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NC State Basketball

KEATTS: "It's A Tough Place To Play"

December 7, 2019
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack’s 91-82 win over Wake Forest.

NOTE: Click the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.


“If you will, do me a favor and put Jericole Hellems and his family in your prayers. That would mean a lot to us.”

“Good game. I thought our guys did a tremendous job of coming in here on the road and getting a good road win. When you think about the fact we felt like, the opening game of the year, we gave away an ACC game, I talked to those guys about going on the road and figuring out how to get one back. I think we played the last four halves of really good basketball, dating back to the second half of the Memphis game and then the entire half of Wisconsin. I think we’re building on it. I’m happy with our guys. I thought our guys did a tremendous job. When you look at the fact that we had six guys in double figures, that shows you how balanced we are. The other part of it: I thought Manny Bates was tremendous. He had eight points and almost five rebounds, and then basically he blocked a lot of shots. I’m happy with where we’re at with our rotation. I think everybody that’s playing their game is contributing. As you guys know, when we get a road win, we’re going to get our first ice cream of the year.”

“We don’t. I gave you guys a lot of credit about the Davison kid flopping. These kids don’t understand that. We’ve had some success in here. Two of my last three years, we’ve been able to win, and it’s a tough place to play. We thought we had a chance last year, but we were out Markell Johnson. When you look at it, I thought our guys did a good job. They’re locked in. They don’t care about that stuff. They wouldn’t know if we won 20 games here or we lost 20 games here. We’re just locked into what we had to do to be successful.”

“We shot the ball well from three. We were 12-for-22. To be honest with you, I was a little mad because I thought we passed up some shots that we could have made. Jericole had a three in the corner that I thought he should have taken. Same thing with C.J. Bryce. We worked on shots. We put a lot of work on making shots. We expected, coming into this game, that we would see a mixture of a little bit of man-to-man and more of that 3-2 matchup. We spent a lot of time in the last couple of days on really working on making shots from behind the arc.”

“I didn’t see what happened, and I was able to talk to him. I told him to hang in there. He was talking. He was communicating with those guys. After I leave you guys, I’m going to go by and check on him.”

“It’s scary. These are my kids. Any time you see one of your kids on the floor, it’s tough. It was hard for me in the last 28 seconds of the game because it was hard for me to focus on the game, knowing that we just had one of our kids down on the floor.”

“I love the way we’re playing. We’re passing the ball. With this team, it’s been a little slow developing roles. I think guys understand now what I expect from them and what we expect from them as a coaching staff, and they’re starting to understand their roles and how to play. I’m happy with the way our guys are playing.”

“We made an adjustment. They started down and icing our pick-and-rolls on the side, so we started throwing them down at the corner and setting them at a different angle. Our guys did a great job. We talked about, going into this game, getting a lot of paint touches and hitting the post guy late. I thought our guys did a tremendous job. We’re starting to follow the scouting report. Early in the season, I don’t think guys were as locked in about what the game plan was, and that was one of our game plans: trying to get two feet into the paint and throwing the lob late, and it worked out.”

“I think we’re moving toward that. Because of the fact that Markell was out for a game and D.J. [Funderburk] was out for a couple of games, and when you look at the fact that he didn’t have the chance to play in the closed scrimmage or exhibition, it’s hard to develop chemistry. He’s still trying to get in great shape. When you look at the last two games, I like the direction we’re moving in."

 
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