Kevin Keatts on Facing Duke: "We Have To Be Us"

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.

Just your thoughts after getting a chance to watch the film back from from Saturday's loss.
They shot the ball really well.

I was very disappointed... obviously I'm very stubborn when it comes to our defense with this group here, but they were really good. They shot the ball extremely well. I thought some of them were contested, some they made.  

They came out and played well. It was weird because we'd had two or three games this year where I thought we played that well and obviously that was the game that someone played that well against us.

Could we have been better? Absolutely.Do we have to do a better job in that area? Absolutely. But I will say, give Clemson a lot more credit than I thought after watching the game.

How different does this Duke team look from what you've seen and how different is it playing on the road at Cameron Indoor, a place where they're 15-0 so far this season?
Well, John's done a really good job with this team. It's a completely different team.  They're playing really good basketball.  They got Roach back and he's playing a little bit off the ball.  The young guys have really, really gotten better. Obviously I don't even think we can call 'em young guys because at the end of the year, now, at the end of February, they should be sophomores and grown up. They've gotten a lot better and they're really good at home also.

I don't know if you have an update on Jack Clark, but can you just discuss what he was giving you when he had returned? I know you had started to ramp his minutes up a little bit.
I don't have an update. He'll be a game-by-game situation. I couldn't tell you whether he's playing or not tomorrow or when he will play, if it's in the ACC C tournament.

But what he gives us is obviously... it's so funny when he started playing again, you realize how well he really rebounds the basketball.  He goes after it, but it gives you another 6-8, 6-9 long, athletic wing that can shoot the ball and we can play him some at the three and we can play him at some four.  His ability to shoot the ball kind of helps our team because it opens up a little bit more of the posting for DJ Burns and we're allowed to switch a lot of screens with him because his ability to keep smaller guys possibly in front of him.

So would love to have him on the court.  Ernest and Greg have done a great job with him being out, but we do need another guy to kind of add to our rotation. That will certainly help us out a lot.

You brought up the ACC tournament there real quick, and I just wanted to get your thoughts on the importance of having the tournament in Greensboro, a city like that with its history.
Well, you're probably trying to start an argument with somewhere by asking that.  The tournament's always been a big success in Greensboro, and I think we all know that I'm a guy who grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Greensboro's probably about an hour and 45 minutes away.

So I've always enjoyed it there. I think the folks in Greensboro has always done a tremendous job putting on a good tournament. I'm glad it's there. I hope it comes back in the future.  I think it's a really good place to have it now.  When you got good basketball teams, you can put the tournament a little bit of everywhere and people are gonna come, but it is special that it's back in Greensboro.

 I'm sure you're expecting more of a dog fight against Duke than last time, but what do you expect to have success in this game that you did in in the last against Duke?
Well, I don't know. I tell people when you play teams a second time around, I know everybody's like, “ah, man, what can you take from the first game?” I just don't know what you can take.  We played really, really well, and I didn't think they had one of their better games.

We’ve gotta come out and be NC State, and I'm sure Duke's gotta be Duke... obviously try to play with a lot of confidence. I will tell you that when you watch them on tape, they're a completely different team.  I haven't even spent a lot of time on the last game that we played because they're different in a lot of ways. They're scoring the ball, they're defending well, and we have to continue to take care of the basketball, we gotta continue to play the game inside-out.  We gotta try to get in transition if we can and play a lot better.

They've done such an incredible job. I think they may be one of a few teams in our league that's undefeated at home, so that says a lot about that program right now.

What do you think's been the biggest reason for Terquavion Smith’s struggles? What do you think's the biggest reason for the poor struggles from the field in three-point range in the last four games?
He's getting probably the best perimeter defender because obviously his ability to score. What I like about him, he hasn't shot the ball well as of late, but he still have had productive games for us and meaning passing the ball and playing solid in different ways.

It doesn't take much for him to get back going. The great thing about him is that he has a short-term memory. So those stats that you're talking about, he doesn’t even know what you're talking about.

I think a lot of it is people are game-planning him, obviously trying to be physical with him.  We have to put him in a few more better spots to be able to get some easier shots... getting out in transition will help him a little bit more, driving the ball, instead of settling for a few outside shots, I think will be something that'll help him and our team a little bit more.

What are your three keys to winning in Cameron tomorrow night?
I just think we have to be us.  We've demonstrated that we can really score the basketball and I think we have to be productive and that's through, a lot of ball and player movement and can we get a few offensive rebounds? Can we get out and transition? We have to really be good and take care of the basketball.   They're really good, especially when they can turn you over, and we don't want to have a lot of turnovers for touchdowns where they're getting a lot of easy baskets.

I think you guys are the only team in the country in the top 10 in fast break points and fewest turnovers. Can you just discuss that dynamic of being able to run and play with pace, but also limit your own turnovers on the offensive end with your team?
Yeah, I'm so proud of our guys for that, and it usually doesn't work that way when you have a team who presses and has so much freedom. We've done a great job and a lot of the credit should go to the three guys who really handled the ball a lot for us, Terquavion, Jarkel Joiner and then DJ Burns.

Those guys stepped their game up as far as making great decisions and any opportunity that we can get out and run our guys do a good job of running and rebounding the ball and getting out and running.

I've been very impressed with the way we have been able to take care of the basketball, which says a lot about the guys in the program. We need to do that in order to be a really good basketball team. You want to limit your turnovers and try to get as many easy baskets as you can.