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NC State Basketball

Keatts: "We Found A Way"

February 17, 2018
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media after the Wolfpack's 90-84 win at Wake Forest.


Opening Statement...

I am excited to get another road win in the ACC obviously. Anytime you play in the road in this tough conference it is a tough battle. I give Wake Forest credit. I thought they battled us all the way until the end. We were fortunate we made some plays down the stretch.

A guy that stood out for me was Omer Yurtseven. I thought he did a good job. We moved him around. Once again, he made three threes. 

Markell Johnson has been really special us when you look at him he played 34 minutes with 10 assists and two turnovers.

We found a way, I feel like, to win the game. We didn’t play well the last eight minutes of the game.

I’m excited for the bunch. 

Toughness after the two losses last week...

I am happy. I told our guys we went through a stretch where -- and it is funny I say it because we scored 90 points -- we went through a stretch where we were not scoring and I thought it affected our game overall. 

I told the guys to stay the course, don’t define how you play by whether you are scoring or not and what we are doing as a team is we are starting to trust in our teammates. 

NC State’s three-point shooting...

I thought it was good. When you look at it, we make 11 threes -- we shot 45 percent. I thought on the other end we did a great job of defending the three-point line. 

How has this team developed its confidence?

I just think every game we win, I think it builds confidence.

I go back and there are some certain games that I thought helped us -- obviously in the Bahamas with Arizona. When you look at the ACC our season could have went a different way probably if we didn’t win at Pittsburgh, but we found a way to win and then, obviously, every practice, every situation we try to make a competitive situation. 

I took over a bunch that didn’t have a lot of success so we wanted to make everything competitive and they are playing that way now. 

Your thoughts on Allerik Freeman’s performance?

He has played great. When you look at him, not only that, he has played two great games. He has been patient. He has picked his spots. He has become more mature. He has become a leader. He is the only guy on my team that has played meaningful basketball this late in February. 

When you are a fifth-year guy, and you are at a new school, you are probably going to force things early on. He has learned how to trust other people. The Syracuse game I thought he really grew up in that area. He is trusting his teammates. He could have forced a couple of shots but he didn’t. I thought he did the same thing now. 

I think he is starting to trust his teammates. 

Winning two on the road has put NC State is a good position...

I think if we continue to win anything is possible. We have put ourselves in a great situation. I know you want me to say right now that we are in the NCAA. I think all of that stuff will take care of itself. 

I will tell you now we have great wins. We have done everything that a NCAA team can possibly do -- winning on the road, have great wins with the new quad -- so we have put ourselves in a good position. 

Your thoughts on the response after the Virginia Tech and North Carolina games? 

I am thrilled. We talk about when you lose a game, getting well. I thought our guys did a great job of getting well this week. 

How important was it to always maintain a working margin over Wake Forest for most of the game?

I thought it was good. You guys will know the numbers better than me but I thought we went about a two or three minute stretch, maybe four, where the ball wasn’t going in. We got a little frustrated. All we talked about in the huddle was just staying the course on the defensive end.

 
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