Keatts: "What A Difference A Month Has Made"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media after the Wolfpack's 76-58 win over Notre Dame.
Opening Statement:
Well guys, what a difference a month has made. When you look at it, when we went to Notre Dame I thought it was our worst game of the season, nothing went right, we didn’t shoot the ball well, I thought our defense was really bad especially our three-point defense, we didn’t share the basketball.
Give these guys credit, what a turn around that we’ve had. We played extremely hard today on both ends of the floor. I thought our three-point field goal defense was really good in the first half, holding those guys to three three-pointers. I’m excited about this bunch; I feel like we’re getting better every game and obviously today was a special day for us.
Behind the scenes of the improvement from the last Notre Dame game:
Well I think we’re believing in ourselves. We have trust in our teammates. If you look back at our games, we had twenty assists on thirty made field goals. Anytime we share the basketball, we can be a special basketball team.
I say this all the time; we don’t have the one guy who can go for thirty in every night, so we have to play well together, and I think we’re starting to figure it out.
On how the team handled the week off after the Carolina win:
It was a scary week for me because after playing well at North Carolina you want to continue to play, but we needed rest. We were able to take Sunday and Monday off and then get back in the gym on Tuesday and it certainly paid off for us.
I thought we were fresher, I thought our guys played with great energy. These twelve and nine o’clock games are always tough because I think the team that plays aggressive at the beginning has the opportunity to win the game.
On Braxton’s comment about defense:
We take pride in getting stops. We talk about winning four-minute wars, during media timeouts we talk about getting stops and deflections and that's good a freshman says that, it means we are going in the right direction.
On watching film of the first game at Notre Dame:
No, I don't have that type of team. In fact, I went the opposite way, we didn't watch the Notre Dame game. I watched it about 10 times and got scared every time I watched it. With these guys we stay in the moment.
On the points off turnovers:
We play hard, we are getting out in the passing lanes, get the ball and finish it at the other end. I was more impressed with this team, our ability to get to the free throw line.
On Malik’s practice:
He had a great practice. He was very active, he was chasing basketball’s down, great on the defensive end, blocking shots, getting rebounds so I wanted to play him 30 minutes. He gives us another dimension.
Opinion of team status:
I told Dr. Yow I was going to win 35 games this year. My opinion hasn't changed. We are learning how to play hard, we don't have a special formula. We have gotten better because we have done well in individual workouts. They are starting to believe in one another.