Kevin Keatts: "It'll Be A Great Opportunity For Us"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts discussed the upcoming matchup against Virginia, Saturday’s loss to Virginia Tech, DJ Burns and much more with the media on the ACC’s weekly teleconference.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

How different does UVA look from the first matchup?
Well, I mean they're starting to find a groove, and just like every coach and every program, sometimes it takes you a little time to get kind of a rotation.

I think they're feeling comfortable with the rotation, and obviously the two guards are really good and they go as they go.  Beekman is fantastic and McKneely, when he's making shots, he's as good as anybody in the country.  I like what they've done, and obviously Tony's kind of figured things out about his team.

When you add Minor, who's starting to play a lot better inside, it gives you just a tremendous lift. Those guys are really good and doing some good things right now.

Dunn is obviously... it's hard for me to go through talking about UVA without mentioning Dunn because he causes such a problem for you because of his athletic ability and being able to rebound the ball and get out and transition when he needs to.

Thoughts on Jordan Minor entering UVA’s lineup and the impact...
Well, he reminds you of a lot of the former centers that have played for Virginia when you talk about his physicality. Being able to defend, and I think a lot of times he can defend without having to draw a double team at times to help.

He's just a big presence around the basket, he knows who he is, and he plays well off of those guards.

More on UVA shooter Isaac McKneely... how are they getting him good looks from three?
Every good three-point shooter moves well without the basketball. He's started to do that and looking at Georgia Tech, he shot his threes from different ways and got out in transition. Some of it was off of the mover-blocker, but I think Beekman and the rest of the team understand his ability to knock down shots.  

I think they look for him on flair and fade screens a lot, but he's scoring in different ways. It's weird because even though he shoots the ball so well, sometimes people have breakdowns and he's wide open, which blows my mind. But that happens because he can move so well without the basketball.

Does McKneely get lost sometimes out there?
I don't know if he gets lost or not, but I hope we don't lose him.

I tell you what, because he can make shots. When a guy... you shouldn't be able to get lost when you're shooting 50-something percent in ACC play from three.

NET, Q1 chances on the road this week at Virginia and Syracuse... how big is the opportunity?
You know what, we have... this is a great opportunity this week with two really good teams on their home floor. Two teams who are playing really good basketball when you look at both of them coming off of Georgia Tech and then obviously the way Syracuse played against Miami.

These are opportunities... our league, unfortunately, is getting dinged for playing good basketball against each other. It's funny because you have to try to figure out how to win some of these teams where the numbers are bigger than the other groups. Which doesn't make sense, but if you're gonna get credit for Quad 1 wins, these are two great opportunities.

It's tough, because I think every road win is really good in this league, but because everyone has a number attached to them, these are a little bit better opportunities.

More on the team’s resiliency in the win over Wake Forest...
It’s just... we're fighting.

I looked at our schedule last year and around this time we were after seven games 4-3; we're 5-2, but this team's got a lot of fight in them. Our league's got a lot of fight in us.

One of the things that I told those guys when I exited the game was to continue to fight and let's see what happens. That's kind of been a theme of our group... just to play to the end.

Even in defeat against Virginia Tech this weekend, we made the game a little interesting in the last two minutes because our guys fought and clawed and everything else. I think that's just who we are.

I like the makeup of this team because we're gonna play all the way to the end.

What allowed Hunter Cattoor to get going late in the game?
I just thought we didn't defend.

We gave up 51 points in the second half and that hasn't been the identity of this team. When you dial it back, I thought both Padulla and Cattoor both made big plays for Virginia Tech down the stretch. They both drove the ball, they made some plays at the rim, and we didn't lock in.

It was a great first half where I think both teams were stingy defensively, but in the second half I didn't think we applied the same pressure. I thought we relaxed a little bit and towards the end of the game I thought they made some really good plays.

Credit those two guys for being hungry and pushing their team over the hill.

You play Virginia again... how much harder is it to play a team for the second time in a season?
It's hard on both ends because both teams will make some adjustments. The things that we've done well we'll try to strengthen and the things that we didn't do well we're trying to get better at.

Playing them the second time or playing the first time, it's still a tough opponent. They do a good job. I think they've really done a great job of protecting home court, and so obviously it'll be a great opportunity for us.

Thoughts on DJ Burns and the different coverages he faces... do you give him advice or is it a feel thing based on what he sees from the defense?
We try to prepare him for what we think the other team's going to do. Now, of course in certain situations, people make adjustments, but he's been guarded in every different way from big-to-big traps to guys just sitting in his lap as a passer or trapping from the help-side on the bottom side.

We try to give him a good playbook about what we think's going to happen and for the most part, he's done a good job with it.

I think sometimes he's fallen in love a little bit as being a great passer, which happens. You're glad that you have a post guy who is a willing passer, but sometimes we just want him just to go score and just kind of figure out what the defense is doing.

I think if I had to grade him, you look at what he's done as a post guy in our league, being able to score when he needs to score and then people taking the ball out his hands, he's been efficient in finding people.

I think he's tough to guard because you gotta kind of pick your poison. Do you trap him and let him pick you apart by getting the ball to other guys or do you just let him score and see what happens?

So I think that is one of the biggest adjustments but we try to give him a kind of a blueprint of what we think that the other team may do.