Keatts: "It Is The ACC... It's Exciting"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts fielded questions from the media on the ACC's weekly teleconference.

Opening Statement...
It has been a very good -- a kind-of good, crazy week for us. Obviously, we are coming off a couple good wins for us where in our last two or three games we played well at home versus Duke and then obviously followed that game up with another very big win against Clemson. 

As of yesterday [Sunday] we were on the road, I thought we ran into a very good Virginia team at home, end up losing that game. Obviously, we have got to pick the pieces up and prepare for Wake Forest on Thursday. 

Why do you think teams are doing well at home and struggling on the road?
I think certainly in the ACC there is some great home venues and unbelievable crowds. Players today, they really feel comfortable playing at home. 

Some of that, I think it is really too early to determine. I would say once we are halfway through the conference schedule you can look at it a little more. Right now, I think everybody has unbalanced schedules. For us, we have started off, obviously, playing three road games and two homes games and then certainly some have not had it that way. 

A little bit different but our kids feel comfortable being at home, especially us. I think we play better at home just like most teams. I think you will get the most benefit out of it if you look at it, probably, halfway through the season, the conference season, and then look back at it and see at that time. 

The crowds seemed small in non-conference play. Have the crowds in the conference environments been better?
Well they were great home environments and, obviously, it is a little different, as we all know, when you are playing some of the non-conference teams that our fans may not be as familiar with.

Obviously, a coach would love for it to be packed every game that you play but I think when you come and obviously when you play in the ACC there are some many familiar teams and rivalries that when you look at us, just where we are located at, it started off with us playing Duke. There was no doubt in my mind that it was going to be a sellout and then follow it up with Clemson that was 19th at the time.

I think for the fans, they can identify with the ACC teams. 

What was the connection with James Johnson that brought him to your staff and what does he add?
First of all, James Johnson is a tremendous basketball coach. He is a great recruiter, and he is a X-and-O guy. He is great with our players.

James and I played college basketball together at Ferrum College. He has been a dear friend to me and my family for many years. When I took the job, he was available. His experience was very valuable to me.

Obviously, working at a high-major level for a long time and then being in the ACC and also being a head coach in the ACC was very important to me. I am really excited that I have him on my staff. 

What do you think he took from being the head coach at Virginia Tech for two seasons?
I think what was unfortunate about James’ situation was -- obviously, he and I stayed in contact at that time -- I don’t think he was given enough time. When you look at it, anytime you take over a program -- they only gave him two years to get his own players and try to impact the program in his way, but I think he learned that obviously this business can be tough at times.

You have got to work every day like it is your last day, put a lot of hard work into it and try to recruit and try to win some games. 

Allerik Freeman had a tough day in Charlottesville. Was that just one of those games and what did Virginia do to take him away from your offense?
When you look at the Virginia team, especially at home, they have done a tremendous job just the entire year of kind of taking a leading scorer and, I wouldn’t say it was just Al Freeman, I thought they did a tremendous job of making things tough for us. 

Virginia is a very good basketball team. They are a tremendous defensive team. As a group and as a team they can really defend you. What they do have is -- and people do not give them credit for -- a bunch of people who, individually, make things tough for you on any given night so I want to say I give Virginia’s defense a lot of credit for Al not playing well.

Certainly, we hope we can get him to play well and bounce back on Thursday. 

What is it like going through, for the first time, a grind of so many ranked teams on a schedule? What has the preparation been like?
This is what I have signed up for. It is the ACC. It is exciting. 

I am just coming out of a staff meeting and we talked about our five games that we have opened the season with so far, they have been brutal. We had to go to Clemson who, obviously, played unbelievable in non-conference. We got to Notre Dame which was also ranked at the time. 

Then you turn around and, by the way, your home games are against No. 2 Duke and No. 19 Clemson. You turn around and go to No. 3 Virginia. It is as tough as it gets but that is just not us, that is everybody in our conference at some point. Everybody is going to play the conference schedule but it has been exciting for me. 

Obviously, I get a chance to go around the league and see what we are measuring up against in the other teams and where we need to go in the future as we try to build this program up. 

Is it the same for your freshmen?
Absolutely. We are excited that, obviously Braxton Beverly and Lavar Batts have an opportunity to play as a freshman.

When you are playing against so many good teams in this league, that experience they get is only going to help us as they grow and become sophomore it will be better for us in the end.