Kevin Keatts on the ACC: "We'll Go Out and Show Everybody How Good Our Conference Is"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media during the 2023 ACC Tipoff event in Charlotte, N.C. to discuss the Wolfpack’s upcoming season.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ breakout interview. A selected transcript is provided below.
“If I was taking a kid who I felt wasn’t ready, and we’d hope to develop him, that guy now gets to go to somewhere mid-major where he probably should’ve gone from the start and be able to play right away. I think it helps them. I don’t think it completely hurts them. I think what happens is so many guys define how good they are by playing in Power Five instead of going to places where they can play right away.”
“A lot of [D.J. Burns’] fouls are from our guards. One of the ways you work on it is that you’ve got to guard the basketball, and we’ve got to protect him. Most of those guys’ fouls don’t come from guarding their own man. They come from a guard driving in, and you’re coming over trying to help. We’ve got to do a good job of keeping the ball in front where he’s not in that situation. When we get the ball-screen coverage, and he reaches and gets those dumb fouls, then we can talk about that, but a lot of it isn’t completely on him even though he’s fouling. Some of it goes to our guards also.”
“Every post guy thinks that he can pick a guard. I think that’s a dream of most post guys: ‘I’m going to pick this guy.’ What I tell him in practice all the time: ‘You may pick him, but that referee is going to call the foul because he thinks you fouled him, and there’s no way that you’re going to pick a really good guard.’ What they have to do is play without their hands, show the referee their hands, and all that kind of stuff.”
“[Casey Morsell] has been great. He’s gotten better. When I first got him, he barely talked a lot. He was looking for a new opportunity, coming from a tremendous program in Virginia, but we played a completely different way. As he has grown on the court, he’s become comfortable being a leader off the court.”
“The one thing we’ve been getting him to do — if you remember last year, shooting 41 percent, he ran the floor really hard. Guys would just pitch it to him, and he’d get a corner three and all that other stuff. The thing I need him to continue to move without the basketball. Some of the best shooters in the world are guys who play off guys who can move without the basketball, and I have to get him to continue to do that.”
“It’s so hard to tell [who’s going to break out]. I knew I was getting a special player in Jarkel Joiner because I knew our system would make an uptick in how much he could score the basketball, but until you get out there and play, you just don’t know. I like our guys. I think each one of those transfers has had their moments, but at the end of the day, you just don’t know until you get to play in real games.”
“It’s going to go from year to year. You have no idea. I could tell you want. I could tell you what I need. I could tell you what I wish for, but at the end of the day, you don’t know how many guys you’re going to have to replace on your roster every single year.”
“It’s not that I’m the only one that’s okay with transfer portal. I accept it. It’s not different for me. Nine or 10 years ago, I had to do that, and there were 13 of them. It’s not that I love it — I want to make sure I tell you that — but I’m okay with it, and I can deal with it.”
“I think [the point guard position will be by] committee. One of the committee — and this is going to sound funny to you — is going to be D.J. Burns. Somebody else is going to dribble the ball up, and we’re going to throw it to him, and he’s going to post up way beyond the three-point line, and he’s going to find someone cutting. That’s what it is. I’m not going into the season thinking anybody’s going to play 35 minutes a game. It’s just a fun team. I think we’ve got a lot of pieces that want to play and are capable of helping our team.”
“It’s the time of year when guys do want outside competition. The summers are long. You’re fighting against each other all the time. You’re playing hard against each other. It is a time where you’d like to play against a different color jersey.”
“I think it’s going to be fun. I’m looking forward to the respect that our conference should get. I think we’ve got a really good, tough conference. We had five guys get [into the NCAA Tournament last year]. I thought this conference was deserving of nine. Hopefully, in November and December, we go out and show everybody how good our conference is."