QUOTES: Kevin Keatts Radio Show
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts held his weekly radio show on Monday evening and discussed the Wolfpack's recent stoppage due to COVID-19, returning to action, and more.
The Wolfpack is currently 3-0 on the season with Campbell as its next slated opponent at time of recording. A transcript of Keatts’ comments is posted below.
Is the first question you ask in the morning, “What’s next?”
“I think the biggest thing that we all made a mistake in men’s basketball is that we released a schedule. We should start releasing a schedule the week of and pray that it happens, or the day of. It’s unfortunate. We don’t take this lightly. I know we’re joking a little bit about games being changed, but it’s hard for me to even go there when the pandemic and the virus has affected so many people and so many people’s lives. We’re grateful to have played the three games that we’ve played. We will play games moving forward. Unfortunately, because of the virus, the Wednesday game is obviously not going to be played. On our game, we’re looking for a possible opponent for Wednesday or maybe even Thursday. Thursday will be a little tougher for us because we turn around again and play on Saturday against Campbell, so we’re just trying to figure it out. When we got our game cancelled against William & Mary, it took us about 32 hours to find a game. We may find one. We haven’t played a game since we played UMass Lowell, and so obviously I’m still getting some guys back. We’re going to play if we can on Wednesday.”
On how quickly things can change…
“I’ve asked our guys to be open-minded about every situation. What has changed for us is that you can’t prepare for any team. You have to be more focused on what you do and how well you do it. We’re not the only ones in this situation. We’re not the only one that are going to go through it. When you look around the country, the virus has taken over, and it’s at an all-time high in most states. Understanding that part of it, basketball for us is important, but we want to make sure that the safety of our players and our staff is the most important thing.”
Describe for us what the last seven days have been like.
“We wanted to make sure everybody was safe. We’ve had a couple of positives. I think we made the right decision. When you have a positive, that individual would have to isolate for 10 days, and then we have some guys that, because of contact tracing, have to isolate for, then 14, but now seven days. We’re finding out that, if somebody was positive, more than likely, and this is not a perfect science because I’m certainly not a doctor, we’re finding out within three to five days, if you’re around somebody who’s positive, you’ve got a greater chance to catch it. It takes a little bit of time, so that’s why the quarantine part is there: to make sure guys are safe and that it doesn’t spread and affect everybody else. I have to side with caution because of my staff. We all have families that we can go to. I have some local guys that have grandmothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers that have underlying issues. We want to be better safe than sorry.”
How did you deal with the time in isolation?
“I isolated for a while. Luckily, with the individual who had first contacted the virus, I didn’t get caught up in contact tracing. Even though that was the case, I wanted to isolate for a few days just to make sure. I was still able to get out and do my walks, but it was different. I wanted to stay in contact with my team. We did a lot of Zoom calls. I wanted to make sure we were staying in contact with our staff, and I wanted to give an information overload to my entire program so they would know what’s going on. We talked about what’s our next step, what things look like, when will we play basketball again… You think so many times that it’s all about you, but you figure out and find out quickly that it’s also about the team that you’re going to play next. When you look at the Louisville game, we were ready to play. I don’t have a full roster right now. I have eight or nine guys that could possibly play in the game. We were prepared to play. They didn’t feel by their medical people that it was the right time for those guys to be able to play on Wednesday, so they decided that we would postpone the game. That’s no knock against Louisville. I’m not here to judge them. We all have medical people, we all have trainers, and you have to do the best thing for your program.”
You willing to go and play with eight people?
“We were. Our guys wanted to play. We were, but unfortunately the game’s not going to happen.”
Can the CDC changing its guidelines for isolation be a game-changer as we move forward this season?
“Yeah, I’m learning so much about how the rules work. When the CDC changed it, it goes to every state, and the state has to adopt the rule. Once the state adopts the rule, it changes what happens as far as quarantine. The biggest change is from 14 to seven days. In our situation in the state of North Carolina, our state basically adopted the rule with the CDC, but then it has to go through each county. The county has to adopt it in order for it to go into effect in that area.”
On the approved COVID-19 vaccine…
“I’m glad it’s there. When it’s offered to us, I’ll be one of the first ones that will take it. Certainly, I think it’s important that we take care of the frontline folks, the doctors, the nursing home folks, the elderly, those that have underlying conditions… When it gets to us, I’ll be ready to take it, but I think it’s important that they do a good job of taking everybody that needs it first.
Miami’s Manny Diaz said he wouldn’t have had a football season had the players not stood up in August to say they wanted to play. Do you feel the same way for the college basketball players?
“I do, and I can only speak for my guys. Every indication that I have from my players is that they want to continue to play. If It ever gets to a point where they don’t, then certainly we will have a conversation. One thing that I’ve always told them is that they can talk about any situation or how they’re feeling during this time. Our guys want to play. Our guys are disappointed when there are cancellations. They’re understanding of that because they know the situation that we’re in, but they want to play basketball.”
How have you been able to practice since the last time we spoke?
“We just got back on Saturday, and that particular day, we had six guys. It was more of getting a lot of shots up. I got fortunate after the six guys; yesterday, we had eight. I thought I’d made it with eight players. We did a lot of four-on-four. I was the king of four-on-four yesterday. There were a lot of four-on-four drills. I don’t anticipate many more right now. We’re still working on some things between the virus and possibly injuries.”
Louisville’s Chris Mack talked about the first time the Cardinals had to pause basketball activities. The Cards had players who’d gone through coronavirus and fully recovered. Those players were allowed to go into the facility and practice because, presumably, they’re immune now. Do you have the same flexibility to do that?
“Well, we’re learning so much about the virus. Most of our guys, if you had the virus, we typically give you a 90-day period. Once that 90-day period is over, if somebody that came in close contact with you ends up catching the virus, you become part of contact tracing, so it doesn’t give you that immunity after 90 days. In our situation, we’ve had some guys who were quarantined because of the positive that we’d had. After a few days and we had a couple of tests to make sure they were okay, we would give those guys about an hour to come in our gym and shoot alone. No coaches, no one to rebound for them. They had to use the shooting gun. Obviously, they had to leave their mask the entire time and then end up leaving out.”
Your assistants spend hours preparing scouting reports for upcoming opponents. How frustrating is it for them when, after all that preparation, the game gets cancelled?
“I don’t think frustration is the right word. They understand now. We understand that it’s going to change. We understand that we may have to shift at any time. The fortunate thing about us is that we would have started preparing for Louisville today. We would have started presenting the team personnel, and now we’re not. We’ll go back and work on ourselves until we find an opponent for Wednesday or Thursday if and when we find one. If we don’t find an opponent, our next game will be Saturday.”
Have you had a chance to get shots up at PNC Arena?
“Tomorrow will be our first official practice at PNC.”
Whether it’s William & Mary, Michigan, UConn, or Louisville, I’m assuming you don’t trash those scouting reports…
“We don’t. We don’t trash anything. There’s a possibility that we play them in the postseason. We don’t get rid of anything. I’ve asked these guys to be flexible. Things can change at the split of a moment.”
Does not participating in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge leave a bad taste in your mouth as you try to watch?
“It wasn’t a bad taste, but as I watched the games, my juices were flowing. I wanted to be a part of it. This would have been the first year that I haven’t been a part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. We’d been pretty successful. In three years, we’ve been 2-1 and a few seconds away from being undefeated because of the game at Wisconsin.”
What will it be like starting over when you play again?
“We’ll be rusty. We haven’t played since Dec. 4. For me to think that we’ll be clicking the same way that we were, I don’t think that’s going to happen. We’re a team that relies on our conditioning. That’ll come into question because we haven’t had the chance to get up and down as much. We’re a team that likes to press the entire game. We may have to scale some of that back until we get our conditioning back or get more players back.”
Was there anything the players could do in isolation?
“Our guys, to my knowledge, did a great job staying inside until we made sure that everybody was safe. We continued to test during that process. We didn’t get everybody caught in contact tracing; those guys [who weren’t traced] were able to get in the gym with our coaches and get some shots up. The guys who were quarantined, after a couple of tests when we realized they would be okay, they could work by themselves for an hour.”
What are your plans for the team during the holiday period?
“We’re having ongoing discussions about what that looks like. We’re still trying to figure that stuff out, what games will be played, is there a makeup game that needs to be played during December… We’ll probably have more information in the coming days about what we plan on doing for Christmas.”
When information is released that someone in Tier One has tested positive, who makes up Tier One?
“Tier One is basically our travel party. When we leave, those are the guys who are getting tested regularly. Those are the guys who travel with us. When we went to UConn, we had about 30 to 34 people that would have been considered Tier One. Anyone who tests positive who are administrative staff, players, coaches, video guys, or managers can affect the entire program.”
No one wants to be the one tests positive, causing a shutdown for the program. How do you handle that with someone in the Tier One party who obviously would feel terrible?
“I don’t think that you can blame. I think it’s the wrong thing to blame unless someone knows that they’re not doing the right thing. We’re finding out everyday about this virus and how people catch the virus. It would be very reckless on my part to say, ‘You caused this.’ It’s not about that. We’re all in it together. I’m just asking everybody to do the right thing.”
On Wes Moore’s comeback win over Boston College…
“I typically don’t like to share personal conversations, but I texted him and said, ‘Great comeback win. I see you’re starting to like the press.’ He texted me back: “Laugh out loud, wasn’t anything like yours, but may need to work on it a little bit more’ He says, ‘I’m sure I’ll get a bunch of emails from people telling me now to press.’ He’s done a good job. I didn’t get a chance to watch the game, but I was following the game. That’s an incredible comeback, being down that much with six minutes to go and to come back and win. That just shows you the character of his team and how they believe. They’re good players. Wes has become a really good coach because he’s become a really good recruiter. [Kayla Jones] is tremendous. She’s starting to play well. It wouldn’t be a great show if I didn’t mention Elissa Cunane.”
What do you think about Thomas Allen’s start?
“I was very happy with his last game. The first two games, I thought he played well, but I didn’t think he played well enough. I wanted him to take more shots. I thought he passed up some shots that he was capable of making. I thought the game against UMass Lowell was his breakout game, and I was dying to see him play another game after that because he shot the ball well. He’s a guy that we want to take shots. He can really shoot and score the basketball, and we need that from him on this team.”
Allen, Braxton Beverly, and Manny Bates have started every game thus far. Is that a trend that will continue?
“You’re giving away secrets if I tell you they’re going to start all the time. I’ve got eight starters, and I reward the guys that have the best practices leading up to the game, not to say that the other guys didn’t. Maybe it’s about a matchup we want to look at. For Manny, he’s got the edge at the center spot because we’ve got some younger guys. For everybody else, it’s tough because the other guys can beat somebody out.”
More on Allen…
“He’s done a good job. He’s getting better. He’s starting to understand what we want as a staff. He’s starting to understand how important his contribution is to our team, and I think that really helps him.”
Do you use deflections during timeouts to give the guys a picture of what they’re doing defensively?
“I use it during timeouts. I use it a lot at halftime. Individually, I know how many each person has. I can say, ‘You’re not playing aggressive enough on the defensive end.’ Devon Daniels has been a guy who’s done a good job with deflections. He may have eight at the half, so he may do some different stuff.”
You have the first weekend of the new year open. Will it be difficult to fill that spot?
“I think everything is on the table. Here’s the crazy thing: there will be some game or games that are cancelled. As we move forward, the same thing may happen. I know people will say, ‘Well, we’re into conference play.’ It doesn’t matter. Sometimes, there will be games available. We could play a game during that time."