Kevin Keatts: "I'm Excited About Wednesday"

NC State men’s basketball will finally open its season this week, tipping off against Charleston Southern Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum. 

Head coach Kevin Keatts and his team are ready to get things rolling after going since March 11 without playing in a game. Keatts spoke to the media about this week’s opener; here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say: 

Opening statement

I’m excited about Wednesday and praying that we get to Wednesday. I think one of the toughest things is anytime you get on the internet, you see that there’s another program that has to pause because of COVID-19. That’s a tough thing for us. We want to play Wednesday. We want to play our game on Friday. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a chance to play a basketball game, obviously since March 11, so obviously our guys are excited about the opportunity and hope it happens. We’re happy that we’re getting a season. We don’t know how many games that we’re going to get, but we’re going to try to enjoy every game that we play. 

I like where our team’s at. Obviously we’ve had a couple days to prepare for our first game and we’ve got a couple more days to prepare. I keep saying this, we’re excited about our opportunity. 

Locally, we’ve already had one college in ECU pulling out of an MTE. What do you tell your players when you see teams have games cancelled and keep them focused and prepared?

It’s tough. I’ve watched the news the last couple days more than I have in a long time. I’ve gotten away from it because at first it was so negative, and now, obviously, I’m watching it because I know everything is spiking around the country and even in North Carolina. We’re talking about continuing to do the right stuff, social distancing, wear your face gear and your mask, obviously try to stay away from people as much as possible and wash their hands. It’s tough because I don’t think anybody knows how to not catch COVID-19. We know there are ways to help prevent it or where it doesn’t spread as much, but every day I worry about my guys because once they leave me for practice, I just pray that they’re doing the right stuff. We’ve preached that to them, but certainly you don’t know if it will happen. 

I saw a report on ESPN saying that there was a conversation among all the black coaches saying they were going to do something to honor John Thompson during their first games. Were you part of that, and will you do something to honor coach Thompson?

We will. I think it’s a great thing. I think it’s something that we all wanted to do. Coach Thompson was huge in our business and our profession, not just as an African-American coach but just a coach in general. The way we helped young men, changed a lot of lives, and then was a good father, good teacher, the impact that he’s had on college basketball, definitely on Wednesday, we will do something to honor him.

Have you decided on a starting lineup, and if so, are you at liberty to let us know? 

I would definitely be at liberty to let you know, but I have not decided on a starting lineup. Several people have asked me what we’re going to do about starting lineups, and I don’t know. I know people think when I say that, I’m just hiding something. I literally don’t make a lineup until after I see how we go through walk through. If somebody’s not locked in and focused, I’ve had guys who I thought were going to be starters and they weren’t focused in walk through, didn’t know what was going on, blew a couple assignments, and I’ve changed it. So it’s going to lead up until game time. Right now, in two days, I’ve got eight guys that I feel comfortable that could start this game. I don’t know which five it will be right now.

Is that a good thing to keep the guys on their toes and make them keep their focus? 

I think it’s a good thing, because I don’t want anyone to settle in and not prepare for the next couple days. These two days leading up to the game are just as important as the days we’ve had before, maybe even more important, because you really have to lock in; up until the last couple of days has really been more about us, and now we have a chance to focus in on Charleston Southern. So I won’t let you relax around here. You have to earn it every day. I’m not just going to reward someone who does it one day and doesn’t do it for the entire week leading up to it. But I will say this, the guys I’m going to start, I feel good about when it happens. Like I told you, it’s eight guys that have a possibility to do that. 

You guys have been through a lot with wondering what’s going to happen. How good will it be to just play basketball? 

I think this is why we do what we do. I’m excited to get the opportunity to play. Basketball is basketball. Obviously if you give our players a ball and somewhere to play, we can find some excitement in it. So our guys are extremely blessed and honored to have the chance to be able to play on Wednesday. I know I keep saying ‘I hope so, I hope so.’ 

And I do, because it’s tough right now, and as you know, it’s been a challenge every day. When you get on Twitter, it’s some coach, or some team has shut down and some coach has contracted the virus. It’s a tough thing. But I’m happy for my guys that we’re right there. But we’re not there yet. We’ve got to get there. We’ve got a couple days and anything can change. As you guys know, things change in a split second when it comes to this virus. We’re grateful, our guys are excited about it. I know our freshmen are dying to play. Our upperclassmen who haven’t had the opportunity to play since March, they can’t wait to get back on the court. 

How different is the look and feel of these games going to be?

It’s different. It’s awkward. It’s strange. We’re figuring out, even to the day, social distancing. How do you stay six feet away from someone? We’re all, obviously, as coaches going to wear masks on the sideline. The players when they come off, they’re going to wear masks. But, how do you do film? How do you do halftime? How do you do pregame? It’s different.

What we’ll miss is that we’re one of the teams that has a great fanbase, probably the best in the country whether we are playing in Reynolds or PNC. We thrive off getting a steal, dunk, or 3-point shot and just getting that eruption from the crowd and that energy that you normally would get. That’s not going to happen. That’s not going to happen anywhere. Even the arenas that can have some fans, it won’t be the same. We have to figure out how to create our own excitement. 

I’ve been talking about that with our guys. It’s almost like the atmosphere of the game will be like a scrimmage or a practice every day, and you’ve got to figure out how to come together and be loud. Our guys have to bring great energy for each other. 

Who has impressed in practice over the last few weeks? 

Well, the work ethic is tough for me to answer, to single out anyone because right now on this roster we have 14 guys. Those guys, I would say 11 of those guys are gym rats. They live in the gym. I don’t want to get on the work ethic and knock a couple guys off who have been working really hard.

The guys who have stood out, probably, in the last two weeks have been more of our veterans. Our young guys have had moments where I’ve thought they’ve done a really good job. The consistent guys are when you look at Manny [Bates], he’s been consistent. D.J. [Funderburk] has been consistent. Devon [Daniels] has been consistent. Then you can throw in a Jericole [Hellems] and you can throw in a Braxton [Beverly]. 

Our young guys have had moments where they are really good, but because they are young guys that keeps them from being consistent. It’s not their fault. They just haven’t been able to go through college practices for this long and know how to be consistent every day. I would say more than individuals, our group of veterans have been our most consistent guys. 

What have you seen from Charleston Southern on film? 

They’re good. They’re returning three starters, possibly four. [Phlandrous Fleming] is as good as advertised. He’s 6-foot-4, can really score. He has done a tremendous job of working on his 3-point game. He’s an awesome defender. A lot of those guys, when you look over the past couple of years, they’ve had a lot of guys that have transferred out of that league. One of those would obviously be [Christian Keeling], who went to Carolina last year. Those guys are good players. When they become seniors they can play in any league in the country. 

He’s got a great supporting cast with a couple more upperclassmen, and then some freshmen. They had a freshman of the year last year. They’re talented. [Barclay Radebaugh] does a great job with his team. You’re going to see them get up and down. They take a lot of threes. You’ll see some different offenses. Sometimes they run Princeton, sometimes they can dribble drive you. But, they play with a lot of confidence. They believe that they can win. It’s a very good basketball, well-coached team.