Kevin Keatts: "We've Lost a Lot of Focus"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the Wolfpack Sports Network radio crew following the Wolfpack's 72-70 road loss at Miami Saturday afternoon.

NOTE: Click on the player above to listen to Keatts’ interview.

On the initial reaction to the loss...

I felt like we we turned the ball over down the stretch way too much. Some guys who had played well made some uncharacteristic plays, and the transition defense wasn't great. They made shots. [Matthew] Cleveland, we knew coming into the game was going to be a really problem, but we gave him 32 points. We've had a really, really tough season, and a lot of it is because, down the stretch, we've lost a lot of focus. When we needed to get a stop. we couldn't get a stop. I thought Ben [Middlebrooks]  did a good job of walling up, and then we don't block on the other side, and we give up in the tip-in dunk.

On the similarity to other road losses where the home team rallied late...

At times when we’re playing, we're playing well, and sometimes when we're not,  we start playing as individuals. We took some tough shots, and we took a couple time outs and talked about it. “Just keep playing the ball, keep playing together, keep moving the basketball.” I thought we gave up some baskets in the second half during their run that, if we got back and played better defense, we would have been in better shape.

On Dontrez Styles’ performance...

I thought Trez played well. When you look at the stat sheet, Trez played well, but when you look at our starters, Ben had one point. Breon Pass had four, Jayden Taylor had one. I thought Michael [O’Connell] was a little bit aggressive. We didn't have a lot of guys who scored the ball tonight. I thought we played hard. We competed. We didn't have much to play for, other than obviously coming up here and trying to play for pride, and so you don't know what you're going to get from your team. But I thought we fought, and then we came up a little short at the end.

On moving into the offseason...

The first thing we do is we take a deep dive. I always do. I take some time to get away and few days just to get in and figure out, “How can we get better?” Obviously, one of the first things is just, “Hey, where can we get better as a staff? Where can I get better as a head coach? Do we have the right guys in the program?” It’s those type of things, and then obviously now you add the revenue sharing part of it and how you navigate that part of it.