Kevin Keatts: "Are We Doing Everything Not To Beat Ourselves?"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for the ACC's weekly zoom call to discuss the Wolfpack's upcoming practices, areas the team can improve, Dontrez Styles, and much more.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the interview.

I wanted to ask you, what do you think has been the biggest difference over the last three games, specifically where you've been right in the matchups and then it just hasn't gone your way at the very end? And how have you been able to kind of keep your team motivated, not keeping their heads held down to kind of rejuvenate this with still much more, plenty more games to play the rest of the season? 

I think it's about 10 possessions in every game that I think that really decides a game. I know a lot of people say, man, it's the one or two. We just got to get back to winning the hustle plays. And what I mean is our guys are playing really hard, but 50-50 balls here, a bad foul here, a bad shot here, no communication a little bit in defensive transition, and you lose a one-point game. It's weird because some of it is that, and then honestly, some of it is that we've had kind of a little bit of bad luck as far as with the balls. The balls bounced a different way and all that other stuff. And the great question about how we keep our guys in it is because they can see that we clean up a couple of things and we can be on the other end of those games as opposed to losing those.
 

Kevin, just a little bit off topic, William & Mary is bringing back Tony Shaver on Saturday after a six-year absence. You competed against some of his best teams when you were at Wilmington. What were your impressions of him as a coach and his teams, the way they played? 

Well, first of all, I'm excited to hear that. Tony, when you think of William & Mary, Tony was there for so long, and he's done a tremendous job at William & Mary. His teams were always good. They shared the basketball. They could really shoot the basketball. They would always spread you out. Tony will laugh at this when I say this, more offensive than defensively. You had to be able to score a lot of points in order to beat his team. And, man, he's a good basketball coach, and he's had that program for a while. And that was a program, obviously, that the academic standards were so high. And so he had really, really good basketball players that knew and understood the culture of William & Mary. And I'm excited that they are bringing him back. 
 

Yeah, Kevin, you guys have sort of a mini bye. I don't know what you label it in basketball here without a midweek game, but what are some things you feel like you guys can work on or try to clean up this week? Because I'm sure you probably feel it's beneficial to have one of these. 

James, it becomes a point in every game that I think, as coaches, you say, are we doing everything not to beat ourselves? And I always go back to the Virginia Tech game, where there's a loose ball on our end of the floor after we missed the shot. And it's not a lot of seconds left on the clock. All we had to do was dive on the ball, and then it would be our possession. And then they got to foul us. We just got to finish situations. And it's weird, because we did in two of those, Notre Dame and Florida State. And then we've been on the other end in the floor. I don't know that anybody else in the country has had six or seven one possession games. And some of it is we just didn't finish the game the way we needed to. And some of it was the other team made a few more plays than we did. So I want to get in here. Obviously, I think we need to get a little bit sharper offensively. We were one for nine from three. And some of those were really good shots. And they were shots that I want some of our guys to take. It seems like our defense has been really holding us down lately. We've done a good job holding guys in the 60s other than Virginia Tech. And offensively, I think we need to get back to a little bit more ball and player movement. We really have taken care of the basketball. We just haven't scored the ball like we're capable of. 
 

And just a quick follow up. I know you guys recruited Dontrez for a while now. Looking at his game, his volume at times can be limited shooting the ball. Is he a guy who you feel like relies on others to get opportunities? Is he more of an individual scorer? How do you label his game? 

Well, I think James, Dontrez, like several of our guys, have to get back to doing multiple things. I think sometimes these guys will settle for jump shots. He's a really good driver. He's a really good offensive rebounder. But we haven't seen that lately. Most of them have been 15 foot fadeaways and three point shots. And yes, he can make those shots. And we're happy for him to take some of them. But I just think he has to get back to his roots and do a little bit of everything. 

.

Yeah, Kevin, Damon Stoudamirer was just talking about how, it's a lot easier to have a connected team when you're winning. When you're in a stretch like you are right now. Um, you know, how do you feel like the team is with its communication and with just like the relationships, outside of games? 

Yeah, it's a thin line between winning and losing. I mean, it's crazy because, we could be and we could play what it should if we want to. But we could, we're on the other side of that. Maybe we're 12 and six. But it's a thin line between winning and losing. You have to almost trick your mind because you can play that same game and lose those four, but you play the same game and win it and you feel a lot better. But it's not that you played better in the game. You just made one more shot than the other team. And so what I'm trying to get our guys to understand and which help our relationships and help these guys keep working is one or two possessions, three or four possessions. And we're the other side of that. And so it's not like you're getting, you know, beat really bad in games. You're losing games at the end. And some of it has to do with the other teams are making more plays than you. But at the end of the day, we got to be able to see that you're in those games to win those games. Like you would much rather be in the game than losing by, you know, 15 to 20 every night.

You're able to see Zymicah Wilkins recently. And you obviously know what kind of shooter RJ Greer is and then having Bryce Heard enroll a year early. What is it like now for a high school or a high school senior to join what is most likely veteran teams? So you're asking more about Bryce or with those guys, just between Bryce and the next year, you'll have RJ and Zymicah and between what you've seen of them and then what it's like joining a veteran team. What is that transition like? 

Yeah, it's tough, JC. And some of it comes down to the amount of competition that you've competed against. And I hate to say that, I was, as a guy who's been in prep school for 12 years, I felt like our guys were prepared to step into any college program and play. That's because they were challenged every day. And we had 11, 12 Division One guys on that team. Some guys just a little bit further than the others because of who they're playing against. And it can be tough, but it can be rewarding. And, when I look at Bryce, Bryce would have been in this class. He would be having a good, you know, very good senior year, but he's getting valuable experience playing against older guys in practice. And then, RJ and Zymicah both play for really good high school programs. And so I think they both will be ready to come in and contribute right away and really excited about those guys coming here. 
 

Yeah, Kevin, multiple times this year, you talk about looking for consistency from play night in, night out. Is that a byproduct of just having a team with so many new faces, especially using the portal? Or is it just something that is just different about this team than you've had in the past? 

Well, it's everybody on our team. Noah is in a completely different position than they were last year. You really look at it, you know, at the end of the year, we return one starter. And, both Ben and JT, you know, played a six or seven-man role. And so we're asking those guys to be in a different position. Even Michael, at times, we're asking him to score. And then you get down to Breon Pass and Dennis Parker, who Dennis was out at the end, but Breon played a limited role for us, too. And then you add eight new guys. And so really, it's one of those things, we're one of the teams in our league that is not returning a lot of folks. And it's really showing with us, you know, chemistry is, hasn't been great. I think we've got a little bit more defensive chemistry than we do offensively. But I'm looking for consistency. I need guys like Ben and Brandon and Dontrez to get back to rebounding the basketball. I told them after practice today, and I think I was right when I said this, I think Marcus Hill is leading us in rebounding in ACC play. And that shouldn't happen. And that's nothing, that's not a knock against Marcus, it's just we have to get guys back to playing a bigger role and doing their jobs. And by doing their jobs, it will really help us win games.
 

You lost a lot from last year's team and came in with a lot of guys their first year in the program, you stand to kind of look similar going into next year. Is that something that might change the way you look to build a team moving forward? Just try not to lose as many guys in the same year? 

I don't think we got any control over that. No, it's, if you can retain some of your players, that's great. But certainly that's not all on decision that's gonna be made just on the coaches. It's more of a group decision and family decision with players and all that other stuff. In a perfect world, yes, I would like some of that. But I can't, I can't say that that's going to happen. And, it's probably one of those things that you're going to every year in college basketball, you're going to have at least six, seven. For me, it's been tough because I haven't been able to return my leading scorer for about seven years, and so you hope at one point you can maybe do that.
 

You know, the last few years, you've learned how to integrate DJ Burns with the guards. This year, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield to with the guards moving forward, so Mikey Wilkins can score on the block. What is that transition or what is that feeling out process like for the guards to trust the bigs, the bigs understanding that if they work hard, they get the ball? 

It was a tough transition last year because we were on our guards really, really bad because DJ Burns wasn't doing a great job in ball spring coverage. So it took him a while to trust that they're going to throw him the ball offensively. I just think it's, it comes, it comes through playing. It comes to, hey, understanding that, you really need your teammate to be successful. You know, last year we had such a dynamic scorer and DJ Horne and then DJ Burns was a second point guard on the floor. With these guys, it's more, hey, we need each other. We need a Brandon, we need a Ben, we need a JT, but we need them all to play together on a given night to give us the opportunity to win. This is one bunch where you don't have the guy that can go off for 20 every night. And so we need each other to play. And so trying to get all those guys, we're like, we're a group that needs to have inside baskets and we also a group that needs some outside scoring also. And so we need to score in multiple ways.