Kevin Keatts: "We're Not Going to Get Pushed Around"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 83-76 win over Wake Forest Tuesday evening.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.

Opening Statement

Well, what a game. I mean, what a game. You know, I can do this the easy way. The crazy thing about it is: I probably would be fined right now had we not won the game, but I'm going to keep the focus on the most important thing: our players and our coaching staff. I thought they did a tremendous job throughout the game, getting into halftime. These young men believe, and they're fighting. The message that we want to send today to everybody is, man, we're going to fight. Do I like the fact that we had a bunch of technicals or D.J. Horne was so excited at the end that he was waving to somebody? No, I don’t, but I'm telling you now: we ain't gonna get pushed around. It's just not gonna happen. That's nothing against Wake Forest. Steve [Forbes] has done a tremendous job with the program. That's a really good basketball team. We're 5-1 [in ACC play], and we wanted to show everybody what we have. We’ve worked our ass off to win three road games, and the thing we talked about coming into this game is not giving them back.  It's been a weird deal for me all day long. I don't know that I've ever had a game where we scored 83 points and made not one three-point shot. I don't want to do that very often. D.J. Burns didn't play very well; he was sick. I thought Ben [Middlebrooks] was tremendous. I thought he really did a good job. D.J. Horne made great plays. I'm sitting back in the locker room. I'm yelling at the TV. Jayden Taylor, what a great stop at the end when he got on the floor and called a timeout and did some good things. It's a good win for us. We needed one. I know a lot of you guys have wrote about how we needed one. Well, we got one, and we want to continue to build on it and continue to get better.

On his technical foul...

I deserved the technical because I thought the call was awful. I thought they missed the call. I thought Dennis [Parker, Jr.] got fouled, in comparison to the way that all calls were made. I didn't think I deserved to get tossed. I didn't see the second one coming that quick, so that will be something that we will talk about. I absolutely knew what I was doing on the first one, but not the second one.

On the comeback win helping the team move forward...

Well, I think it shows that we are growing. Look at what we did well: we got 30 points off the bench, and then we had 50 points in the paint. This is on a night when we didn't make a three-pointer. This is on the night when D.J. Burns wasn't D.J. Burns.  What it does is it gives our guys great confidence. We've talked about winning all types of games. You've got to win some games [like the one at] Notre Dame in the 50s. You’ve got to win some games on the road. You've got to win some games when you don't make shots. Well, this was a game where we were at home but didn't make shots. Guys came in, and we had to refuse to lose mentality. I love that part about it. This team is growing in a lot of ways, and I appreciate the hard work that we're putting in to get there.

On being 5-1 in ACC play for the first time in over 30 years...

This team won't get a lot of credit for that. When we were 3-0, it had been a long time. When we were 4-1, it had been a long time. Now we’re 5-1, but we won't get a lot of credit for that. I think all of these guys deserve the credit because we're doing some things that haven't happened in a long time. It's good basketball. These guys are getting better, and they're winning in a lot of different ways. I'm proud of them. They know it. We talk about it. It's things that we don't talk about before the game. I don't say, “Hey, if you win the game, you're going to be doing something since ‘89.” We talk about it after. With today's kids, you’ve got to give them things to be proud of. The history of NC State is so strong. We've had some great teams, and we've done some good things this year with this group, and we want to continue to grow.