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NC State Basketball

Kevin Keatts: "I'm Excited About The Win"

December 15, 2019
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts and seniors C.J. Bryce and Pat Andree met with the media after the Wolfpack's 80-77 win over UNC Greensboro.

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


Kevin Keatts Opening Statement...
First of all, I’d like to give a lot of credit to Wes and UNCG. They’re tough. He’s done a tremendous job here, and give credit to the president and the athletic directors who have stuck with him. Obviously, when you take over a program, you have a long way’s to go, and he’s done a tremendous job. The reason why they’re such a good team is because they believe in one another. It reminds me of my last two teams at UNCW that won 25 games and 29 games. They play hard. They understand they’ve got a system that works.

That being said, I’m excited about the win. I thought we had a great road win here. I thought our guys responded. There were ups and downs in the game. We made a way to make some plays. I thought we made some plays down the stretch. We went up 10, and then obviously they cut the lead. […] I’m glad to get out of here with a great win. It’s the second time this year I’ve drawn up a play for Markell Johnson to make a half-court shot, so I’m a heck of a coach for that, so I know you guys will write that.

C.J. Bryce: As soon as Miller made that turnaround two on me, I was like, ‘We’re going right into overtime.’ Cole did a great job of getting the ball out quick, Markell got it, and like Coach said, he drew up a really good play. He made a great shot for us, and we’re just glad to continue the streak.

Pat Andree: From a different perspective, I was on the bench, so we were all looking in. At the time it went up, everybody pretty much said that that’s going in. We have confidence in Markell to hit that. We’ve seen him do it, and it’s crazy to hear all the guys on our team that he can throw up a 50-60-footer and also think it’s going in. 

Pat Andree: It’s never much out of me to step up. Cole’s been out for a little bit, so it was my job to come in, be a graduate senior, bring some leadership, and hit shots when I’m open.

C.J. Bryce: It’s a very intense atmosphere in today’s game. I want to say thank you to Wolfpack Nation for coming out supporting for us. It was a great game for UNCG. They’re a really good team, and I feel like we’re doing a really good job of moving in the right direction.

C.J. Bryce: I feel like we did a better job in the second half of taking away the three-point shot. I feel like they made a run in the first half where they got a lot of open threes. In the second half, we did a better job at locking down, staying on our matchups, and it paid off for us.

C.J. Bryce: I feel like Jericole, coming off that injury, brought his energy tonight like he always has. He made a great pass to me in the corner, and I was able to knock it down, but he’s not only a scorer. He’s a really good basketball player. He did a really good job on defense tonight.

Kevin Keatts
“The weird thing is that I never think those shots go in. When I saw it midway through the air, I thought, ‘Man, this thing has a chance to go in,’ and it did. It’s crazy. I don’t know which game it was, but he hit one at halftime at home. I think it may have been Wisconsin actually. He was having a good night. He was feeling it. Markell is a kid that never really asks for the basketball, and he was telling me to run a couple of plays for him. He was feeling it at the time. He just made a big play. It’s a good play, it sealed the win, and I was excited that we got it.”

“We wanted to play fast. We talked about, before the game, running on makes and misses. They did a tremendous job in their press. The press is not really designed to turn you over, but it ends up turning you over. What it’s designed for is to slow you down so they don’t have to play but 17-20 seconds of defense. We try to push and get out in front in the hopes that we make some threes. I thought we did a poor job of defending the three-point line. We knew coming into the game that UNCG was averaging making nine threes, and they had eight in the first half. At halftime, we talked about taking away the threes, and then we only gave up two in the second half, and I thought that certainly helped us win the game.”

“We have a balanced team. When you look at our team, you can pick up a stat sheet of any game, and any guy can lead us in scoring. We’ve been averaging four or five guys in double-digits. That’s what makes us unique. It’s not the team that I thought I was going to have at the beginning of the year where we’d have 10 or 11 guys we could put into the game, but all eight to nine guys that I have available to get in the game all play for each other. I think that’s important. As we continue to build our culture, we want guys who play for NC State, and I think we’re getting there.”

“I don’t know. Whatever happened, he shouldn’t have said anything. I don’t know what he said. I don’t know when he said it. That’s not us. He wasn’t even involved in the play. It was Markell that we thought got fouled at the top of the key. I don’t remember. I don’t know what he said. I’ll find out later, but that’s not who we are. It changed us a little bit because they got going after that and made some plays.”

“Absolutely. I thought it would be a great game for us overall. When you look at the end of the season, these guys are going to win a lot of games and compete to win their tournament championship. They have a chance to be an NCAA team which is great. The atmosphere, I thought, was great. Having an opportunity to come to Greensboro and play in the Greensboro Coliseum to play against a program that believes, I think it’s a good win overall. I think it’ll end up being a top-100 win for us.”

“I talked about it after we lost the Memphis game. We talked about winning five straight games before then. We’re always talking about going back on a winning streak. When you look at this stretch, I know everyone has talked about it, our stretch of five games is going to be tough. We found a way now in this stretch of five games to win three in a row, two of them being on the road. Obviously, if you can win a road game, they're golden. It’ll go a long way. I think our guys will believe. I give these guys a lot of credit. Every time we made a run and went up double-digits a couple of times, they fought back. For our guys to respond, it says a lot about us."

 
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