Kevin Keatts: "The Fight in Our Team is So Great"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 71-67 road loss to Duke Tuesday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.
Opening Statement
First of all, congratulations to Duke. I think Jon [Scheyer] has done a really good job with his team. I don’t know if that was 15 or 16 wins at home, but that’s pretty impressive to go undefeated at home in a year. When you look at that team, they’ve grown so much. I remember when we played them months ago, they played like freshmen, and you can tell those guys have really grown up. It was a great game. I thought we fought through a lot of adversity. We had a couple of our starters that didn’t play well, but the fight in our team is so great. You look up, and I just told them, “Keep fighting,” and I think with maybe 40 seconds left, it was a one-possession game. I’m proud of our guys. I told them in the locker room, “We had a really, really good regular season: 22 wins and 12 conference wins. There’s so much to be proud of, and we have to turn our attention to the ACC Tournament.”
On building on tonight’s performance going into the conference tournament…
You’d rather learn a lesson through a win, but you can always take something from the game. For us, we’ve got a little bit of time. We’re the only team that doesn’t play Saturday, so we have to have a good balance between working on some stuff, getting a little rest, taking care of our bodies, and growing from everything.
On how Duke defended Terquavion Smith…
I think they just did a good job. He’s such an elite scorer, and a lot of times, people are more face-guarding and sitting in gaps and making it tough for him to get the basketball. A lot of teams are trying to be really physical with him. One of the things we have to clean up with him is he’s been off the court for the last three or four games because he’s picking up two fouls in the first half, so he’s not allowed to play. We’ve got to do a better job of him not fouling.
On Smith’s frustrations…
I think he’ll be fine. I don’t worry about him. He’s frustrated because he’s a good player, and that’s it. I don’t think it’s anything to do with his team. Good players like to play well, and scorers like to score. When he’s not scoring, I think he’s upset with himself about not doing a good job.
On difficulties getting up to tempo…
I thought the tempo was really good. It’s weird because it was similar to the first game. Both teams really defended, if you remember. Even though we jumped out to an early lead, it was a low-scoring game at first. It was the same thing here. It kind of went back and forth and never really got going. Both teams missed shots early. I think we kind of loosened up. Jarkel Joiner really got us going, and we played off of that. We had our moments. We cut it to four, and then they went up 10, and it was a game of runs. If we were playing an NBA game and had a little extra time, we could’ve maybe won the game, but we didn’t.
On the difficulties playing against Duke’s size…
They’ve got great size. D.J. [Burns] is a big guy when he scores the basketball. I was begging. When they started trapping, I was like, “There’s got to be some contact.” You’ve got three big bodies, three long, athletic, seven-foot guys. D.J., at his size, I was like, “Give me something.” It’s a lot of contact. They did a good job with their length. They made him shoot over left. They brought the right double-team at the right time.
On handling NCAA bubble discussions in the coming week…
I don’t control it, and I don’t think we’re on the bubble. Everybody I’ve talked to has said we’re an eighth or ninth seed. If you lose to Duke by four at Duke, and you go to the bubble, then we’ve never got a chance. I think [the players] are going to be fine. We talked about it. I don’t know where everybody’s got us listed, but if you have to apologize for losing a Quad I game on the road, and you drop from where everybody’s got us predicted to on the bubble, we’ll never make it.
On how big Joiner has been lately…
He’s been great. I thought we hit a home run with him. I knew it when we got him. I’ll say this: as a person, he’s unbelievable. He’s a better person than a basketball player, but he’s been so huge for us. He’s been an all-conference guy down the stretch. He’s made big plays. When most guys go down early, they probably wouldn’t have come back in the game; we couldn’t keep him out of the game. He’s been huge for our team on both ends of the floor. He’s been our floor general, and he’s been the heart and soul of our team. I’m proud and glad that we’ve got him.
On the offensive rebounding…
Coming into the game, I think Duke and us were No. 1 and 2 in offensive rebounding. Give them credit; I thought they did a great job. I think two guys had seven at the half. They did a great job offensive rebounding the ball, and we didn’t do so well blocking them out.
On how valuable Jack Clark can be going into the postseason…
Jack was good. I wanted to wait until he went through pregame to see if he was going to be able to play. He did practice a little bit yesterday. Having him on the floor gives us another scorer, especially toward the end of the season right now. He’s our best rebounder, so we need to have him on the floor and his ability to score the basketball.
On what he saw during the team’s late rally…
That’s our team. I love this team. I love the grit in them. We refuse to give up. I told them, “Just keep hanging around.” It was very similar to when we were at Wake Forest, and we didn’t take the lead until the last five minutes. Duke got up so much that we didn’t have enough to get back into it. Our guys just fight. We can lose a game, and if we lose a game, the team’s going to really beat us, but it’s not because we laid down. We’re going to fight.
On the season as a whole…
I’m tickled. You look at what we went through last year, and for me, it was the toughest season of my life. I’d never gone through a losing season, and I have to give our administration, Boo Corrigan, and Randy Woodson [credit]; they understood the challenges and hurdles that I had to go through to get to where we’re at and the reason for the season last year. That being said, it was really up to me. I kind of looked myself in the mirror, as I always do, and tried to figure out how I can get better, how I can help the team better, how I can help NC State get better. We made some changes. I swallowed some pride. I was bothered. I didn’t sleep at all, and I wanted to get this program back on track. We started off our first three years with 20 wins, 11-7, 9-9, 10-10 [in conference], and never really had a losing record in the ACC. What I did was I went out and got a staff with a lot of energy who’ve done a tremendous job. We went out and found needs. We got Jarkel Joiner, D.J. Burns, Dusan Mahorcic, and Jack Clark, and guys like Terquavion Smith and Casey Morsell decided to come back to school. You look at it, and a year later, what a difference a year had made. We didn’t give up. We didn’t put our heads down. We just fought. I’m happy. This is probably one of the happiest moments I’ve had in a long time with a team to be sitting with 22 wins and 12 wins in the conference. I don’t take it for granted; that’s the important thing. I know winning’s important, but I’ve had a lot of people standing behind me and praying for me, and I appreciate them for doing that.
On the Greensboro Coliseum…
I love Greensboro. I know we have some coaches in the league that don’t want it in Greensboro. I’m not saying who they are, but I love Greensboro. I think it’s a great place. It’s the original home of the ACC. It’s an easy drive for us. It’s a great venue. People come out to watch [the tournament]. I don’t know when it’s scheduled to come back to Greensboro, but I hope it does.