Keatts: "We Did Some Good Things"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media after the Wolfpack's 78-74 win over Mercer.
Opening Statement...
The first thing I want to do is congratulate our football team. They earned a heck of a road win and they have done a good job with that program.
Braxton Beverly is probably going to have to shave his beard now. I told him if he ever went 0-4 he would have to shave his beard, so we will probably have a conversation tomorrow. It was a good win for us and I know your questions will be, ‘so how do you feel like you did?’
I’m excited about our team because we needed a game where we had to really finish the game.
When you look at the first five games we played, they were a little lopsided. We did have the
opportunity to try and execute at the end of the game. I thought we did some good things and I
thought we had some things we need to work on. I look forward to getting back in the gym and
getting after it. I thought Mercer did a great job, but it’s tough to win by a larger margin when
you shoot 16-for-29 from the free throw line.
On Braxton Beverly getting the starting nod...
I wanted to bring Devon Daniels off the bench to kind of look at the game and to see the flow
of the game.
I thought he was a little more comfortable today. I thought he had been pressing the first couple of games. It was more about Devon than it was about Braxton. I just wanted him to settle in and see the game.
I had to do the same thing last year with Allerik Freeman. Al struggled for a while and then we brought him out for a stretch. He saw the game and worked his way back in.
On close games...
I don’t know that it makes me happy, but it gives me the opportunity to take the tape with those
guys and talk about end-of-game situations. As a coach we practice it and we talk about it, but if
you don’t experience it during the game, it’s tough.
I thought we did some great things at the end, but I thought we fouled too much. I know Torin Dorn took a shot too early in the shot clock when we could have burned some clock. These are all teaching moments for us.
On Mercer...
I don’t know if they’re a tournament team. I don’t know if we’re a tournament team. I hope we both are. He’s done a great job. You can’t ignore what he’s done in his career there and they’re a tremendous team.
They make you work for everything. It’s a great program and they’re certainly going to be tough in their conference and I hope for the same thing for us.
On what worked down the stretch...
I thought we made a couple of big shots when we needed it.
I thought Torin Dorn made some shots. Even though we missed a few free throws, graduate transfer Eric Lockett stepped up and made a couple of really big shots. I thought we switched out and guarded the three-point line well even though we got driven by and gave up layups. With a team like Mercer, we wanted to guard the three-point line first.
On Wisconsin...
I haven’t had a chance to watch Wisconsin yet. I’m one of those guys that is very superstitious.
I won’t watch a team we’re playing until we’re about to play those guys to prepare. We’ll watch
a little film tonight. It’s a different team, a different year, and a different situation.