Kevin Keatts: "This Group Is Very Focused"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media Thursday afternoon to discuss a plethora of topics as the Wolfpack prepares for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.
Opening Statement...
All right, guys, Craig said that I wanted to open a statement, and I said no, but I will. It's great to see all you guys, and honestly, I miss you guys because you guys have been pretty doggone good, especially at the end of the year, and I had a great summer. Not a good summer, so anybody ask me how my summer was, it was a great summer. I got a chance to do a lot of good things. I had a chance to reflect on a lot of things. I watched every game backwards. The nine elimination games that we won, amazing. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It was an unbelievable run that our guys had, and I'm proud of it. I'm proud for everybody that's part of Wolfpack Nation, the former players, the current players, just the alumni.
It was so great to run into a bunch of people this summer, and you know that you've won a lot of games when you get a bunch of grown men that are crying and saying what a great tournament run. We were excited, ACC champions, and those five days in D.C. were incredible. They were incredible because our team loaded that plane to go to D.C., understanding what the task was, and obviously we did a great job at it, doing it one game at a time and getting to the championship and obviously making the tournament, and when we went into the tournament, we just didn't even want to go to the tournament after having such a great ACC run. We wanted the opportunity to go win a national championship and make it to the Final Four and eventually losing to a really good Purdue team. I think it was a very successful season for us, and so we move on.
We put that in the past, excited about the banner that we will eventually hang, but we start practice. It'll be two of those banners now, Southwestern Region champion, then ACC champion, Final Four, and then we move on and we start practice on Monday, and this group is very focused and excited about practice. So, questions?
Kevin, since this time last year, you won the ACC championship, you got a contract extension, you got a basic value, you got bonuses. Are you the same coach as you were a year ago this year?
Oh, no way. Or has success gotten to you a little bit? No, I am the same coach, and I'm glad you asked that, Chip. I go back, and I think I've told you this to you guys over the last seven years, is I do a lot of reflection in the offseason on myself, on our team, how could we get better, and, you know, you go back and look at a lot of things, but nothing's changed. You know, we were, even that team that you saw last year that everybody kind of, in my opinion, panicked at the end of the year because we lost the last four games, they were the same team going into the tournament, but we knew that we could be a really good basketball team, but we just stopped making mistakes. And to answer your question, no, I'm the same. I'm always going to be happy, I'm always going to be excited, and I get an opportunity to work with a good group, and that's what really motivates me.
You might be the same, but how have you improved as a coach in the last five, six months? Well, I was really good, but I don't know what type of post-coach I'm going to be now with D.J. Burns gone. I just, you know, all my life, obviously, I've had some really good players, and really good post guys, but we played with a lot of guards and played through guards, and that guy, I don't think we understand the impact that he had on our program because he was unique. And, you know, I went out, I'll be honest with you, I went out to try to find anybody I thought could be similar to D.J. Burns, and guess what, I found no one. But we got good players, but they're different. And so, as far as a different coach, nothing different. I just, I understand I'm a little bit calmer than I am, and maybe that's because I'm getting older, one more year older, but as far as the way we prepare, the way we do things, it's pretty much the same.
What do you make of the new guys at the post now at this point, with Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, adding to them, their work?
Yeah, so I have two great, proven centers in our league. Ben, obviously, where he started with Clemson, and then making the run that he made, and I think back, in every game I can point to a guy who was really good. You think about if we don't get past Texas Tech if he doesn't have that great night. And so you just saw Ben mature, and so he's going to be really good. And Brandon, being at Louisville, though they didn't win a lot of games, his stats and his numbers were really good.
And those two guys are really unique. They're different from D.J. Burns. They're more pick-and-pop guys that can get up and down the floor a lot better than he can, and they're really good on ball-screen defense. So I think I got two guys, and then when we throw Ish in there, Ish can play some four and some five. So I got three really solid front-court guys that I really like that can play some five for us.
Coach Keatts, what's sort of the healthy balance as a head coach that you have to experience as far as what went last year's tournament run, but now getting ready to set your eyes forward in this upcoming season?
Yeah, it's different. I mean, you know, if I had seven or eight guys back, you know, we would talk about a lot more. But, you know, we got five guys back, and of those five, three guys really played. And so you know this in college basketball, it's a one-year deal now. And so though we're excited and pumped up about it, we have to turn the page. And, you know, we got three, four more days where we're going to celebrate what we did last year, and then we're going to move on on Monday and be ready with this different group. And I got so many new pieces.
But I do say the five guys that are back, three of them that played a lot of them, which is Michael, JT, and Ben, have been great leaders for us. And, you know, obviously trying to develop the culture and keep the culture to where it is, and, you know, how hard we play and what we talk about.
To follow up on that, you don't see a lot of people stay in one place for four years. And Breon Pass has been playing behind some really good guards the last few years, and he's going into his senior year now. You know, how do you expect him to step up for his senior year? And what has he meant to the team was just him being able to play his role and being ready when his number was called.
Yeah, I think we should appreciate a Breon Pass, you know, because I said this before, very seldom would you see a guy start at a Power 5 school and obviously end up graduating there.
They will either transfer or they'll go to the pros early or whatever it has to be. I'm excited about him. You know, he'll be in the mix this year as an older guy, understanding, you know, the two guys that I think have really benefited from the run that may not have played a lot would be Breon and also Dennis Parker Jr. Because sometimes, you know, as you sit and watch, being able to watch is kind of just about like playing, too, because you get a chance to see people's mistakes and how you can get better, and you can tell Breon has a little focus and wants to be in the mix more.
You mentioned Ish. How did that kind of come about and kind of bring him in a little bit later in this?
Yeah, you know, we talked about whether we were going to go with 12 scholarship guys this year, and it was at one point we thought about maybe we would go with 12 and hold a scholarship for possibly second semester, and we got to talking and, you know, calling around, and we figured out that Ish was a good player and somebody that could fit into the way we wanted to play.
We lost a really good rebounder in Mo. Ish is different. Ish can play some four and five, but it gives us the versatility to move him to different positions because of his ability to pick and pop.
Coming off the run that you just made, do you put as much stock into the regular season as you would have before the moment? It is, you know, when your back's against the wall, the way you guys played that game last year.
Well, how can I answer that question with somebody being disturbed by it? You know, no, I think you have to play the entire year. You know, I said this before. I will say this again. What's disappointing is that we've got a great ACC basketball league, and obviously now we're going to 18. What was disappointing, that if we didn't make our run and we didn't make the tournament by winning the tournament, the ACC gets four teams out of 15 into the tournament. I am hopeful that all of our ACC teams have a great November and December because it seems like the committee's more valuing what you do in the early season as opposed to the tournament.
And so we don't have the luxury and no one in our conference has the luxury of waiting for the tournament. We all have to win early if we want more teams in the tournament.
Speaking of that, you have Kansas on the schedule. I mean, you know, does that kind of help kind of build that resume?
Yeah, what was I thinking? I mean, you know, we wanted to be challenged and, you know, I said this before. If we have opportunities to start great home-and-homes with great programs, we would do that. And it presented itself to us to play Kansas and, you know, we get a chance to go and our guys get a chance early to play in that atmosphere. I would imagine that they will be number one and number two when we travel there. But we also get a chance for them to come back here and play us. So I think it's a good deal for us and we're excited about it. We're excited. I know I'm going to get questions about when the schedule is going to be released. Somebody was waiting. They didn't want to start. They did press conference that way. But thank you all. I'll tell you, I will answer it now. You'll have the entire schedule probably on Tuesday and that will be ACC included.
You know, we were so close to releasing just a non-conference and then we said, hey, the ACC schedule is going to be ready, too. So we're going to release it all. I think I would say, I would guess when I would get in trouble, I would guess that you probably would see it sometime on Tuesday.
Coach, what's been your impression of the three freshmen that you brought in? And maybe overall and individually, what's really stood out where you see them fitting in?
Yeah, I love what they bring to the table. And none of those guys act as though they're freshmen. You know, they all believe that they can play. I mean, those guys, I mean, you look at Bryce and you look at Paul. The one thing that stood out about both of those guys is they both added about 10 pounds of muscle. So when you guys get a chance to see them in a little bit, you'll see a bigger version of them. But there are two guys who can play some two and three that have a chance to be really good in this program. And Trey's unique. Trey's a combo guard that's super athletic, that can play both two and one. Those three guys will compete for playing time. It's not like we're bringing them in as freshmen, even though we're in their transfer era, thinking that they won't play. I mean, those guys are going to have great opportunities to get on the floor.
Bryce is the youngest one out of all those guys, obviously reclassing to the 2024 class to even be here. What have you seen from him that shows you that he has the maturity to play at this level?
Yeah, and I apologize, too, because Ish came before Bryce, right? Bryce was the 13th guy. Bryce is good. And, you know, I caution everyone for thinking because, and I've read this a couple times, because he is the last guy that, like, folks have talked about, you know, maybe Bryce was coming here to be a redshirt guy, and that was not ever in the plans. If it happens with any of the freshmen, we'll talk about it. We don't feel like they will play enough minutes.
But he's recruited to come in and play right now. It's hard to recruit guys if you think they're just going to come redshirt. He's going to have every opportunity. Now, that being said, if we get to the, you know, close to the season, and I feel like any of those freshmen are ready, we will have a different conversation. But they're all going to compete starting on Monday for an opportunity to play.
Kevin, what's been your favorite moment with this team so far? I mean, take us into a locker room or on the practice court with something that sticks out in your mind with them.
Yeah, they're just, this is a great bunch. And for the first time in my career here, we got a bunch of self-starters. We probably, I would say these guys, we got 98% of our team that outside of us, when we're allowed to work them on, and right now we're in a period where they can only be four hours on the court with us, those guys live in the gym. They love to play pickup. They get after each other. They're developing some type of chemistry. You know, we've done some Top Golf. You know, we do it through tailgating. You know, we have a pretty good tailgate over there.
We're going to have a couple, we're going to take them, actually I'm taking them out to dinner tonight just, you know, so we can get together. And the one thing we're trying to do is we're trying to force chemistry or develop chemistry. People can use it one way or the other.
But with us, we're trying to, you know, one thing about the group last year, their bond was so tight that when we got towards the end of the year, we were prepared for March. Like every coach says, let's get prepared for March. And so this group, I want them to get together a little bit more than they are right now with new people.
Coach Doeren took the football team on a camping trip, and I know Hubert takes his guys to the Outer Banks. Are you going to do something bigger like that or just kind of what y'all are doing now?
Yeah, of course we're going to go bigger than that. No, we'll have our annual trip to Wilmington in the next couple weeks. And we do that and get out on the beach. It's not all fun. Like you guys think we're going down to Wilmington to just have fun, and it's not all about that. It's a bonding trip, and we learn so much about each other and everything else. But we'll have that trip here in a couple weeks or so.
Can we get a little ethereal here? You talked about chemistry.
Yeah.
Is there something that when you can kind of tell, oh, this group has that chemistry when everything starts to click, and it looks like something like last year.
Yeah, it starts. We had an hour this morning, and I won't say which team because one team just got their butt kicked this morning, and it was defensively. It was everything. We pressed the entire hour, and you can just see guys understanding where to be on the court. It's weird because we talk about so much of offensive chemistry to win games. I think one of our biggest strengths at the end of the year, our defensive chemistry was so good, and that's what we're starting to develop a little bit earlier with this group. This group is a little further along defensively than the other group. Last year we were further along offensively because we had some good players that returned.
Growing up in Virginia, I'm sure you can appreciate the uniqueness of somebody like Dontrez Styles and playing for Carolina, going away to Georgetown and coming back to play for NC State. When this is further down the line, is that going to be maybe a challenge from a coaching standpoint to not get his emotions too wrapped up into those particular games when they come up?
Well, we don't play Georgetown, so he transferred from Georgetown. So he's one school removed, so he shouldn't be emotional when we play Carolina or Carolina. No, these guys are competitors. No matter how much as coaches we downplay opportunities and playing guys who are locally, they understand that and they play. I would be lying to you if I told you that emotions will not be involved. That's a great question to ask Dontrez, but I would imagine he'd have some type of emotion.
Coach Keatts, to follow up on that. As someone who recruited him in high school and actually saw him play against Terquavion Smith, how do you see his basketball career growing now that he's down on campus at NC State?
I think he's grown in a lot of ways. He is starting to shoot the ball better than he ever did. Coming out of high school, for you guys who followed, Dontrez is a really good player, but he was more athletic than he was skilled, and now I think his skill level is pretty good. He had a great year from stats at Georgetown. Hopefully, we can obviously put that into our system.
He's unique because we can play him at some power forward and also a small forward position, but I think the biggest thing he's grown from is his ability to score the basketball and shoot it behind the three-point line.
Have you seen Michael (O’Connell) grow from the end of the year last year to coming into this year and kind of taking that, that he had that rhythm in those nine decades?
Yeah, for all of you guys who wrote, man, this guy wasn't a good enough point guard, and I know y'all did too, just so y'all know. I ain't calling a couple people out in here because that's not what this is about. But what a great, listen to me, what a great postseason. The guy who couldn't shoot that everybody said was slow and couldn't shoot, he had now. And just so you know, he went from whatever he shot at Stanford, I think 20% to 37% from behind the three-point line.
Of course, he's booming. I mean, the guy's playing at a high level. He's a really good basketball player. He's a tremendous person. And so his leadership has been really, really good. When we became a better team is when Michael found his voice. You know, he was still, he never was a big talker. And, you know, one time I turned around in the locker room during a run and I heard somebody talking and he was encouraging, getting after people. And I looked around and was like, hold on, is that Michael? And so I think what he's done now, he's got a lot of confidence and he should. I mean, his run was incredible.
And it started when DJ Horne could not play against Louisville. And all of a sudden we went from a guy who scored six points a game to now he's 14 of 15. Great program, man. Coaches do a good job developing guys.
Kevin, with Dontrez, Brandon, and all the new guys who you brought in, when you were going into the portal, what were you hoping to come out of it with? And when you were talking to some of these guys, those who you did get and maybe some of you ended up not, what was the perception of NC State? Could you tell there was a difference from previous off seasons?
Well, I think there's a difference. I mean, you know, we've done well in the portal. I mean, we've done well in the portal. We've done well before. You can sit out. You know, we go back to Devin Daniels and CJ Bryce. We go back to Al Freeman. We've done well. So we have a lot to sell when it talks about transfers. Those guys who have come into our program have impacted our program and helped us win. The run helps. You know, being able to say, you know, hey, this is what we did last year. Look what DJ Horne did. You know, DJ Horne had an incredible year. Here's what DJ Burns did, Casey Morsell. You know, the last seven dudes, the seven dudes that really played for us at the end, they all started their careers at another school. So we had a lot to sell as far as coming into a program and being ready to play.
Is there any pressure to get back to that kind of environment next season? What do you mean?
Any pressure?
To get back to, like, tournament and have success.
I don't think it's because we went to the tournament there's pressure, but we want to do it every year. I mean, we want to have that opportunity there. I remind everyone it is so tough in this league with the amount of teams that they're putting in the tournament. You know, the last couple years we've had five. It's only been three teams that's been in the back-to-back NCAA tournaments, and we just happen to be one. And so it's really hard, you know. I know sometimes as fans and I know as you guys cover, when you're writing, I want you to think about this now when you're killing that coach because he's not making the tournament. Just think about the percentages of it.
I mean, it's been five teams the last couple years, and we've done it twice. And it's some great programs that, you know, have been around for a long time that hadn't been the back-to-back tournaments in this league. And so it's not fair because, you know, the ACC, we're going to 18 teams. We've had 15. That being said, we typically, you know, we should be getting 9,10 teams in. When you get five, it's hard. It's really hard. And I'm proud of the fact that, you know, we've been back-to-back. And obviously we want to have an opportunity to go to back-to-back-to-back tournaments and have a chance, you know.
Kevin, do you anticipate being able to play faster with this group? I mean, what do you see when you look at the lineup versus them?
I do. You know, this team is probably faster than last year's team, but we ran a lot last year too. And here's what was unique about this team, and this is what made D.J. Burns such a special player, is we ran when he didn't. And when we didn't get an early basket, that's what he did. We threw the ball inside to him, or we threw it to the top of the key, and he was such a great passer that he made some amazing things. I think we'll get a few more transition baskets from our post, but that's not to take away from D.J. Burns because he was smart enough to understand who he was, and we played fast. And then when we needed to go through him, it became him and Michael as the point guards.
Speaking of D.J., D.J. Burns in Korea?
Yeah. Have you seen the video?
Yeah.
You got to get on social media. He's got a video of him. He's got a video of him already.
Did you put it up?
No. Did I retweet it? I may have liked it.
He has two. He actually has two. He has a big one.
But he's getting his chance. No, he's getting his chance. What a great personality. I don't think you guys understand getting a chance to cover a guy who is that unique, who's a really good basketball player. But he was very grateful for every interview that he had with you guys. And I don't know that I will ever coach a guy with a personality that big. I mean, he's a big teddy bear, and you think about his impact off the court.
He's the first guy, when he leaves and he goes upstairs and leaves the arena, he's out there taking pictures with fans, and he's involved in everything else. And so I'm so happy to see him perform at the highest level. Unfortunately, I wish he was in the NBA. The difference is the NBA doesn't play with that type of center now like they used to. But he's going to make a lot of money, and he's going to be very successful at whatever he does.
You also mentioned during the NCAA tournament last year, you mentioned a couple of times that you didn't feel like the team was getting the respect it deserved. You feel like it all was said and done. You get to the final four of what you did, winning the championship and everything else. Did you finally earn that to a degree?
No, we didn't. We went to the final four, and in the final poll, we were number 10. Some people do pretty good math. How does that work? No, and that's part of it. You know, whether we get it or not, it's our job as a coach and player that we got to go out and earn it. I mean, every year is different, and you know what? We can't live on the memory of last year's team, nor can Purdue, nor can UConn, nor can Alabama. We've got to go out there, and we've got to create our own opportunities with this group.
Coach, speaking on the memory of last year, when you look at the roster turnaround to this year, how do you approve?
Meaning, player-wise?
How does the team approve, and how do you build on that?
Yeah, so we have to figure out a couple things. I mean, we had two unique guys. The DJs were really good, and I say that from an offensive standpoint. You know, DJ Horne could break off a play and just go score. So his impact was really good. DJ Burns, we talked about that enough, how unique he was and a great passer. Mo was a tremendous rebounder, and then Casey Morsell did a little bit of everything. Didn't shoot it as well as he did the previous year, but defensively, he was really good, and he showed leadership. We lost those four seniors who were really good, and now we have some older guys that have to step up. We didn't know during preseason that DJ Horne was going to be as good as he played. We knew he was going to be a good player, but he stepped up, and he had a stretch during the season, during the regular season, when he was just really, really, really good. And so we're looking for that type of player, whether it's going to be Marcus, whether it's going to be JT, whether it's going to be one of the younger guys.
We're looking for guys to fill those roles, but they're not trying to do it the same way that those guys did it.
I told you, nobody's going to play like Mo. When Mo realized that his bread and butter was going in there, rebounding the basketball, we became a really good basketball team. He would make occasional three. He would rebound the ball. Casey, who didn't shoot it well, but decided, hey, I'm not shooting it well, but I'm going to become a great defensive player, the player that I've always jabbed at him about being one of the better defensive players. And so these guys now, we have to find our own identity through this group.
You raised a good point during the offseason that when people talk about top returning players in the ACC, they kind of forget about Mike and Brandon.
Yeah.
And then Marcus would have been probably a top five player in the MAC. I guess, do you think the transition will be easier because they've had success?
Yeah, I think because, you know, Louisville didn't have a great year, you know, record wise. I think those guys are a little bit forgotten and I hope they understand that, you know, but with Mike James and Brandon, I think they both have a chance to be really good basketball players here. And, you know, I've touched on Brandon, but Mike James and he has two years to play. I mean, he's a big, strong wing that can shoot the basketball, that can drive the basketball. And I think he has a chance to be good. And Marcus comes in as our highest returning scorer in college at 20 points a game. Yeah, he did it at the mid-major level, but he's really good. He's a paint touch guy who can, you know, play both positions. And so I think both of those guys can really have a big impact on our program, but I'm expecting, you know, I want all our transfers to play older. I want them to be transfers. I want them, even though they played at different universities, I want their experience to be brought into NC State.
Kevin, you mentioned the newcomers and bringing them up to speed. What have you seen specifically from the guys who did bring them up last year, Ben, JT, and all those other guys that were here?
Yeah, I think I said this earlier, man. There's not another player in the country that's having as much fun as Ben. I mean, some of you guys have probably seen him downtown a little bit. Don't tell me because I don't want to know that. But that man is having a great time, just so you know that. But they play with swag. They play with a sense of urgency. They're out front showing people, you know, what we do and how we do it and the culture that we've built. And it's been great. You know, I've been in an era where you don't have many transfers, or many, I'm sorry, an era where you don't have many returners. You know, you want to have at least the small amount of returners that you have be leaders, and they all have showed some leadership during this.
Kevin, is there a secret sauce for a transfer? Not, like, from, like, you bringing the team chemistry together, but, like, as an individual before they get here, did you go for that? Yeah, but I'm not going to tell you that. I told you now, we've been good with transfers now. A lot of people can make, you know, a lot of people can say how good their transfer has been, but our transfers have been really good, and I'm not giving up what I look for in a transfer. You know, I will say this. I think it's important to find guys that fit the way you want to play. You know, I will say that. I think so many people make some mistakes in taking some guys that don't fit. Now, you guys will argue with me that DJ Burns didn't fit the way I wanted to play, and I'm going to argue with you and say, yeah, he did. I wanted to throw the ball that side a little bit more.
That's all. But I'll take one more, and then I'll get out of here if anybody has one. Yes?
You mentioned the former players. You went on that nine-man streak. Obviously, they've always been the best, but you said you saw tears. Just describe that, and then were you kind of taken aback by how much they care about this?
No, our former players are great. I mean, they really are, and they were involved in the game. A lot of them could not make the game. I mean, they were watching. They were yelling. They were, you know, even though I may not have talked to all, I talked to some of them. They were talking to our players. You got the connection with Levi, you know, being a former player, so they were ecstatic. And when we won the ACC at 37 years, man, it was great because it wasn't just about us. It was about everybody who's ever worn their uniform, making them proud, but also giving them a little bragging rights because the way we did it was unique.
I mean, we did it the other day. It couldn't have been scripted any better. The teams that we played and how we won and who we beat and everything else. I thought it was great, but I'm happy for our former players because when you win a championship here at NC State for the basketball program, it's not just for the basketball program. It's for our entire school. It's for our entire alumni base. It's for our entire fans.
It means something, and this was one, and what makes it special is that no one saw it coming, and it means so much to everybody. Now, you won't believe this, but our players and us, we talked about it. We talked about it going into D.C. that we were going to do it, and we talked about it after Louisville. We talked about it after Syracuse. We talked about it after the regulation. We talked about it at Duke. We talked about it after the regulation at Virginia, too. It was like, all right, we got a chance now because we hit that big shot, but I want you guys to, some people go through and they cover teams, and they may not ever win a championship, and so if this is your first time winning a championship by covering NC State basketball, then this is for you, too, also.