Keatts: "We Can't Continue To Dig Holes"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media after the 71-67 loss to Wake Forest.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference.

On the game:
Give Wake Forest a lot of credit, they played a very good game tonight and they were playing inspired and played like a team that obviously wanted to win the game.

I thought that we did a tremendous job considering the hole we dug ourselves in before the half, and we cut it obviously and tied the game up but we made some mistakes down the stretch where we didn't do a good job of finishing.

I thought we took some ill advised shots and didn't put ourselves in the best situation to win. But give those guys all the credit, I thought they played inspired basketball on the home floor.

On how NC State played in the first half:
You know we played on the back of our heels in the first half, and we didn't make shots. And what happens with this team right now, because we're obviously a young team in terms of playing together, is that our defense tends to struggle a little bit when the ball is not going in the hole and we clearly didn't shoot the ball well before the half.

On the troubles of not having Markell Johnson:
I think more than anything his presence being there just having the ability to be there as a junior, and as a guy who's played in the league for 3 years.

But I'm not going to take away from Wake Forest's performance because we didn't have Markell Johnson.

Surely we put ourselves in the situation to have the opportunity to win the game, and we didn't execute down the stretch.

Do you think your guys took the foot off the accelerator once you tied the game?
We put so much energy in getting back in the game, but I thought some individual guys at times took some shots once we got back in the game that hurt us.

When we got back in the game we shared the basketball... we had some guys make some shots and we fed off each other.

I thought once we tied it up I thought a couple of guys played hero basketball.

What is calling you guys to get behind in these games?
I don’t know, that’s something I have to look at.

Our intent isn’t to get behind, but I know my team is going to fight... at the end of the day we can’t continue to dig holes and get behind it. We have to do a better job as a staff of getting ready to play when we come out of the locker room.

How high up the scouting report was Torry Johnson?
He’s an older guy and we knew he could play. Similar to Eric Lockett, those guys can come in the game because they’ve been through it before and be able to play.

I thought he did a good job and made plays down the stretch... if I had to give an MVP and that’s Danny’s choice, I thought he’d be their MVP.

You didn’t play a lot of Blake Harris with Markell Johnson out.
I didn’t feel comfortable... coaches decision.

They haven’t played much of that 1-2-2 matchup zone, is that a difficult wrinkle?
No, we’re used to that, we’ve seen that.  Miami played it and we played against it the entire game against Pitt. 

We just didn’t make shots. There’s no reason behind it. We had some open looks, they just didn’t go down for us.