Kevin Keatts: "I Am Pumped For Our Team"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts spoke with the Wolfpack radio crew following State's 84-78 overtime win at Boston College.

NOTE: Click on the player above or the link below to listen to Keatts’ interview.

I am pumped. I am pumped for our team. We played a very good Boston College team on their home floor and we were sick. We talk about all the time coming in after a loss, we had lost two games -- one in Vegas against BYU and one on the road when we did not have it -- and I told them it was going to take everybody. It would take a collective team effort to get this done. 

We solved two problems today. Number one, we got well. The other one is we got an ACC road win. You know they are golden in this league, so I am pumped for our team. excited for the play, excited for a lot of guys. I thought we did a lot of good things. 

It is early. I am still learning my team and they are still learning me. What I will say today is I found out a lot about today. We have got some grit. And when things won't going our way -- we started out hot -- at the end of regulation Boston College did a great job sending it into overtime. You find out a lot about your team when you have got some adversity. I thought we answered the bell. They went up two, we came down and made a three. We made our free throws. We did a good job down the stretch, so I am very happy with our guys. 

We just want to continue to build on this. This is early in the season typically you are not playing a conference game this early and for us to get one early in December. That means a lot. 

I challenged everybody, not just our players but our entire staff, including myself. We just had to be better. This team is talented but I understand that there will be some growing pains because we need chemistry. We have got to continue to learn each other. We have got to grow and we have got to do it together. That was our message. Let's figure out how to do it the NC State way and let's do it together. 

I wanted us to get out to a good start. Typically, the teams that score first in overtime usually win so I wanted us to get out to a good start. I felt good. We played a lot of guys and I knew our guys still had some energy in it. This is where our conditioning kicked in. This is the hard work that you see just to be able to win an overtime game. 

I was telling them to shoot it. I thought Casey passed up on a couple of shots when they were sinking in on D.J. and all that other stuff. It is a good gutsy win. A good road win. A good building block. This team needed a good road win, we got the neutral court win against Vanderbilt, but to go into someone's place and get a good win -- and it just happened to be an ACC, that was even better. 

[Post] is such a good player. I just watched him play Vanderbilt and he is four-of six from three, and he has got 24 points. He scores 12 from three and then 12 on the inside. We went into the game saying we can not let him beat us both ways. If he is going to score his points, it has to be inside the three-point line so we were prepared to switch and do things. He is a good player. You have just got to be able to contain him. I thought our guys did a really good job. I thought we were able to put different bodies on him to make it difficult for him.

We did a good job. We want to continue to build on it. Outside of one or two games, we have done a really good job of guarding the three-point line. Obviously, our stats are a little crazy because BYU made every shot  they took. With that being said, I am happy. This is a good win for us. It is a great win. No one likes playing these early ACC games but you love them when you win them.

[Diarra] is back healthy. A lot of people are like what happened to Mo. Nothing happened to him. He had an ankle injury that really caused him some problems. 

I thought Mo was good. I thought Ben was great. I thought D.J. Horne was really great. D.J. Burns had his moments. Even the guys who came into the game and didn't play a lot -- Dennis was good. Even Ernest came in and did what he is supposed to do. We had a team effort where I felt like everybody contributed to this win.