Keatts: "They Did A Great Job"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media after the loss at Georgia Tech.

Opening Statement...
Give Georgia Tech a lot of credit. We watched them on tape against Clemson and Virginia, and I thought they had the opportunity to win those two games on the road.

We knew coming in it would be a tough game because of the clash of styles.

I thought we got beat to a lot of 50-50 balls... when you lose a three-point game you kind of figure out what happened, and I thought both teams were efficient enough offensively. We had an opportunity to turn them over and I didn't think we got the loose balls.

Josh has done a good job of piecing guys together and they are starting to play well.

We have to go back and get better. Quick turnaround before we play on Saturday.

It was an interesting back-and-forth between the two centers.
I thought both guys were very sharp offensively. Both guys scored in the post. It was a good matchup.

Torin tried to make that dunk, what kind of a momentum swing...
I can't look at one play... I just thought we didn't get the loose balls we normally would get. I thought our guys played extremely hard and played with great effort, but they beat us to the loose balls. That's something we have to get better at before Saturday.

How surprised are you that kind of game happened given the way you'd been playing?
It's the ACC.  

I think everybody is capable... anybody is capable of beating you, I don't care who it is, and you're capable of beating anybody else.

They did a great job of protecting their home court.

Given the situation with the last two games, you had the chance at a two-round bye. Does it feel like a missed opportunity?
I don't know what the rest of the league has done. I'm not going to tell you we're out of the double bye. It would be great if we're still playing for that.

It depends on other teams also. I don't think we missed an opportunity. I'd love to win the games, but it's the ACC. I don't think you can look ahead to winning two games and getting a double-bye. It just doesn't work that way. We were focused on Georgia Tech.

Where were the breakdowns defensively in the second half?
They were good. Tadric Jackson did a great job. He could drive us but he also posted our guards up which we knew could happen.

The system... it's a clash of styles... we were able to get the tempo we wanted,  I just felt there were some missed opportunities. We didn't get the loose balls we could have converted into baskets.

Is there something you'd like to say about the officiating?
[Laughing] No, I thought they did a great job.

What did you get T'd up for?
I really don't know, and I'm not... I just don't know.

Do you know what Torin got T'd up for?
I don't know.

What was your message in the locker room?
One game doesn't define you... do you hold your head down? We don't have time for that because we have a short turnaround.

Whether we won the game or lost the game we were going to play on Saturday. Now we have to figure it out.