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NC State Basketball

Kevin Keatts: "Our Guys Stepped Up To The Plate"

February 24, 2024
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 81-70 win over Boston College Saturday afternoon.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference. An abbreviated transcript is provided below.


Opening Statement

I’m so happy that we were able to honor the 1974 team. It’s amazing the bond those guys have over the past 50 years. They have comedians and they have guys who are serious. It was a special honor for those guys to come to practice yesterday and hang out with our guys. Tommy Burleson actually took some guys on the floor and showed them how to wall up and I told him that it doesn’t make any difference Tommy because no one is his height. I also got to see Monte Towe, who would come up and recruit when I was the coach at Hargrave Military Academy. I can’t believe I am already 30 seconds into the 1974 team and I haven’t mentioned the goat, and you know when the goat is in the building, you’ve got David Thompson in the building, you better not lose the game and I thought that our guys really responded. It was a really electric opportunity for our guys because obviously we did a great job. We went on the road against Clemson and had a great win and we just felt like we didn’t play well enough to beat Syracuse. To come back home and Earl Grant’s team is really good, Boston College is really good and Earl has done a good job with his team. I’m really happy for our guys. I thought that this was our best defensive effort, especially in the first half. We made an effort to defend the three-point line and that was our game plan coming in. Our post guys were tremendous. I don’t know that Quinten Post and Devin McGlockton are ever going to leave any game were they have seven points and I thought that our guys stepped up to the plate and did a great job with that.

On balanced scoring from the team today...

I was shocked that [D.J. Horne] didn’t put 30 tonight. He has been special. I don’t know, in a six-game period, if I’ve seen a guy who has played as well as he has. I thought he was good; with that being said, we needed Casey [Morsell]. I thought Casey was really good, he was aggressive, he really drove the ball. I thought [Jayden Taylor] coming off the bench did a great job. He got to the free throw line and was seven for seven. Michael [O’Connell] played great, he had six assists and no turnovers. I’ve been pleading that we’ve needed another guard to step up and play well so that D.J. doesn’t have to have 30 every night. I thought it was a great team effort.

On winning in double digits after six straight games being close...

I was shocked. (laughing) I thought we were going to have another close game. I thought our guys were completely locked in, and we knew it. We knew that we felt like we let one slip away at home. We knew that we needed to get well, we knew that the ‘74 team was here. There was a lot of great factors, I’m glad to get a double digit win in this league because you don’t get them very often. You look around, there’s several games this evening and I guarantee most of them will come down to the end.

 
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