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NC State Basketball

Kevin Keatts: "Our Guys Played Extremely Hard"

November 6, 2019
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media after the Wolfpack's overtime loss to Georgia Tech.

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


Opening Statement...
It is very disappointing to lose a game like that. I thought our guys played extremely hard. When you look at the guys that we had on the floor, I basically had a seven-man rotation. We were able to play A.J. (Taylor) for a little bit. Those guys played their hearts out. It is unfortunate we lost the game, but that was a tough game as any games are, but especially to start your season with an ACC game. 

We had bright spots in the game. I thought Pat Andree was really good in the first half. Jericole Hellems did a great job in the second half, playing hard and drawing a couple of charges and going seven of seven from the free throw line. C.J. Bryce made some great plays down the stretch. If we could have one or two possessions back, it would probably be a different outcome. But unfortunately, you don’t them get back. 

We talked about making plays in the locker room and that if you can make one or two plays then you would have a different outcome. Give Georgia Tech credit: they finished the game and we didn’t. We will move on and get better from this. Hopefully we will get some more guys back and we can get healthy and be a better basketball team. 

On James Banks III...
We got a defensive stop and it bounced and ended up in his hands. Unfortunately, we fouled him. I was hoping he would miss both free throws but he stepped up and made them. He is a good player and has done a tremendous job. When you look at his stat sheet, he played great tonight. We were playing him against a freshman in Manny Bates, who I thought did well in the first half. 

On Markell Johnson and Dereon Seabron...
Markell (Johnson) came down on someone’s foot in practice maybe four days ago and has a pretty good sprain. We want to be careful with him, so I don’t know what his status will be for Sunday. We have a day or two off this week and we will continue to get him treatment so we can try to figure out what is going on moving forward. 

Dereon (Seabron) has had a high ankle sprain for two or three weeks. It is a nagging injury that we hope we can get better. This year, Dereon (Seabron) will be an academic red-shirt. He has been hurt so we tried to appeal to the NCAA about it, but we lost the appeal so he will not be available to play.

On the last offensive sequence...
It was just a bang-bang play. I wish Devon (Daniels) would have had the chance to hold the ball because I thought he could have gotten to the free throw line, but he saw Manny streaking and passed the ball to him. Unfortunately it hit his hands and went through them. It could’ve been a different outcome but obviously it's a situation that just happens so quickly and you can’t get it back.

On Manny Bates...
I thought Manny (Bates) was good for his first time in an ACC game. Obviously when you look at the stats sheet, he's not going to be a big scorer for you, but I thought he did a good job defensively.

Now when you look at James Banks III’s stats, you could say that Manny (Bates) didn’t have a great defensive night, but I thought he did. I thought he came off and he played help side defense when guys got beat. You look at him and he had five blocks and seven rebounds. We challenged him to rebound the ball a little bit more, but he is going to be good. He is as talented as any young man that's a freshman at his size in this league and I think he'll help us a lot.

On first half of the game with Braxton Beverly’s three fouls...
Our bench got shorter. Braxton (Beverly) had three fouls, but he also went down and we thought he wasn't going to come back in the game. I thought it changed a little bit; I wanted as a coach to believe that early leads really never hold up. I thought we did a great job with shots early, but they closed the half pretty good.

On lineups...
We had five guys on the floor that we have only had together in practice maybe once or twice. We were in a different situation than we thought we would be. You will never hear me complain about injuries because I think they are part of the game; we just had a short bench tonight.

On offensive looks at end of game...
I thought we got some looks. We pressed a little bit at the end and that situation sometimes means that you might not have your point guard on the floor, so different guys are trying to make plays that wouldn’t normally happen if you have a true distributor on the floor.

On having an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent as the season opener...
I love it for our league. On opening night we had three ACC games, as well as Duke versus Kansas. I thought it was good for college basketball as a whole for everyone to open up with a Power Five opponent, but it is tough. If I won the game, I would be a little more happy and want to continue to open the season with an ACC opponent.

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Kevin Keatts: "Our Guys Played Extremely Hard"

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