Kevin Keatts: "It's A Great Opportunity"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media to discuss the Wolfpack's 5-1 start and upcoming matchup against Memphis.

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

On Memphis freshman forward Precious Achiuwa...
I think Precious [Achiuwa] is really good. I do. I see them going to him more. He’s playing great. He’s playing physical. He’s getting to the free-throw line almost double-digits per game. He’s playing extremely hard. He’s physical. He’s a hard matchup problem because he plays so hard.

He reminds me of the Kenneth Faried’s and Montrezl Harrell’s with how hard he competes.

Have you been following the Wiseman saga?
I haven’t. I’m like everybody else. I heard the news where he was going to play, where he was ineligible to play, then he played, and now he’s not playing. I haven’t had a chance to follow it that much.

Did you watch the Oregon game?
I didn’t see the Oregon game. I’ve seen some highlights of it. I’m going back now starting yesterday [when] I watched a little bit of Ole Miss. I’m going backward starting to watch the games.

I’m very cautious with the Oregon game because I know Wiseman played in it, so I’m trying to figure out how to watch the games where he doesn’t play and see how they play.

Did you have interaction with Penny before he got to Memphis?
I don’t have a Penny [Hardaway] story. That’s rare, too.

I think he’s doing a really good job with his team. A perfect compliment for a coach is how hard his teams compete. They’re playing extremely hard. They’re averaging almost 87 points a game, turning people over 20 times a game, and averaging 10 steals a game.

I look at them as a team that’s a big-time challenge because of the way they play. It’s almost like looking in a mirror at times. They try to play fast, they try to trap you, and they try to get an easy basket. It’s a tough opponent that we’re going to have so far.

How important is it to have early-season games against teams like this?
I think it’s important. I’m excited. This is one of the games that we were excited to have because we knew coming in that Penny had done a tremendous job with his recruiting class, and we knew they were going to be a highly ranked team.

They’re good. A lot of people said that without James Wiseman, it doesn’t matter. They’ve got really good players. They’ve got youth. They remind me a lot of when I first took the job and Duke had Wendell [Carter] and Marvin Bagley.

They’re a talented group. We’re excited about it. It’s a great opportunity to get a chance to see how much we’ve grown, where we need to move, and how much we’ve got to get better.

You’ve had great success in these early showdowns. Do the veterans relish the big stage?
I hope so. One thing we do have on our side is we’ve got some guys who have played in these type of games. We’ll have the opportunity to see where we’re at.

We took off yesterday, and we’re going to have a chance to practice today, tomorrow, and Wednesday before we play.

We’ve got a lot to take in. We’ve got to get better in a lot of areas. Those guys are tremendous on offensive rebounds. They get in and rebound the basketball. One of the biggest things we’ve got to figure out is how to stop them in transition because they score a lot of their baskets in transition.

A.J. Taylor injury update:
A.J. [Taylor] won’t play. A.J.’s knee is back bothering him, and there’s a good chance that A.J. may not play the rest of the year. There’s a chance that he could medically redshirt.

Danny Dixon injury update:
With Danny Dixon, we’re hopeful. I was just talking to our trainer Ron [Cooper]. We’re hoping that we can get him in practice today and get some reps from him.

Is this a game built for Manny Bates?
I think Manny [Bates] and D.J. [Funderburk] have to have really good games for us. They’re two really big, strong, physical, athletic guys that can do a lot of things and play the game inside-out.

Manny certainly has got to be big in this game, and also D.J., but as we go along and we get more games under our belt, you’ll see Manny become a lot better.

As you know, his defense is way ahead of his offense, but he’s starting to get better and feel comfortable in those areas, also.

Are you looking forward to Big Boy basketball with Markell and D.J.?
I’m excited that we’ve got healthy guys now. It’s not the team that I envisioned when I first began the season because I thought we would have 10, maybe 11, guys that played the way we want to play.

Right now, we’re playing with eight scholarship guys, and those guys are playing the bulk of the minutes. If you add Danny Dixon to it, it’ll make nine guys that will play.

I am happy to have D.J. and also Markell [Johnson] back because those guys bring so much value to our team. When you look back six games ago and not having those guys, you wonder what the outcome could have been if they’d played.

You were never worried about Markell, but these feel like the games where he’s normally playing well. Are you having to pump him up at all?
I texted him after our game, ‘Another solid game.’ What I meant by that is that it was the second game in a row that he had 12 points, and he’s starting to feel his offense a little bit better.

I won’t pump him up. I just hope that he’ll continue to have a solid week, and then on Thursday, I hope we can get the senior that we all know is capable of being a really good player.

You joked about how C.J. Bryce wanted to play that Torin position because Torin had the ball a lot, but he’s playing a lot like Torin did.  Is he filling that role?
He’s doing some of the things that Torin [Dorn] did, but we haven’t been able to play him as a big guard, and as a matter of fact, because of the fact that I’m bringing one guard off the bench and it’s been Devon Daniels, he’s had to play the three.

He’s shifted a little bit this year because you may see us more as a bigger lineup than smaller because if Danny comes back, then I can move Jericole [Hellems] to more of a three and play D.J. some at the four. Because we don’t have those extra guards because of [Dereon] Seabron’s situation and not having a couple of other guys, it’s made us become a bigger team than smaller.

He’s doing some great things. He’s obviously doing some of the things that Torin did, [like] leading us in scoring and rebounding, but he’s doing it more from the small forward position.

The way he’s taken on the leadership role, maybe not as a vocal guy, but how Bryce is playing...
He’s playing like a veteran. It’s funny because when you recruit a kid, he came in as more of an athletic guy, run and jump, more of a slasher. Now, he’s getting more to his mid-range, and hopefully as he gets comfortable throughout the year, you’ll see him making more shots behind the arc.

Think about it: he’s very efficient right now and hadn't taken many threes on the season, and he’s capable of making those.