Kevin Keatts: "We Have To Get Back To Playing Better"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's loss at Syracuse.

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“I didn’t think we played well... we’ve played 18 or 19 games. I think this was the worst game we’d played the entire year. We didn’t have pop, we didn’t have juice.”

“I don’t know what... maybe it’s our travel, maybe we were flat a little bit, this is one of those games where coaches always talk about burning the tape and not looking at it.”

“Typically you’d lose a game like this by 30 but because we do have some pride in our locker room, we found a way to play a little better in the second half but I don’t think anybody on our team had a good game.”

“Rebounding... as you saw at Virginia, we got crushed on the glass and I wanted to send a message we’d rebound the basketball. Those guys, I don’t think they took advantage of their opportunity to start.  I think they both struggled as their started the game.”

“We fought, but I told them in the locker room, that’s part of who we are.  I”m not going to keep walking in and saying, ‘Great fight, great energy.’  That’s expected.”

“Nothing went right, nobody played well.  Typically we don’t have that.  You’ll maybe get one or two games where you just scratch your head and throw it out, this was one of those games for us.”

“I don’t think we started slow at Virginia. We were up 6-0 and we started playing well. Then what happened is we gave up offensive rebound after offensive rebound... we actually started good offensively, we just gave up second and third opportunities.”

“I think UVA will make you play that way. I think this one was a bad game.   I think UVA with their style.”

“We were not very good offensively tonight. There is no other way I can say it. I thought we struggled and I thought defensively we were doing some good things.”

“It’s weird, I thought we missed some chippies... I think what happens is it became a trickle-down... we never really got going at all.”

“We had to pay so much attention to Judah Mintz... he probed and we got caught ball-watching... he got to the free throw line. We didn’t do a good job of following the scouting report. We talked about him pump-faking. He took more free throws than our entire team. That’s not a winning formula.”

“We were supposed to practice tomorrow, but we’ll take tomorrow off. We need a mental and physical day to get rest.  We’ll have one day for Miami, which isn’t ideal for Miami, but we just don't look like we have it right now.  We have to figure it out.”

“Part of it is, we’ve had insane travel.  Obviously busing to Virignia getting back and just to travel it’s been a little weird.”

“We have to get back to playing. We’re 5-4 at this point... we have to figure it out now.”

“We have to get back to playing together.  We have to get back to playing better.”

“I just didn’t think we played well at all.”

“Lock in... let’s get back, get rest and get back on the same page.  Start playing better and start clicking a little bit.”

“This is the first time with this group we’ve had any real adversity... now we have to figure out how do we handle it with this group.”

“We have shown we can play with anybody, but nights like tonight we aren’t going to beat anybody.”