KEATTS: "The ACC is the Number One Conference in the Country"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media ahead of the Wolfpack’s matchup Wednesday evening against Wisconsin.
NOTE: Click the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ interview.
“I hope there’s a lot of this going on. Obviously, that game last year, we ran over some guys at least five times, and we’re going to try not to do that this time. We’re going to try to get around guys without running through them. The kid’s a good defensive player. When you go back and look at that tape, I think he sold the referees on a couple of those charges that he drew that were questionable, but we’ve moved on. We’re not going to concentrate on that. We’re going to try to do better and try not to run over guys.”
“We’ve got to do a good job of moving the ball and putting ourselves in situations where we don’t draw charges. As a team, they do a good job of drawing charges. They’re a good team. They play with their heels on the three-point line or toes on the three-point line, and they kind of pack it in, not Virginia-style, but similar to that. They step in and take charges. They’re always in the right place, so we’ve got to do a good job of driving and going off of two feet instead of going off of one leg. Hopefully, we won’t get those calls.”
“We have with Devon Daniels. When you look at him last year, a lot of teams drew charges on him because he’s a one-leg leaper. We have done a lot of stuff this summer and also in practice making sure he goes off two feet and avoids the contact.”
“I think we took a lot from it. It was weird, man. It was two different teams. When you look at the first half, it was a great game. Then you look into the last six minutes of the first half, I thought we had complete blown assignments in ball screen coverage. The game really changed when we had to take D.J. and Manny out of the game, and then they kind of blew it open before the half. We gave up 55 points which is not what we want to do, but the encouraging thing is our second half was so great. We held them to 28 points. We shared the basketball. We got our big guys back in the game and had our chances to win the game at the end. It was two different halves. I don’t want to see that first half ever again, but I’m encouraged by the second half, and hopefully we can build on that.”
“The guys are starting play together a little bit more. What was encouraging about when we got down, you don’t know much about your team early in the season and how they will react being down. That was the first time that we were down 16, 17 points. What was encouraging was that our guys stayed together. Through every timeout, we would tell them, ‘Hey, you’re back in the game. You don’t have to take some of those shots.’ You have to take some chances when you get down that much, and we said, ‘Stay the course.’ I think the biggest thing for our guys is just putting them in situations where we’ve done some situation stuff: up 15 and down 15, how do we play, how do we handle it. Those type of things can win you the game.”
“He’s done a great job. When you look at their program, and I think this is his fifth or sixth year, he’s done a really good job, and he took over for a really good coach. They’re a good basketball team. I know they didn’t have a good weekend, but you can say that about a lot of teams around the country by the way they play in these tournaments. I go back to the Marquette game. Marquette’s usually a good program. As we watch those guys, they played extremely well against those guys. They won at home. They haven’t been shooting the ball well, and we hope that that continues, but certainly they’re a very capable team. They’re a dangerous team. Reuvers is playing at a high level. He’s seven feet. He’s tough to guard. Davison’s a very good player. They’ve got good guards. They post your guards. They’re a tough team to prepare for.”
“I think he’s playing well. What I wonder about a little bit is his conditioning. I thought he played well up until the last two or three minutes of the game where I thought he made a couple of mistakes that he normally wouldn’t make, and a lot of that is probably because he got tired. With a short bench, I’ve got to figure out how to get him and C.J. Bryce some breaks every now and then. That may be even putting in a couple of walk-ons just for a few minutes just to give those guys some breaks.”
“That’s college basketball. That’s the ACC. That’s what we get in our league. You'll play against a high-scoring team, you’ll play against Duke and Carolina who run, and then you’ve got to play against a really good Virginia team that you'll have low possessions. We’re kind of used to that. College basketball, I know you guys have been watching, is crazy. On any given night, you can beat anybody, and you can lose to anybody. When you look at the two games last night, what crazy games there were. With Miami, you thought they were going to win by 50, then all of a sudden, it’s a two-point game at the end. Then Minnesota led the entire time, and they kept the lead. It was crazy, but this challenge is always exciting. It’s exciting individually because you get a chance to play against a high-major, Power Five team, but you also get a little bragging rights because of our conference, and obviously we feel that the ACC is the number one conference in the country, and we certainly look forward to these challenges.”
“I think so. I have to remind my staff all the time that kids don’t think the way we do. Things have changed. Everybody’s asking me, ‘Are these kids so excited about playing Wisconsin again because they remember last year?’ And I’ll tell you, ‘No, kids don’t remember last week.’ As coaches, we do, but I think the kids are excited because we’ve got a good opponent, they’re excited to be back home, but I don’t know if they’re getting excited just because it’s the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.”
“I don’t think it’s a big difference in style because I think you can find a Big Ten team that plays similar to any ACC team and vice versa. I just think it’s a really good conference. It’s been a great conference for many years. I’m excited that the ACC has partnered up with those guys and have a challenge because it’s great for your resume. You have an opportunity to win a great game. Those are good games early in the season that you already know that you have scheduled.”
“It was a tough matchup for Pat. The toughest thing is that, I know you guys remember this, I don’t know who he was passing the ball to in that corner over there where he threw that pass. It was tough. Memphis was a tough matchup for a lot of our guys. We knew going into the game they were a paint-touch team. You can’t simulate that in practice, especially with the guys we have. They did a tremendous job of just driving us, driving us, driving us. Certainly, we hope we don’t get that from Wisconsin. I expect Pat to bounce back. We need him. He’s a guy that can score the basketball. We couldn’t play him as much in the Memphis game because of defensive breakdowns, but hopefully he can contribute in this game."