if you want to say. I don’t know if I could’ve gotten a better person or player to lead the team than Jarkel Joiner. He’s been great for Terquavion as an older guy who’s been through it. He’s allowed Terquavion Smith to be Terquavion Smith and never complain about if he takes a shot. They’ve developed a great bond. They’ve thrown the alley-oop from Terquavion to Jarkel five times this season, and it’d never worked. It actually worked against Carolina, and you’d have thought they were two kids in a candy store. They were so excited. He’s been great for our locker room. He’s been great for our program. I’m going to try and figure out if I can get him another year through some type of petition to get him back. You don’t find kids like that who are willing to sacrifice on some given nights his ability to score to help his team win. He was tremendous against Carolina.