Kevin Keatts: "We Never Really Got Going Offensively"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 67-54 loss to No. 7 North Carolina Wednesday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.
Opening Statement
You know, we really never got going offensively. When you look at the first half, I thought our defense completely kept us in the game. It was a two-point game at halftime, sort of like the Notre Dame game, but it’s tough. When you look at our starting one, two, and three, we didn’t make three-point shots. W got some great looks. I thought D.J. [Burns] did a good job once they started doubling him. We made two threes over the night, and one of them came from [Michael] O’Connell. I think, in the second half, what happened was we started pressing a little bit when we didn’t make shots in the second half. I think our defense started suffering because we didn’t make shots. We have to get back into the gym and figure it out. We have to get going. It’s going to be tough to beat anybody when we shoot the ball that bad. It’s something that we have to get back and figure out how to get going. I thought D.J. was really good the first half against [Armando] Bacot, made some shots, and did a really good job of moving the ball when they did trap him, but we have to figure out how to make some shots.
On tonight possibly feeling like a missed opportunity...
It’s a make-or-miss game. Yes, Bacot was out of the game, but at the end of the day, if you don’t score the basketball, it’s going to be hard. We scored 52 points, and we’re a much better team offensively than we displayed, and it wasn’t anything that I felt like they did. I just think that we made shots that, for whatever reason, did not go in. We had the same game two or three games ago at Notre Dame which I hated then, but we could rely on our defense, and we figured out a way to win the game. You’re not going to win many if you can’t figure out how to make shots.
NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts
(on missed shots)
“You know when you’re a shooter and you don’t see the shot go in the hole, you start to struggle. I thought late in the second half when we didn’t make those shots we gave up transition baskets. We didn’t give up any of that stuff in the first half when they went up five or seven points and we didn’t make shots, I thought we started pressing a bit at that time. “
NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts
(on a possible disconnect being the cause of missed shots)
“That’s what we talked about at the end of the game in the locker room and one of the things I said to them. When you’re not making shots is when you’ve got to become more connected on both ends on the floor. I don’t think there was a disconnect in how we played, that was them saying what we talked about is when you’re not making shots you’ve got to be able to do something else, you’ve got to be able to be connected and you’ve got to defend. You’ve got to do second things. That’s kind of where it was, I thought it was at the end when we did make shots it was like ‘I'm going to step up and make a shot’ and it became a little bit more of a hero mentality. “