Kevin Keatts: "I'm Excited About Where We're At"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts spoke with the media via Zoom Friday afternoon to discuss the Wolfpack’s preparations heading into the 2020-21 men’s basketball season.
Opening Statement
“We have finished our 11th practice the other day. We were off yesterday, and we’ll get back in here today and tomorrow for our 12th and 13th. It’s weird. Even though we would have started on November 3rd, I think we needed the time because we didn’t have a chance to have these guys to be able to practice the entire summer where I could get eight weeks from these young guards that I have. I like our team. We’re working hard. I will tell you right now that our defense is a little further along than our offense because we spend more time, especially when I’ve got some young guards trying to pick up concepts and making sure those guys understand what defense schemes to get us in. A couple of guys have really stood out to me, one being Manny Bates. He’s being more reliable where you can throw the ball inside and he’s able to score. Believe it or not, he’ll be more than just a defensive player. I don’t want to lose what he’s got on the defensive end, but he’s coming along. Guys like Devon [Daniels], who’s a veteran guard, has had some really good days in the gym. Braxton [Beverly] and Thomas [Allen] have had some shootouts in practice which you like to see. I’m excited about where we’re at. We have a long way to go and a short amount of time to get there, especially with these guys that I have to bring along pretty quick."
Can you shed any insight into the schedule and some of the early matchups?
“I can talk about the [ACC/Big Ten] Challenge. We know we’re going to play Michigan in the Challenge. Don’t ask me about Michigan; I have no idea. I know Juwan [Howard] does a great job there. Obviously, I found out yesterday that was going to be our opponent. I was hoping that we could be at home, but I knew we weren’t because we were at home last year. Other than that, if you ask me the next time we have this in about a week and a half, I’ll probably give you a little more detail. The reason why I won’t go into all of our schedule, which some of these games I do know we’re possibly playing, is because some of them are with contracts. We’re waiting on contracts, and what I don’t want to do is similar to what happened in Orlando because of COVID and testing. Some of those games that were going to be scheduled are certainly not happening now. I will tell you that scheduling has been a major challenge. Even when you think you have the games done, certainly it’s not done. You know we’re going to run our own [multi-team event], so we’re going to attempt to play 27 games this year, but it’s going to be a major challenge to get there."
Is it frustrating being this deep into practice that you can’t finalize the schedule, or is it more important to focus on the team?
“I’m past the frustration stage. When we came out and switched the date for when we’re going to start the season, I knew it would be a challenge. One of the biggest challenges was that, in order to play 27 games, you had to have an MTE. Either you were going to have to create one or go to one. That has made it tough. It’s not frustrating in the fact that I can only control what I can control. We’re really concentrating on the team. I think the schedule will get figured out. We may not have a schedule until the day before we play our first game, but I’m hoping that that doesn’t happen. I’m in a good place with scheduling. I’ve already realized that it’s going to be tough and that it may change. I feel really good that we have 27 games scheduled even when we don’t know our ACC schedule. I just don’t want to go out, get out in front, and release them until I know we have all contracts back, and I don’t want to have to backpedal out of the situation."
How much have you seen Manny Bates improve on the offensive end?
“I think he’s really improved offensively because he’s a lot more confident in that area, and he’s got more bulk on him. He’s worked extremely hard in the offseason putting on good weight. The other thing that really hurt him last season, when you look at him, he was always in foul trouble. As a coach, I was amazed that he only played only 20 minutes a game. I went back to my assistant coaches like, ‘Why is this kid only playing 20?’ He was in foul trouble most of the time. Believe it or not, I’m concentrating on our guards more to do a better job of keeping guys in front so he doesn’t have to block as many shots and he doesn’t have to be put in that situation. Offensively, we’ve been able to throw the ball inside to him. He’s scoring over both shoulders. He’s starting to rebound the basketball a lot better than he did last year. A lot of that is confidence because I think he’s more confident in his shoulder than he was coming into the season last year."
Who else has stuck out to you in the center spot?
“I’m happy at that spot. We’ve probably had more depth than we’ve had in the past. Certainly, you’ll see D.J. [Funderburk] play some center and also at the power forward position, but I really like E.B. Dowuona and Jaylon Gibson. They’re going to be really, really good players at NC State. I’m going to have to ask them to be a little bit more patient because, as we develop those guys, both of those guys will bring something unique to the table."
What have you seen from Cam Hayes? Is he a guy that could be the starting point guard early in the season?
“He’s smart. He’s quick. He makes the right play, but it’s going to take him some time. The two freshmen that I have, him and Shakeel Moore, are very talented freshmen. They can do a lot for us. It’s a little bit different than what Markell [Johnson] brought to the table. Markell is a guy that can break you down and get to the rim but also was a great assist guy. I think these guys bring a little bit more on the defensive end. Cam Hayes is more of a pull-up guy, and Shakeel Moore is just tough. When you talk about toughness, he’s a guy that can sit there and pick you up 94 feet. He’s really aggressive, a paint-touch guy. Cam’s going to be talented. It’s going to be one of those things that, within these next 18 practices, they’ve got to grow up really, really fast. In order to play as a freshman, it’s tough. I’ve got to put them in that situation. The unfortunate thing about guys like Cam and Shakeel is that we don’t have an exhibition or scrimmage this year. Their first game on Nov. 25 will be their first game they ever play in college."
Is it fair to say this team has a chance to be the most versatile team you’ve had in Raleigh? What do you see in terms of mix-and-match possibilities?
“I thought I had it last year, but then we had some injuries. I know anytime I say that, it’s going to go viral, and everybody says it’s the deepest and most versatile team. It is to date, but understand that barring some injuries or COVID, that depth could be questioned at times. It just depends on if any of those guys miss part of the season. That being said, I do have several guys on the roster than can play multiple positions. I like where we’re at. I like that we have veterans like Thomas Allen and Braxton that, if the freshmen struggle early at the point guard position, I feel comfortable moving over or starting at that position. When you look at the fact that Jericole [Hellems] has put a lot of work in to be able to play some small forward this year, that’s a plus for us, and obviously being able to go with a bigger lineup, having D.J. Funderburk at the four. I love our size. I love our versatility. I love our length. We’re quick. We’re a fast team. We just have to put it together because we’ve got a good bunch of veteran guys, but as every coach will point out to you, we’re young with about six freshmen that haven’t played before."
Have you had to manage any uncertainty with basketball, or has it always felt like games would be played?
“I have no idea how this thing’s going to work, even with football. When you look at football, the blessing that they have is that they all have bye weeks. They have some weeks where, if they cancel a game, they would be able to make it up, push another game, or add a game. Unfortunately, when you get into our basketball season when you move the season back 15 days, we don’t have any bye weeks. The only thing that can happen for us is that they move the NCAA tournament back, and there’s been talks about that, but that certainly hasn’t happened to this point. If you take 14-21 days out of when our schedule is released, there’s a chance that we could miss four or five games and not have a chance to make them up. We’re going to continue to do the best that we can with our guys, making sure they know how important it is to wear their masks, wash their hands, and stay away from large groups. Unfortunately, situations may arise where there are times that we miss opportunities to play games because of COVID. It’s a challenge. On every ACC call that we have, we talk about how we’re going to do it. Ours is so much different because we’re an indoor sport. When you fall back on time in the next couple of days where it starts getting darker around 5:30 or 6 o’clock, everybody’s going to come inside. That’s a little different than what we’re used to."
What have you seen since you started the voting initiative now that we’re getting close to Election Day?
“I think it’s important that all of us exercise our right to vote. I’ve always said this to my guys. I even had a conversation with them the other day: ‘I don’t care who you vote for, but don’t complain if you’re not going to go out and vote. You have the ability to vote. When I was your age, I didn’t vote because I didn’t know about it. I wasn’t educated enough about it to be able to vote.’ I’ve seen a huge turnout on our campus. When you look at some of our sports teams, I think they’re getting out to vote. As of yesterday or two days ago, everybody on our team and our staff had voted aside from two or three guys. I was going to wait until Nov. 3 and take the entire team to vote, but that wasn’t the ideal situation with class time, tutoring, and everything else. Also I was trying to keep them away from large crowds. I think it’s great. I think what we’re doing on college campuses, not just NC State but everywhere, we have a lot of coaches other than me promoting the vote. I think it’s important that our young people have a voice in what happens in the future."
In a perfect world, how deep is your rotation?
“If everything was perfect, I think we could go two-deep at every position. I feel like we could actually play 10 guys I would feel comfortable with. Obviously, a couple of those guys would be freshmen on the back end of that. I like the fact that we could play two at every position and then switch guys like D.J. and Jericole to play small forward and power forward. It’s a good roster. We don’t have the sophomore and junior strength that we normally would have. We’ve got guys who have played in college, and we’ve got six guys, and I say six because I also include [Dereon] Seabron, who have never played in a college game.”
Continuing on tempo and the rotation…
“I want our team to run more this year. Even though we’re one of the top two or three teams in the league in scoring, I don’t think we’ve done a great job of defensive rebounding, and when we don’t rebound defensively, we don’t have a chance to get out in transition as much. On the flip side, we’ve been a very good offensive rebounding team, so we’ve gotten a lot of our missed shots back and been able to score, so that’s why we’ve been pretty good in transition. Our presses have created some turnovers, and that’s why we’ve been able to score, but I don’t think we’ve run enough. I don’t think we’ve gone out and gotten a lot of transitions. In order to do that, we’ve got to do a good job of running guys in and out of the game that are fresh and do a better job of defensive rebounding.”
How have you addressed mental health with the players?
“The biggest thing for those guys is just knowing that we’re here as a staff and we’re able to talk and communicate with those guys, and we have guys on campus who are more professional in those areas if they need to talk to someone. It’s tough because you think about guys that are seniors like Devon, Braxton, and D.J. and not knowing exactly how your season is going to go. You’re hoping and praying that you get a chance to play 27 games, but there’s a chance that you may not. We’re constantly talking with these guys about staying positive, accepting what we can accept, and controlling what we can control, but as a head coach, I think it’s so important, even more now this year than it’s been in the past, and I’ve always been a guy who’s a great communicator with my players, that we talk to them more and more because these young men have a lot of things going on and a lot of challenges in front of them.”
How difficult is it going to be for the basketball season where one positive COVID test takes out a large chunk of the team with contact tracing?
“There’s no working around it. It’s a challenge, and what we’re finding out is that it’s not so much what happens on the court. I think it’s what these guys are doing when they’re at home. This is probably the first time that I would prefer for my guys to play Xbox and all that stuff online. I don’t want those guys to huddle up as much. Even when they’re traveling to get something to eat at night, I’d rather them go by themselves or order food. It’s a tough deal. Contact tracing is a major problem. In our practice situation, we’re trying to social distance as much as we can. We try not to have these guys around each other more than 15 minutes at six feet. It’s a challenge doing all of that other stuff. I try not to huddle as much as I normally would do, just to bring them in and talk. To answer the question, I don’t know. I don’t know what we don’t know. The fortunate thing is that, when the ACC Tournament closed, we only had one positive test that we knew of. Now, we’re facing a lot, and we’re learning more and more about contact tracing as we move along."