Kevin Keatts: "I Love the Way This Group Plays"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 82-70 win over Coastal Carolina Wednesday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.
Opening Statement
I love the way our guys came out in the second half with the energy. We didn’t finish the first half like I wanted to, but I thought we did some good things tonight. Jayden Taylor played extremely well and I was very excited from what I saw from Trey Parker as well. I think we're getting better as a team and I like some of the things I saw especially from the second half of tonight’s game. Coastal is a team that loves to control the tempo and we came in wanting to play fast and make them play fast as well. I thought we did a good job on the defensive end forcing 19 turnovers.
On Taylor’s 22-point game...
I think we have a group that, on any given night — you might have Brandon [Huntley-Hatfield] with 18, Marcus Hill with 18, or you might have someone else. Jayden Taylor played well tonight and has been playing well, but this group doesn’t need him to be in a D.J. Horne role. We have a lot of guys who are all able to score anywhere from 15-18 points just depending on the night and the opponent.
On the free throw shooting...
I got everybody in yesterday on their own to shoot 100 free throws. We are a much better free-throw shooting team than we've shown. Tonight we made 28 and missed 7, but I think we did a way better job at the free-throw line, especially Brandon. Brandon gets a lot of fouls, he's very good inside, and going 9-for-10 from an interior player I think is really good.
On the team's defense...
I hope it doesn’t take until the first game against Louisville in the ACC Tournament but it is a work in progress. I love the way this group plays and the thing is they come in and compete every day in practice, we are getting better every day. We got so many different guys from different places and we are starting to understand scouting reports, we are getting better at that. I think once we get better at that and learn how to play hard consistently on both ends of the floor then our depth will start to show more.
On Parker’s effort and growth...
He’s gotten better and he’s been an energy guy. Every game I go into I look and see who’s going to be my energy guy and I thought Trey was great. But he’s had great practices. You know it's weird, with this group you can look at how they practice and determine how they are going toplay on gameday. With these guys we need to have good practices to determine how well we’ll translate to games.
On the new guys and the roles of each...
We've been really good in each of the three games. We have scored around 80 points in each, which is a little surprising so early on for this team. The other thing I will point out is that our team is really passing the ball well. We’re really starting to understand how to get guys the ball. I didn’t think we got Brandon the ball early and he picked up some 3-second calls because we couldn't find him early on. We need to get stingy on the defensive end but we still forced a lot of turnovers.
On the team’s offensive identity...
I think we're a driving team. We look at the last game we had 40-something points in the paint. And Brandon has done a good job playing with his back to the basket. I think Jayden and Marcus are doing a good job of getting paint touches. It's too early to get a clear understanding of our identity but we can be a good paint touch team at times.