Kevin Keatts: "They're Fighting Their Asses Off"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the Wolfpack Sports Network radio crew following the Pack's 79-76 road loss at Virginia Tech Wednesday evening.
NOTE: Click on the player above to listen to Keatts’ interview.
“Well, I’m very disappointed for our team. When you fight and play as hard and as well as we did, it’s very disappointing not to come out with the win. We gave up a big three toward the end of the game, and there were a couple of 50-50 opportunities to get rebounds, one on our end and one on the other. I thought they got those 50-50s, and then there was a call where I thought both guys were going for the basketball. It’s disappointing. We’re fighting our butts off. These guys have grit all of the time. It’s tough when you come away with a loss after the way and how hard you play. That’s the message: we’ve got to finish games. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way.”
“When [Ben Middlebrooks] isn’t in the game and we didn’t have Brandon [Huntley-Hatfield], we get to Ish [Diouf], and I thought they made some runs, but we still had enough. We scored 76 points. We still scored on the offensive end, but we just gave up 45 points in the second half. We did a better job defending the three-point line, but shoutout to [Jaden Schutt]; he hit a big three at the top of the key. We did a poor job; we knew not to go under that screen, but he raised up and made a tough shot for them.”
“The explanation I got was that Marcus [Hill] was out of bounds.”
“You look at our team: they’re fighting their asses off, and we’re right there. It’s a loose ball here. It’s a missed shot there. It’s a turnover here. It’s a free throw there. We’re right there. That’s five games now that have been one-possession games, and they can go either way. Three of them have gone against us, and two of them went in our favor. This one stings because we had the win, and we could see the win, but they made some shots down the stretch.”
“I thought our entire team played well. I’m happy that those guys got a chance to play. We played good enough to win. We just, toward the end, didn’t make plays, and we had opportunities to make plays. They thought they made more plays than us down the stretch.”