Pat Kelsey: "Our Readiness is Really Important"

Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey met with the media following the Cardinals' 91-66 win over NC State Wednesday evening.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Kelsey’s press conference. An abbreviated transcript is provided below.

Opening Statement

I’ve known Kevin Keatts for a long time, way back when I was a young assistant, and he was running the best high school program in the country. I got to be friends with him, and I have a ton of respect for him. I told him this summer that what he did last year was maybe one of the greatest coaching jobs of the last 20 years. His kids play so hard. They disrupt. They really force you in practice, in the two days of preparation, to kind of throw away a lot of what you do because you have to go against their denial and their pressure.  You just don't see that type of defense very often, and it's hard to prepare for. There’s probably a really good chance we'll see him down the road again, and I wish him all the luck. I’m proud of our guys. Winning on the road in college basketball isn’t easy. These guys continue to  prepare the right way and carry out the game plan. NC State has a bunch of very athletic and talented, attacking guards.  We worked hard the last couple of days on trying to do a good job of guarding the basketball, trying to keep the floor tight, and take away a lot of their driving lines,  and I think our guys, for the most part, did a pretty good job of that. I thought Khani Rooths gave us a great second half after not playing many minutes early in the first half. We had a bunch of guys in double figures, and Aboubacar Traore had nine [points], so I’m counting him right there, but we shared the ball, played well together, stepped up, made shots, and really guarded.

On the players not needing external motivation...

I think a big part of it is their makeup. It's in their DNA. I've said it many times, and you've been in a lot of those press conferences. They are great in their daily process. They just are “pros,” as I like to say. They're mature. They take care of their business. They lock in on scouting reports. They watch film. They take care of their bodies. Those guys really trust Eli [Foy], our strength and conditioning guy, who I say is the best in the country. They get their repetitions up on their own. They're very self motivated. I like to think the way we operate in our culture helps to not to sustain that and continue to build on that, but you have to give credit to their makeup, where they come from, how they were raised, the way they go about their things. We look for those things in recruiting and in the transfer portal. These guys come from winning programs. They know how to win, and they've proven that this year.

On the start to tonight's game...

We kind of break the game down into 10 four-minute segments, and we always say, “Not one of those segments is more or less important than any of the others.” But we just say when that ball goes up at the jump circle, our readiness is really important. We did a good job getting some stops early on, just got off to a good start, made shots, just got a little bit of momentum, and kind of rode that wave from the beginning. We always say it begins at the beginning, and whether it's a set play, if it starts really well, there's a chance that it's going to end really well. We'd like to think about how we play in our games as well.