Kevin Keatts: "There's Got to Be More Ball Movement"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 70-67 road loss to Virginia Tuesday afternoon.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.
Opening Statement
The first thing I'll say: that's another good UVa-NC State game. This is the third one, and the last couple of them were overtime here and then obviously in the ACC tournament. This one came down to a three-point game. It was completely different halves. If you look at it, we played great in the first half, offensively and defensively. What I talked about with the team is, at halftime, we had 11 assists. We'd only given up two three-pointers, and we were moving the ball. We played well on both ends. We came in the second half, and I thought we played well enough the first two minutes offensively, and then the ball stuck. One of the things I've talked about is, when you play Virginia — because they do a great job of gap protection — there's got to be more ball movement and player movement, and we didn't get that. We only had three assists in the second half. We gave up seven three-pointers in the second half. That's not a good formula to win. I've talked to these guys, and we’ve preached on it: this group needs each other to play well together to be able to win. When you look at the first half, we were really, really good. I didn't think we were very good in the second half.
On the three-point defense in the second half and Isaac McNeely’s success...
We lost him. When you look at it, our pressure was tremendous in the first half. We really got after them. What happens is, because it's a new bunch, we've got to figure out and learn how to play behind and with a lead. We relaxed. We took a couple bad shots and a couple bad turnovers that led to them getting some easy baskets. Once that happened, the crowd gets involved, and the energy on the other end gets involved.
On what he wanted on the last possession...
I was hoping [Michael O'Connell] could duplicate what he did in D.C. We tried to get a basket. We had no timeouts at that point. We tried to get a basket, tried to get a down screen to get either [Jayden Taylor] or Breon [Pass] — I don't remember which one was in the game at that time — to get a look off. With 15 seconds left or 10 seconds left, we didn't necessarily want to take a bad three. We wanted to just take a shot. We knew we had enough time that, if we fouled, we could get another shot off.
On Ben Middlebrooks' health and the frontcourt players’ performance...
I got an update early this morning right before breakfast that he had been throwing up a good portion of the night. I didn't know that. I also thought he may be available for the game. We put him through warm ups. If you know Ben, if he can play, he can play. He ended up throwing up again before the game. At that point, we made the decision that he wasn't going to be able to give us anything. He lost a lot of fluids. I don't know if it's something he ate. I don't know if it's a stomach virus. It’s something that we've got to figure out. It completely changes us. He's had a great year so far. He's the leading shot blocker in the league. He's our toughness guy. That being said, I thought Brandon [Huntley-Hatfield] and Ish [Diouf] did a good job in the first half in his absence, but as the game went along, we completely missed him.
On the turnovers...
I think it was mentality. This is a new group. I told these guys, “You've got to figure it out.” What happens is we're playing well together. You look out there, and some of your better guys may not be scoring the basketball. Now, it's like, “Hey, I’ve got a 12- to 14-point lead. Let me go score.” That's the wrong formula against this team in this building. I didn't think we moved the ball as much. I didn't think we drove the ball as much. We settled a lot of it. A lot of our turnovers came from our interior play which is weird because they didn't trap us like they normally do. When you look at it, Brandon had four turnovers which is not really characteristic of him. Everybody kind of had one or two. It ended up being 11.
On the Pack’s late-game execution...
JT had a great look at the basket. I couldn't have thrown up anything better to get him to get a two-foot jump shot right at the basket. He missed. When we decided to call a timeout, we did a good job, and Marcus [Hill] executed. We were going to bring Breon off a stagger screen. I told Marcus, “We'll take two or three. If you can get to the rack, get to the rack.” We did a good job, then we executed our defense. We knew held possession would be our ball. We had them pinned in the corner, and we couldn't quite get the tie up, so that was a tough one.
If he would have used two bigs if Middlebrooks were available...
Absolutely. We had prepared all week, at times, to be able to play Ben and Brandon together. It's weird. When you lose a guy right before the game, it's hard to adjust. If you’ve got three or four days, and you know he's out, all of a sudden, you think about your starting center. You're going into the game. He's been practicing really well. Then all of a sudden, you get a phone call that he's probably not going to be able to go. First of all, I feel bad for Ben because there's not another guy who wants to play more than him, and obviously it changes our team. We did enough in the first half where it didn't show up, but in the second half, as the game went along, you could tell we needed his body.
On Elijah Saunders...
We thought that they would throw the ball to Elijah. They did the same thing in the first half. We just didn't pressure the ball enough. They were direct passes while we wanted to front the post. We knew that they had a size advantage. In the first half, our pressure was so effective that they couldn't make those passes. In the second half, we lost our pressure a little bit.