Kevin Keatts: "We're Excited About It"

NC State men’s basketball coach Kevin Keatts met with the media on Friday ahead of the team’s matchup against North Carolina to discuss his roster, the Tar Heels, and much more.

NOTE: Click the video above to listen to the interview with Kevin Keatts.

“I thought they played really good defense. I thought DJ Horne wasn’t DJ Horne at the time. When you look at his stats, he didn’t have a great game.”

“DJ Burns had a very effective game, especially early. I did think they played really solid defense, but I thought we missed some shots that we can make or have been making lately. I think it boils down to that.”

“When we couldn’t make shots, we couldn’t get into any type of pressure, the way we play. I thought we were very effective when we did that.”

“Harrison Ingram was incredible. He was great. I think nine points, 19 rebounds, I thought he really did a good job.”

“In round one I thought we did a really good job on Bacot and a really good job on RJ, which is hard to do for anybody.”

“Inserting [Diarra] into the lineup we’ve become a better defensive rebounding team. That’s one of the areas we really struggled early on and particularly in that Carolina game.”

“We need Mo to be a great rebounder.”

“He was incredible last game.  He’s had one of those breakout years. He’s playing at a high level, and he’s doing it in so many different ways. [RJ Davis] is playing basketball as well as anybody in this league.”

“We have to do a good job... the tough thing about them is you can’t focus on just one guy.”

“It’s a great opportunity for us.  In the world of our conversations of Quads, it’s a great opportunity, great rivalry game... just go and play.”

“I don’t know if you say just go and have fun because we’re the only ones who believe, but that’s the only people who need to believe anyways.”

“We’re just concentrating on here is the next opportunity.  It’s a Quad one opportunity and it moves the needle.”

“I don’t know if there’s ever been a program that’s played Carolina on Saturday and Duke on Monday.  That’s a pretty good task.”

“We’ve won those games... we’ve been able to do that.”

“We’re competing and we’re right there. I do like where we’re at. I love that our guys’ mindset and understand that, ‘Hey, we’re just as good.’”

“We’re excited about it. We’re not in awe... we’re not into, ‘if you happen to win the game it’s the Super Bowl.’ We don’t look at it that way. We look at it this is our program, we have several 20-win seasons and done a lot of great things.”

“Everything comes down to NIL, outside of the coaches, how much can a collective take care of these young men. Recruiting has sort of shifted a little bit. It’s not so much about the best facilities. In this moment in time, guys are looking to capitalize on their NIL... it’s a different world in recruiting.”

“We have a great collective with One Pack... it certainly helps at NC State if we get our fans behind it because these are opportunities to be able to directly impact all of our programs.”

“The last game. I thought [our defense] was really good against Boston College.  You don’t hold Quinton Post to six and McGlockton to one if you don’t play good defense... against Boston College our defense was elite.”

“We were not very good defensively against Florida State. I thought we let them play to their strengths.”

“I think that’s the good thing about Mo. He’s starting to get comfortable in his role.”