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NC State Basketball

Keatts: "I'm Excited About This Bunch"

September 24, 2018
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts discussed the upcoming season with the media at the Wolfpack's annual Media Day.


Keatts on Hurricane Florence, Wilmington...
I want to start off by first thanking you guys for all your efforts with the people who have been affected by Hurricane Florence.

I think it’s been tremendous. Your coverage has been great. As you guys know, that’s very dear to me. I’m thinking about the people around the state, but after spending three years at Wilmington and being able to talk to some of those folks and to hear some of the stories that’s going on, it’s tough. I really appreciate you guys, and I know a lot of you guys have been on the front line with that. We’ll continue to support as a basketball program and a university.

Our Primetime with the Pack on October 19th, we’ll make it some type of hurricane relief effort. It’s big, and I would ask you to continue to keep those guys in your prayers and anything you can do to spread the word because what happens is when the media coverage goes away, people are left with a lot of things and picking up the pieces. I’ll tell you now; that’s the toughest part: the aftermath of it. I’ll go back to it; I appreciate all the efforts with what you’ve done.

Thoughts on the team...
A lot’s happened since spring. The spring and summer has been a busy time for us. First of all, I lost an assistant coach who did a tremendous job for us. He’s like a son to me. I was very happy for A.W. Hamilton that he was able to go on and get the head coaching job at Eastern Kentucky.

That being said, I went out and hired another sharp young man that I’ve known for a long time, Roy Roberson, who I wanted to kind of follow the model of what we did when we hired A.W., so I wanted a guy who had some high school experience. When you think about Roy, he’s been a high school coach for many years. He’s done a tremendous job at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, Virginia. We’re excited to have him. I think he brings a lot of experience and value to our program.

I’m going to talk to you about the two studs that are hurt right now: one of the studs being Manny Bates, and the other stud being Kevin Keatts.

Manny’s doing better, guys. He’ll go to the doctor on Wednesday, and hopefully, we’ll get a good report. The toughest thing for Manny is that, obviously, he sat out his senior year, and now he’s going to have to do the same thing as a freshman. Hopefully on Monday, he’ll get some good news. The good news that we hope is that he’ll be able to get out of his sling a little bit and be able to do some different things. At a later date, I’ll have a little more to update on what his situation is.

As far as me, if there’s anybody in this crowd that’s 40 or above, I’ve got some advice for you: Don’t play pickup basketball. Once you get to a certain age, you shouldn’t play any type of team sport. You should find some individual sport. Golf would be great. I’m going to now pick up golf. I don’t know when I’m going to find time to do that, but I certainly will. I’m six months out from my surgery. You’re sitting here on the floor where I thought I was David Thompson, and I figured out quickly that I wasn’t. Now I’m getting the opportunity to work out a little bit more now. I hope soon that I’ll able to run on the floor, but I will tell you this now: those trick shots that you see, you’ll see more of those, but you won’t see me playing any more pickup, no 2-on-2, no 3-on-3.

As far as our team goes, I’m excited about this bunch. When you think about our team, it’s tough because we’ve only got three guys that actually wore an NC State jersey last year. I don’t know if there’s anybody in the country that has 10 new guys on their roster.

That being said, I’m excited about the bunch because we’ve got a lot of versatility. I’ve got a lot of guys that can play a lot of different positions. You may see a lot of different combinations on the floor that you may not have ever seen before.

There’s a chance that, at times, you’ll see Braxton, Markell, and Blake Harris on the floor at the same time. We will not play conventional basketball this year. You won’t be a 6-8 power forward and a seven-foot center. You’re going to see a lot of different combinations. I like that about this team.

The three guys that I thought have done a tremendous job so far are the returners. They’ve all been leaders. Those guys are Torin Dorn, Markell, and Braxton. Obviously, we’ve got some guys who’d sat out who I thought have done a tremendous job: C.J. Bryce, Devon Daniels, and Blake Harris. I’m exited about the bunch. I look forward to these guys.

Thoughts on the schedule...
I’m excited about our schedule. I think we’ve got a schedule that will prepare us for the ACC. I was on my way back to do the press conference today, and I was talking about the four Power-5 teams that we play.

I saw a tweet today from Bruce Pearl that thinks that this may be his best offensive team which is scary because last year they averaged about 82 points a game. They’re returning everybody, so that’ll be a great home game for us; they’ll come in as a top-10 program.

Then we play Vandy, on a neutral court, which signed two five-star guys, so they should be very good.

Then, Penn State on a neutral court, and Penn State’s the defending NIT champions.

Then last but not least, we have to go to Wisconsin to play a 9 o’clock game, which is a tough venue to play in, and they have some guys that are returning.

By the way, we start the ACC schedule with four of our first six games on the road, and then six of our next seven are against Preseason Top 25 opponents. It should be a fun year. 

More on the returning guards...
Like I said, I think you will really enjoy this team. Braxton Beverly is playing extremely good basketball; he’s shooting the ball very well.

When you see Markell Johnson, he’ll have a little bulk on him.

Thoughts on center position...
I’ve got three guys that certainly I want to put at the center spot.  We’ve got to figure out which one of these guys emerge, but I think all three of these guys bring something different to the table. Ian Steele, who’s a freshman, has a long way to go, but he’s very physical.

D.J. Funderburk is a talented young man, played at junior college, and is probably the best scorer of the bunch.

Wyatt Walker transferred from Sanford, is a veteran, and knows how to play the game. Once we figure those guys out, I think we’ll be exciting basketball to watch.

Thoughts on the ACC...
We have the best conference in college basketball, and the toughest thing about this conference is when you go down your schedule, some leagues you can go down the schedule, you can predict the win; you can’t do that in the ACC.

Every coach in the ACC can look at their schedule and say, ‘Man, we’ve got a tough schedule.’ There are no days off. It’s tough every night. From top to bottom, you can win every game, and you can lose every game.

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Keatts: "I'm Excited About This Bunch"

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