Kevin Keatts: "Our Guys Are Doing Really Well"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts recently met with the media to discuss the Wolfpack's personnel, summer workouts, and much more.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
Kevin first of all a lot of roster turnover again this offseason. What does the transfer look like so far in practice?
Yeah you know I think everybody understands now that there's going to be a lot of turnover in college basketball and I you know I kind of went into this year knowing that we would have more and more transfers but that being said our guys are doing really well.
I'll start with Brandon Huntley-Hatfield. I feel talented as you guys know here both Mike James played at Louisville and the one thing that you know we talked about is they were leading that halftime you know in that ACC tournament so I think that's kind of what sold me on those guys but Brandon's got a chance to be really good. He can step out and shoot it. He's gonna you know there's no replacement for DJ Burns so everybody's saying is Brandon replacing DJ? No because nobody in the country plays that way and by the way I'll talk about summer league in a minute. Those guys are doing really good and we should be proud of it but he's talented and can really step out and shoot it. I think he's going to be really good for us. He will be between him and Ben Middlebrooks will be our starting center. Both of those guys can play some four also which I think is going to be really good for us.
Mike James 6'5 6'6 strong driver can really shoot the basketball. He'll play some two and three for us. I think that'll be you know you know I'm looking for someone to replace DJ Horne. I don't know that I'm gonna have anyone to replace him the way he played but I think both of those guys would be really good.
Dontrez Styles who by the way transferred from Georgetown. It's gonna be really good. We recruited him for I don't know five years and then he realized that we were the best place for him after winning the ACC championship and going to the final four and I think he likes that part of it. So I think you guys know what he is. He's a hybrid four man that can play some three and four and really can shoot it. Had a great year by his stats last year at Georgetown and I think he's gonna really help us a lot.
You know three older guys and then we're talking about Marcus Hill. Marcus is coming from Bowling Green and a lot of people think because he's a mid-major guy that he may not have the same impact. He's really good. 20 points a game can play some one and two. Really can score the ball. He's a paint-touch guy. Knows how to get to the free throw line.
I think those guys would be really good for us and that's our transfer and I don't know if you want me to touch on the freshman or but those guys are the transfers and then Trey. Trey's talented coming from OTE. Got a chance to be really good. He is much better than you guys think as a guy who's a dunker. I know you guys will look at his social media and say man what a great athlete he is but he's a really good basketball player and then Paul McNeil is probably the best shooter on our team. 6'5", maybe 6'6".
Both of those guys are doing well but I understand that they're freshmen so everything's coming at them really fast and they're trying to adjust to everything.
How has life changed since you've gone to a Final Four and won an ACC title in terms of perception when you're talking to recruits or just the national attention that came with what happened in March and April to now?
Well I don't think I don't think the overall process has changed for us. I mean I think everybody they're paying attention more to what we're doing. You know if you look at us the way we played I've always been known as a guy who is a guards coach and guards get to have a chance to have a lot of freedom but now post guys are looking at me. I mean DJ Burns changed the way I coach. I threw the ball inside so many times and I think from a recruiting standpoint we're still recruiting the same guys that we typically recruit. It's a little bit different you know this run was five years ago you would say all right maybe you're seeing an uptick and maybe you know top five players and all that other stuff.
It's still everything still goes back now to more of NIL than anything but we're getting the same attention. Everybody's paying attention you know we were we were at one point we were the team to kind of everybody's like they're good but how good are they now they're starting to see that it's another really good program in the ACC around this area. Because you've never whirled but after the last time the state went to the Final Four Valvano always talked about the new and different opportunities he had to do something he had never gotten to do before.
Because you've never whirled but after the last time the state went to the Final Four Valvano always talked about the new and different opportunities he had to do something he had never gotten to do before. You know again it's a different world but shooting commercials doing different kinds of clinics doing corporate sponsorships. Have you done something new and different that you never had the opportunity to do before that you can relate back to that?
Not really and I say this is because I try not to change you know we and I'm not saying with Valvano that he changed because of that part of it but I'm going to have my same routine. You know I would typically go back and watch every game and see how we can get better. This year I started backwards. I started watching you know the last game you know so obviously from Purdue and I wanted to watch that nine game stretch to kind of see what the secret sauce is and you know how we play but I'm the same guy I recruit the same way there's been no difference. I don't want to. I'm kind of one of those folks that don't like to get patted on the back because when you are very negative I don't hear you and when you're very positive I don't hear you. I try to stay this way and I think that was one of the things that really helped our team this year is that I didn't get high. I didn't get low when I heard so much chatter and people were talking and just didn't matter to me. All I care about is obviously the development of my players and program moving in the right direction.
You mentioned the freedom the guards had and then DJ Burns came in and made you a different coach. Has that ever happened to you before where you've been coaching and one player was able to force you to change how you coach?
No I mean he's different I mean he's changing the Cavaliers a little bit in the NBA. If you watch the summer league there's only one team that throws the ball inside it's just the Cavaliers and he's I will say this he's a throwback and he's complete different and you know at some point you know we made the decision during the season that it was important to play through him and so essentially we had two point guards on the floor we had Michael and we had DJ because both of them could equal it and all the guards were getting so mad anyway they could never get any assist because we throw the ball to DJ he's catching the ball in the three-point line and he's dribbling six times and he's getting all the assists so we decided to make him the point guard and Michael kind of the center so Michael shot the shots and DJ kind of passed the basketball so it's helped. I don't have that I mean I don't we'll never have that again everybody even Ben and and both Brandon are pick and pop guys they want to shoot the ball for the perimeter.
Is there any added pressure heading into next year to kind of keep that momentum going and keep the program spinning right after?
Oh yeah sure I get pressure every day. You didn't watch the season and by the way I lost those four games on purpose at the end just so I wouldn't be pissed off.
No, no added pressure I mean we listen we have to develop we have to put our guys in the right spots. It's flattering. I mean I love it. I don't take it for granted I mean what our team and our staff did was simply amazing. I mean to lose four games at the end of the season to hear everybody cry and complain and to go into the ACC and and beat five champions and then everybody would have been satisfied with that and then we go in and I will say this I did think that we were seeded wrong. I thought we were much better than 11 seed and it wasn't fair to Texas Tech that a team who had just won five straight games against really good teams had to play them in the first round but no added pressure and the reason why is because I'm the biggest critic of myself so it didn't never matter what anybody else says or think I'm going to criticize myself more than anybody else.
Coach you said you went and looked back at those nine games and looked for the secret sauce. What was the secret sauce and what exactly did you see over that period?
You know we just you could see our confidence start to grow and if you go back and you guys watch it we we didn't make many mistakes and that was on the offensive end and the defensive end and one of the things we talked about is when we get on the plane you know we're gonna we're gonna limit our mistakes we're gonna play together we're gonna play as one.
The one thing I thought our guys did a great job of leaning on is our culture when you talk about it you look up here accountability, relentless, toughness and together and I don't know that there was a team last year that was that tight as we were at the end of the year and you know this is basketball with the transfer world it's a marathon and everybody today fans everyone wants a sprint and the teams who may play well early may fall off at the end and we had a great start if you look at our season man we started off in the ACC with a great win against Notre Dame and then we had an okay medium and unbelievable ending and that's how it's supposed to be like you're preparing your team for March and man we just we had a great March and I just think we locked in everybody played their role some guys stepped up Michael stepped up you know DJ Horne stepped up guys like Casey didn't even have a great scoring tournament but they played their role and so I think roles were defined and everybody played it to the to the best of their ability.
I was gonna say how do you transition that over to this upcoming season with so many new faces with a new team that you had to build that chemistry with?
You know that our returners have swag now... they have swag and so we've we put them against the new guys a few times and the difference in the new guys are so talented but here's the thing they never play together those guys have swag like Michael's running around he's making all types of shots, Ben’s picking and popping, Dennis Parker, who didn't get a chance because he you know he was under the weather playing in that situation but watching it and understanding how important it was and how we look those guys are playing at a high level right now and the way we keep it is the other guys have to follow what they're doing and it's great you know in a world where you don't have many guys that's returning you know I got five guys that I can roll out there that have been a part of an ACC championship and a Final Four run and I think that's helping the new guys.
Do you feel like you're more comfortable now that you've got a couple seasons in this new world of college basketball with recruiting and transfer portal and staying competitive do you feel like you kind of found your stride?
Yeah I never thought we lost a stride I mean I just I've said this before if you go back into you know you look at the whole deep dive of the program we got five 20-win seasons and I don't think I think everybody what happened with us is everybody forgot what we went through at the beginning and it kind of just threw it away and then if you look at that year that we finally got that NCAA stuff out of the way that was a year we had all the injuries and so it was kind of for me was more of a restart and then that restart last year and this year only three teams has been to back-to-back tournaments that's NC State that's Duke and Virginia and we're rolling and so I think we're in the right position because now we're positioned to be where we need to be without any distractions getting in the way.
Have you been more yourself though like in terms of handling workload stress like kind of balancing all three acts of the game.
Yeah I don't have workload stress I mean this I don't if you I don't sleep so usually when you this is the norm for me it just here's what's happened to me we read that we had such a long run which was so amazing the great thing about it is we're about to start school and only thing I'm worried about is like how the hell is it already middle of July and we're about to start in about a month but I don't have workload stress because when you prepare and you work all the time and you already know all the answers to the exams you don't get you don't get stressed a lot.
Coach Keatts one of the new guys I want to ask you about is Dontrez Styles. Obviously gets North Carolina native has college experience playing right down the road from here What did you like about his game when you recruited him in high school? What do you like about these summer workouts?
I love him because of his ability and his versatility. I think he can play two or three positions on the floor definitely the three and four but you know at some time he shoots the ball well we didn't have that.
Mo was really good. Mo was probably one of the better rebounders that we've had at that position. Dontrez is a little different from him you'll see him and Dennis Parker Jr. a little bit play some of that position... his ability to step out and shoot the ball behind the three-point line is really going to help our program.
Kevin you mentioned just now with Mo like do you have anybody on this group that can I mean I guess not many people got a rebound like the way he did coming down the stretch but do you look at someone and say they can really help us on the board specifically considering the amount of rebounding you're going to lose with Mo not doing that.
So here's the deal, Mo Diarra is one of the better rebounders that we had. DJ Burns didn't rebound.
It's not enough on DJ because DJ is my guy there's nobody else in the world I love more than DJ and that's not I want to make sure because when DJ reads this I don't want somebody to say coach Keatts said DJ doesn’t rebound. Don't put it that way... but what I mean is in that lineup who else was going to rebound?
What I mean by that is both Ben and Brandon you would say are better rebounders, Mike James can rebound, Dennis Parker can rebound the basketball, Dontrez Styles can rebound the basketball, Paul McNeil, and we're talking about all guys are 6'5". I think it will be done more by committee than anything, but Mo was going to get all the rebounds.
DJ was getting down the floor he was going he was setting up at the three-point line ready to make a play and so Mo didn't have anybody taking rebounds from him. Now that doesn't take away what he did in the ACC tournament to set a record for rebounding is just simply amazing so I don't want to discredit what he did but this team will rebound more by committee than anything.
Did Coach Scheyer or Coach Davis or maybe any coach from the ACC reach out to you and be like thank goodness we don't have to ever see DJ Burns again?
No nobody's going to admit that I mean he just he just he doesn't look the part and I'm telling you man he is such a special person and a special player I mean when he walks on on the floor you're looking at him like what how's this gonna work and at the end of the day he just wears you out I mean but nobody's gonna call and tell me hey man I'm glad I don't have to see him anymore but he was a good player and we will miss him we will miss him and you know just because he his great personality he did a great job with you guys and he didn't you come tell me and I'll get on him but he just he's just a delightful person and a really good basketball player and I hope someone in the NBA whether it's Cleveland or not understands how important it is to have a guy like that on your roster.
How much were you able to watch some of the Summer League games and did you have a chance to talk to them at all?
So last night I was flipping back and I was watching Jarkel Joiner who by the way had a great game last night and Mo Diarra were playing against each other and then DJ was on NBA TV so I'm talking to those guys constantly I'm texting them and just you know encouraging them I don't I don't have any advice because I'm not their coach now so do whatever your coaches are asking you to do but I can't be there to support them out I think what is it Craig five or six that we have playing you know you got Terquavion, Dereon, and you got DJ Horne and then the three I mentioned that's that's amazing I got I'm sitting there I think it was like 10:45 at 11 o'clock and I'm like a proud pop there and like man these guys were man this is pretty cool just to watch him play and and and I'm seeing DJ get the ball I'm like all right he's about to spin on you now because the way he playing and Jarkel going I'm so mad at him because he had a chance to at the end of the game it's like five seconds and he passed the ball and instead of taking the last shot and the shot clock went off and the game was over so I'm gonna call them and said man you have to take when you were here I never had a problem telling you take that shot now.
Kevin not only looking at and going back to Jarkel and DJ’s you know the transfers that you all have had. Is there anything you’ve learned about the way to integrate these transfers into the team over the past year? Is there anything that you kind of discovered as you’ve seen the success they’ve had?
Yeah chemistry you, have to figure out how to create it off the court I say this now in the world of transfers and I know you guys have wrote this a million times I've had to do this roster thing for 12 years at Hargrave just had to do it and you know I was that was 13 to 15 guys every year brand new and so now if I if I got seven or eight I'm okay with that I don't want to get to 13 but chemistry is important we try to create chemistry you know playing golf you know doing stuff you know going out in the community you know tailgating believe it or not they love it I mean get around and they tailgate and we have a good time and all that other stuff but you cannot have great playing if you don't have great chemistry and we you know what we try to do is create some of that and we don't have it right now we're trying to get there, it’s summer and I don't expect that in return of the guy great chemistry they know where everybody's supposed to be they know everybody's sister's name and mom's name we don't know that yet we're trying to figure out each other but the one thing that you have to do is try to get these guys here and get them all on the same page and you know it takes a little time it takes a season sometime as you guys saw.
Who’s kind of stepped into a leadership role including new guys and returners?
Michael, and it it took him all year long. He said something at the ACC Tournament and I looked around like who's that is that Michael he was so quiet he's the smartest guy at the school and he graduated from Stanford in three years so I'll take the argument from anybody and he definitely the smartest guy in our locker room no doubt about it.
Who's had the most personality since DJ's gone?
God that's gonna be a tough one I don't know that you're gonna replace that I mean this dude's gonna be the mayor one day you guys know it I'm telling you he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna have a and I don't know whenever he's finished playing he's gonna have a great business everybody's gonna support it he's gonna make you feel good I mean he's just a great person now. I don't have a guy and I will never coach a guy that plays like him and has the personality I may get the personality but I never get in today's game we'll never get one of those guys who plays like that.
Coach you mentioned those returners and the guys that you have coming back. Do you feel more ahead of where you were last year at this point with those guys coming back and that experience and where you feel like you want to start?
Well first of all I'll say this to you man thank you for supporting Casey Morsell's NIL guys got a Morsell shirt on so y'all know that I'm looking around I don't see no DJ Burns’ shirt so we need your help get some stuff from NIL buy some of those shirts. No I feel good having some guys back I really do and if you look at this team we had a few guys back you know obviously one of them being DJ Burns but it does help I wouldn't want to have to teach it all over again and it worked out perfect because we got five guys that can play five positions and so it actually so you know when I roll out and I can show plays you know we got Breon we got Michael we got JT we got Dennis and then obviously we got Ben and so it actually is perfect because those five guys can set the tone of what are we looking for we play so hard and we compete so hard we don't do everything right all the time as you guys know sometimes you're right about it but when we get cooking now we're pretty darn good and the reason why is because we play so hard and we try to you know with those guys here our returners are setting the tone for the other guys to show them how we compete here and we got guys coming from a lot of different programs and some great coaches and they do it a different way Casey Morsell for example when he came here Tony's an elite coach and but their system's completely different than what NC State's about and so when you get there you have to have somebody to show them this is how we do it here and this is how we've been successful and you know I told you then Jayden Taylor now he's walking around with swag I jumped on him I jumped on him yesterday because you guys might saw the clip on our on our website or one of our media things and he's talking and he's mic'd up and so I got him yesterday because he was quiet I was like oh no mic on the day you ain't saying much and all of a sudden you know so what I did learn is if I put a mic on everybody then everybody will talk so what we what I'm thinking about doing is micing everybody up and not letting who we're going to put out there who's right now we do here help ball deny shot shot you hear all of that stuff then but I you know I learned something.
One of those guys that you mentioned earlier Dennis Parker that didn't get a chance to play down the stretch, what have you seen from him this offseason and what role do you see him kind of building this.
Footwork and his shot and he was shooting the ball and twisting and his when he goes up his right foot would come way over to the left side and honestly I thought he had his best workout yesterday where he really I think he stepped up and knocked down three or four shots if Ben was doing his job he would have showed y'all on social media where he knocked down those shots and all that other stuff but I think I think handling the ball because I didn't like his assisted turnover ratio we talked about and then being more efficient behind the 3-point line now I don't want him to fall in love with it but he is stepping up making those shots and he was if you remember now Dennis started a bunch of games for us at the beginning and so you know it you know he was there for us at the end
You speak to shooting talk about the presence and acquisition of your new Assistant Coach Brett Nelson.
Yeah you guys did you guys get the chance anybody did you will show your age a little bit did anybody get a chance to watch Brett Nelson when he was coming out of high school you did there you go I knew somebody would show the age he was really really good I mean really really good I mean talented he was a he was a McDonald's All-American and I think what's you know going from where he started as a player and playing for a guy I respect that we do some of the same things and in Billy Donovan and you just can see how Brett's grown my he reminded me and I forgot about this one of my heart rate teams we took him over to I want to say Charleston and we played Brett in high school and there was a team where we had David West and Josh Howard and those guys when we played him over there and Brett reminded me that he had a lot of points and then I kindly reminded him he lost the game by 20 something so he could understand that but he is he's going to help us you know guards will ultimately respect him because of the way he played but he's so much of a really good coach he's climbed the ladder he's got head coaching experience he's done a good job he's worked for a lot of people and he's a great boss and understands coaching and understand our philosophy and what we try to teach our guys.
Coach good news always comes in bunches and I know you didn't coach Lorenzo but him being on this European Championship team playing in the Olympics global exposure what does that do for you and your program on that side of the world.
I coached him at Hargrave and I don't know if many people knew that but that year that I had had him at Hargrave it was one of the worst teams I put together and he was like Gladys Knight in the pips he was really good he just he played he was so good and so and just having a chance and I reconnected with him when he got here and I'm proud of him he's a really good basketball player and I give him credit because what happens is in this world it's so hard to make it in the NBA and so many guys go through the process of just trying to hold on too long and I want to play in the G League instead of going somewhere where you can play and make a lot of money and he's made a lot of money and he's carved a niche and for him to be the starting point guard I think that's tremendous
It's only the 3rd NC State player to play in the Olympics.
It's a proud moment for everybody and I think it's great for our program I think it's great for him and his family.
So I think about sports is so much about you want to play clean move on to the next thing. Yeah, how have you balanced this summer, the appreciation of what this spring was and are you excited about what this next season will bring.
I think I've balanced it by watching it like when you're in the moment you just don't you don't get it like everybody else around you has a chance to get it I'm spending time and you know more uh conference rooms and film and you see me at the games and all that other stuff and everybody else is having a chance uh it was special for our administration to be there it was special for our families to be there uh it was just special for our fans to be there and I didn't appreciate it uh right then but as I go back and I watch and I see and I scan you know and see the excitement around people you know I it's grown men there that are crying when we win the ACC championship that's pride that's because it hadn't been done in such a long time you have folks that you know would obviously uh now that when I'm out a little bit you know just thank you my grandparents have told me so much about how it was back then and just to have the opportunity but as I watch those games and I learn something new every time I'm just looking at them and going through those nine games and um just amazing I mean it really is you just I don't know that they're and I hope so because I hope somebody else gets a chance to experience that opportunity but I don't know that there'll be another nine game run as we've had in any history of basketball I mean to go to D.C. and to play on um Tuesday and to lose the last four games that we lost on purpose um and to be standing there for the championship and by the way we were the stronger and more fresh team every second half in every single game and we played five straight days and DJ Burns was really good every single game so that just it says a lot about our program it shows it says a lot about our people I thought our um you know nutrition staff and strength coach and trainers in that moment did a great job because we had to put people together you guys remember the championship game the referees yelling at us because we got the massage gun on the floor trying to get Casey right he leaves out there comes back like he's Willis Reed and he's coming back and you know we're cramping up and um you know DJ Horne did not play the first game he was hurt and Louisville is a dangerous enough team without your leading score where you can lose their game so we had to adjust and figure it out and how can I ever talk about this run when I was saying what a great shot that Michael made and he called that too I watched him he said backboard he did he called it as I saw you go back you guys go watch it he said he didn't say but that's that's that's where that's where it sinks in for me I've got to now where I'm walking I'm working out and I'm putting the game on because it makes me work out for about a little over an hour and so like all right that's pretty cool and I'll go back and watch them again and then I'll watch my next segment is to go back and watch the four games at the end of the year and then start from the beginning and see what the secret sauce but it started we show flashes think about the no today in game when we finished their game everybody brought us together and we just have bumps in the road and I know I I tease about the four game stretch but I complained about that four game stretch when we got on schedule there's nobody in the history of the ACC that has played Duke and Carolina Saturday and Monday now all Saturday will be in a tournament you got.
Just briefly I was going to ask him, you mentioned you had the scenes at Houston Championship, grown men crying, any really special fan interactions that you remember that really stand out?
No I just think you know the bell tower was uh impressive you know we got back and us and the women's team uh was able to do that I mean just it's just amazing uh and I didn't realize it you know as we as we won the ACC and we went to the Final Four I didn't realize how much I would hear it but everybody was starving for some type of championship and that's great I mean you guys I don't have to tell you guys you guys are smart you know how to feed into the fan base and then you know how to block them out so I understand you play the game with that part of it but our folks were genuinely happy for what went on and I think that's that's special um and that means something if they didn't care I would have a problem with that but they care about it and I don't have one story I just got several I mean folks just oh man what an amazing run and you know what a great job and and we're very humble and I say thank you and I appreciate it and you know obviously we want to just continue to try to build on what we did last year.