Kevin Keatts: "We Were Completely Locked In"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media after the Wolfpack's home loss to North Carolina.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

Opening statement

If you came to see a good game, you saw a great game. Two teams that really like to score the basketball and it turned out to be a really good defensive game. I thought we were completely locked in. Let me get this out of the way. I'm a little disappointed at the end of the game that they didn't at least review it. I mean we've had probably three or four goaltendings in the end of the game and I thought before the referees would run off the floor that they would review it. So that's my disappointment. Our crowd was tremendous, especially knowing that we were going to have some ice and snow. I thought everybody really showed up. It was a great game. I mean you look back at the last two possessions, theirs offensively, we went and obviously both of our big and our guard gravitated to their guard and Washington was underneath the basket and they made a really good play. And then at the end of the game, we were running our push action and they did a good job of icing us, pushing us to his left. And I thought JT really got a good look off of it. But we will build. We'll get better from it. It's a good game. I don't take anything away from Carolina because I'm disappointed in the last shot that we didn't get a chance to see. So we'll move on. We'll get better from it. We'll learn from it. Questions? 
 

What was the plan on the last play? Were you just going for the best shot possible? 

Oh, no, we were running our push action where we were trying to get a ball screen into a role replace. Cadeau did a really good job pushing Michael to his left and not letting him get to the ball screen. And obviously once we got out the ball screen, we moved it into a coast and JT had a great drive and obviously didn't go down.

From a defensive standpoint, Coach, playing as Carolina's number one ACC scoring offensive team in the league, was it your goal to kind of turn it into a half-court offense and keep them out of transition? 

Well, I thought we did a good job. Now, I will say this, I didn't like the transition baskets we gave up. I mean, we still gave up 16, so you probably got the number one and number two transition teams in the league. And between us and two of them, we go back and forth. I think we cut those transition baskets out. You know, obviously this may be a different outcome if you said, Coach, be picky about one thing. I didn't like the way we gave them some easy transition baskets. 
 

Marcus Hill had 20 points and six offensive rebounds. What are we seeing from him tonight? 

He's playing. I mean, he's buying in. You know, we got buy-in and, you know, he's starting to play. He's starting to understand what we're looking for, and he's playing with a little toughness. And certainly when you play with toughness and you play with grit, the ball certainly scores for you, and that's what he's doing for us. 
 

What did you expect out of (Jalen) Washington coming in? Did he give a better effort than you were anticipating? 

No, I think their bigs have gotten better at their roles. I know a lot of people, because of the fact that guys don't score as much with their back to the baskets, people don't think that those guys are valuable anymore. He did a great job with short rolling and making the right play, and obviously, defensively he's gotten better. So I think it helps their team that he's taken off and gotten a lot better in the program. 
 

Speaking of bigs, how much did it set you guys back that you were down the most important one today? 

It's tough. I would be lying to you if I told you it wasn't. A little frustrating because we got two really good bigs and we were out without being at UVA, and then obviously you get this game here, and you can play the what-if game. But it's tough. But, I'm not going to take away from, you know, Ish. I thought Ish came in and did a good job for us. But we've been going with a two-headed monster at the five, and we didn't have that.
 

You talked a lot in the beginning of the season about how Michael didn't want to shoot a whole lot. I think you saw a lot more confidence from him today. What else were you seeing? 

Well, Michael's a good complimentary player, and he's smart. And so what I mean by that is he determines, if he needs to score this game, if he needs to be a facilitator. He's one of those guys that will go into the game and figure out what does the team need from me on a given night, and he'll do that. So he knows how to play. He's doing a good job. He's obviously, he catches a lot of flack because he's not your traditional scoring pong guard, but it means a lot to our program. 
 

What was UNC doing most of the second half to slow Marcus Hill down? 

I think it was what they were doing in the second half. I thought both teams got great shots. I mean, I thought we played better in the second half ourselves. And, you know, the one thing we didn't have at halftime, I thought we had two transition baskets. And we talked about how you got to be better at rebounding the ball so we can get out and run. And I thought once we got on the run, we got some easy back. That game was a tough, hard-nosed, half-court battle. And when you look at it, probably you'll say the difference in the game is 16 fast break points versus 10. I mean, everything else was pretty even. Obviously they made up a few more threes. I thought Ian Jackson did a great job making shots tonight from the right corner. 
 

And then a follow-up to that, can we have any updates on Mike James and then what is Brandon Huntley at field injury? 

I don't know. Brandon fell. I don't have any updates on Mike. And Brandon fell and didn't feel like he could go today. 
 

Obviously the little things added up. Six turnovers that led to those fast break points. But does it sometimes help that the players can see how close they are in terms of what is needed for every possession? 

Yeah. I mean, we don't take more victories in this program. But we had some turnovers that were live ball turnovers that cost if they gave them some easy baskets. And we got to be better at that. The one thing that we didn't do that we've done pretty much the entire game, I mean, entire season is I didn't think we moved the ball and shared the ball as much as we did. Meaning, we only came out of this game with seven assists. And most of those came in the second half. They didn't come in the first half.
 

This season you've talked quite a bit about just some slow starts in previous games. But it felt like Bill came out with a lot of juice in both halves. Was there anything specific that you could attribute to that? 

No. We just worked on it. I mean, we've done more four-minute segments in practice starting the game at halftime, down four or five, you know, those types of things. We've tried to create moments to put us in a situation so we don't start at a deficit all the time. 
 

Carolina could have ran away in the second half after coming out at halftime and getting a couple of threes. Did you like the fight through the team? Did you see a reflection of yourself from your team in responding? 

Well, I mean, that's a compliment if you think so because, I mean, we're not going to lay down. I mean, like if we lose a game by a lot of points, it's because a team made shots. But it's never going – you're never going to, you know, look in their heart and say we ain't ready to play. I just – I don't coach that way and I don't recruit guys that way. 

What do you think was the reason why the team shot as poorly as they did today? 

I think they missed shots.
 

Nothing specific? 

Missed shots. I think we missed shots. 
 

You did a good job of slowing down the injuries in the first half and, like you said, kind of got loose in that second half in the right corner. What's your plan on stopping those, like, high-volume shooters in the future? 

I just thought they had great looks and made them. I thought part of Ian's shots were you got to give credit to (Jalen) Washington. I thought he did a great job with short rolling and a lot of times bigs are not great passers and he made some really good plays on that part of it to get him the ball. But, you think about this now and you say – let me make sure before I say this. We go into every game trying to take away the top one or two scores. We did our job. I mean, R.J. Davis is one of the best scorers in the country and he had 11 points. And so we did a good job. We came up two possessions a little bit short. And what I mean by that is defensively they made the one play at the end and then offensively, obviously, you know, we didn't – we couldn't score at the end or whatever happened or whatever needed to be reviewed.