Keatts: "It Was A Character Win"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts answered questions from the Wolfpack's radio crew following the Wolfpack's win at Syracuse.

POSTGAME RADIO INTERVIEW: Kevin Keatts

Coach your team had to overcome a lot to get this win tonight. Does that make it particularly satisfying? 
Well, it makes it great because we have overcome a lot of adversity. 

Obviously they got to the line too much for me. When you look at it you know they got to the line 27 times. I thought our guys got a little frustrated during that stretch where they were shooting free throws.  Give them credit, we stayed the course. 

I thought some guys did a great job coming off the bench. When you look at Sam Hunt's performance, I thought he was good.  Lavar Batts came in and did a great job on the defensive end for the minutes he played. 

Markell Johnson hit a huge shot at the top of the key, and Omer Yurtseven sealed the game with his free throw. 

Would Sam Hunt be in the game anyway or was he in because of all the foul trouble?
Well he was in the game because he has the ability to stretch the zone. Obviously he didn't get wiped out on the defensive end so he played some valuable minutes. He made some great shots.

I'm proud of these guys. This is a tough place to play. Syracuse is a really good basketball team. Those two guards are as good as advertised, and I thought it was a character win for us. 

As the game progressed, did you feel like your team got a better feel for the holes of the zone? 
Well we tried we tried to give them different looks. We tried to screen it. We tried to hit the middle. We tried to penetrate it. 

I think where you make the mistake is if you let them see the same zone offense every time. They can lock in on that. We wanted to give them a lot of different looks, and I thought our guys did a good job with that.

Did the defense get better as the game went on with keeping Battle and Howard out of the lane? 
Well I thought we got our right matchups. 

At the end of the game the three guys that we were able to put on those two guys were Lavar Batts, Al Freeman, and Markell Johnson. I thought all three did a good job keeping them in front, but they go to the free throw line a little too much. 

We had a couple of breakdowns.  T.D. came off strong side and gave 11 a couple of three-pointers that got them back in the game, but give our guys a lot of credit.  We kept our composure, we came down, I was able to call a timeout and we executed out of the timeout.

Did the touches in the paint create more opportunities from the perimeter in the second half?
Well, we had those same looks in the first half, but they didn't go.  I wanted those guys to stay the course. 

I didn't want to come in here and take 30 three's. I wanted to be efficient from the three-point line.  I was hoping for around 21, 22... 23 is fine for me.  

We really shared the basketball with 17 assists on 27 made field goals. We turned it over 19 times, but that's not characteristic of us. 

Markell Johnson hit a big three-pointer coming out of the timeout.  Was that a set play or off free-lance?
Of course, if I called a timeout you don't think I'm going to take [credit]?

Well sometimes the opposition takes away what you want to do.
I get paid to call timeouts and make plays, so you're asking me that question like you don't know.

[Laughing] I have a lot going on here.
No ice cream tonight for you.