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NC State Basketball

Kevin Keatts: "I'm Trying To Keep Them In The Moment"

March 5, 2019
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts fielded questions from the media on the ACC's weekly teleconference.    


Opening Statement...
This was our week to have off and we went on the road and played the No. 18 team at the country at the time in Florida State. We had moments where we played well and had our chances at the end of the game to possibly come out with the win, but we fell a little short.

I thought Florida State was as good as advertised, especially on their home floor. I thought they did a lot of good things.  When you look back at the game, they beat us to a lot of 50-50 balls, made plays when they had to, rebounded the basketball, and got to the free throw line.

We came up a little short.

We’re looking to rebound like others in this league, and we have two games left. We look forward to our game against Georgia Tech on Wednesday.

Do you talk to your guys about the NCAA Tournament or is it next game, next practice?
We don’t have the type of team I can talk about what’s going to happen a week and a half or two weeks from now, so we really talk about next game, next opponent.

If you can take care of the next game, everything else will fall in place.

I try to keep these guys in the moment.  On this team I don’t have but three guys who played last year so a lot of the things we’re going through right now, it’s the first time a lot of them have been through that.

We know that we have a Georgia Tech team that we have to play on Wednesday and won last night against Boston College.

I’m trying to keep them in the moment.

Now that coach Hamilton’s crew is healthy, what makes them so difficult?
A lot of teams in our league have length and can guard the basketball, but what makes them special is they have 11 guys who can play. When you go into a scouting report, you really don’t know who to focus on. Any given night... everyone can lead them in scoring.

Trent Forrest does a great job and understands who he is as a point guard. He runs the show. Then they have guys who can shoot the basketball, good drivers, and two post guys who compliment each other really well at the center spot.

What makes them so tough, in my opinion, is their depth and their versatility as a team.

Rebounding has been an issue at times; how has Torin Dorn played bigger than a guard would?
I don’t know how we would play without him. Even back to last year, he’s been one of our better rebounders on our team. 

At 6’5, he’s averaging around seven rebounds a game, and he allows us to be able to play a little smaller because of the job he does rebounding for us.

We’ve done a great job of hitting the offensive glass because our guys get second or third opportunities. Where our size hurts us is the defensive rebounding end because we haven’t done a good job of hitting guys so we’ve given up some offensive rebounds.

With Torin I don’t know how well we’d rebound because he’s done a tremendous job for us.

Is there a certain trait you look for in a guy like him as a rebounder?
I think rebounding is a want-to. We don’t list it as a skill, but it’s a skill. It’s a guy who chases rebounds, doesn’t mind getting his nose a little bit dirty.

For him, he uses his athletic ability and is strong enough to get there. Most nights he’s battling against guys two or three inches taller than him.

I think that says a lot about him to be able to rebound with some of the bigger guys in our league.

 

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Kevin Keatts: "I'm Trying To Keep Them In The Moment"

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