Kevin Keatts: 'It was a good road win for us'

Coming off five losses in six games, NC State men’s basketball needed a no doubter type of win Saturday against Boston College. That’s exactly what it got in its 81-65 victory, with four players scoring in double figures and the Wolfpack shooting 52% from the field compared to just 39% for Boston College. 

Head coach Kevin Keatts spoke to the media after the win, here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say: 

Opening statement

It was a good road win for us. The great thing about it is our big three, which are our interior guys in Manny Bates, Jericole Hellems and D.J. Funderburk have been playing really good basketball. They’ve been special for us ever since [Devon Daniels] has been gone, and I’ve been trying to get some guards to play better with him. 

I thought our guards played a really good game today. Shakeel Moore had a career high, he did a tremendous job. I thought [Cam Hayes] played a good floor game. It was a great game because we needed to win, especially because I wanted these guys to feel good about themselves. And then obviously it was great because we got the big lead and I was able to get some of those younger guys some playing time at the end. Those guys haven’t had the opportunity to play in many games because of obviously no nonconference. But I’m excited about it. We’ll take it. We’ll get back, continue to go to work and we’ll get better.

Obviously Shakeel Moore had a strong game today with a career high, but there was one point today where you guys were kind of settling for some jump shots, Boston College made a lead and he passed one up in transition which led to a Funderburk layup down low. Do smart moves like that give you a little bit more trust in your freshmen guards? 

It’s trying to get those guys to grow up really fast. And I know people will say ‘Golly, it’s February, you’re still trying to get them to grow up?’ But any freshman in the country, unless you’ve been playing 25-30 minutes a game, they haven’t had game experience, they haven’t been able to go through what we’ve been through in the past with nonconference, and I think the two guys who have taken a huge step and who had two really good practices were Shakeel Moore and Cam Hayes. 

Both of those guys are big competitors, both of those guys are working hard. Shak did a tremendous job. I asked him today to be a paint-touch guy. We lost our guy who could to the rim in Devon Daniels, and really the next guy in line who can really get to the rim and make something happen is Shakeel Moore. He went out there, and he tried to execute what I wanted him to do. 

Does a game like today give you confidence to lean on your front court the rest of the way? 

We have played, since Devon’s been out, this is our third game. We played well enough to be able to win at Syracuse and then against No. 14 UVa. We just needed other guys to be able to be able to step up and help these guys. They’ve been tremendous. Give [Hellems], obviously didn’t have the hot hand, but I thought Manny and D.J. were tremendous inside. Our game plan was to throw the ball inside and our guards executed that. 

This team has had some really rough days so far in 2021. What does it mean to come out of this game with a win and overwhelming positive? 

It’s important that we get better. We knew coming into this season that it was going to be a challenge. What we didn’t know is that we were going to lose our leading scorer and obviously one of our best leaders, our best guard. So we’ve had to adapt on the fly. We’re no different than most teams in the country. 

But if you take the best player off any team, they’re going to struggle. I didn’t know how this team would respond after losing Daniels. We’re 1-2 since he’s gone, but we played against two unique defenses and two really good teams, one of them on their home floor, and then against the No. 14 team in the country, which we had a chance towards the end. We put ourselves, towards the end, a chance to win. But our identity has changed, because the older guys have embraced the opportunity.

Braxton Beverly, Thomas Allen and Cam Hayes all contributed with being able to distribute the ball inside. How much have you seen them progress being able to control the offense and get it inside? 

They will get better. We need them to play better, and I’ve asked those guys, on every given night, I need to have a good night, especially if our bigs continue to play that way. Us losing is not on our guards, it’s just we need somebody else to step up. When you look at the numbers from the couple losses, those guys were five and six points a game. And we need better guard play, meaning I need somebody to be able to be able to score. We’ve worked a lot with those guys over the last couple days in getting better. Tonight, it was really our execution or our game plan was to get the ball inside the paint, play inside out and some of those shots that they missed, they’ll make next time. 

This one played out very differently than the first Boston College game. Is that more about you guys getting better of Boston College having its last five games postponed? 

I can’t tell you. I think we’re playing a little bit better. I’m sure those guys being on a pause and missing some guys is obviously tough. We went through the same thing. It’s always tough when you’re going through a pandemic. But I can’t say what’s the difference in us being able to win by a bigger margin here than we did at home. I know our guys are getting better. I know our guys are starting to believe in one another. We’re sharing the ball more, we’re doing a good job getting out in transition. I think we’ve become a better defensive team. So I can only talk about our end of it, I’m sure BC’s got a lot of struggles right now.

What was the difference in Shakeel Moore playing more minutes and having more production than he’s had in awhile today? 

I think the biggest thing for those who have followed him from high school days is the kid’s probably the best paint touch guy I’ve seen in a long time. He’s a gritty, hard-nosed defender. And honestly, when you pull up his stats, he was taking a lot of 3s. He had fell in love with the 3-point line. Our conversation yesterday was ‘Man, I need you, you’re the only guy really that I can consistently get into the paint.’ Braxton’s a 3-point shooter, Thomas is a 3-point shooter, Seabron does it a little bit different. 

So I needed him to be able to get into the paint and make plays. We’re a good basketball team. That kid’s a good finisher when we have somebody that can get paint touches from our guard spot. That’s why he played more minutes, and if he continues to get better, he’ll play more minutes. But him and Cam Hayes, out of the younger guys, had the best couple days’ practice leading into this.

How impressive is his season with basically getting thrown into the fire in ACC play with no exhibition or nonconference games?

It’s refreshing. Our back court of young kids will be really, really good. It’s unfair to them, it’s unfair to everybody what’s going on, so I want to make sure that I’m not just saying NC State. But it’s unfair to them the situation that we’ve all been put in. That being said, they’re getting valuable experience playing right now. The kid’s talented. And a lot of times, when you’re a young guy, you have to give more instructions about what you need from as opposed to just letting them go out there and play. I’ve learned with those guys to give them instructions about what we need from them.

How tough was it preparing for Boston College with them coming off a pause, or was it about building off the Virginia game? 

I think it was both. We had no idea who was going to play. Obviously, at any point anybody could have played. We don’t know anybody’s situation. I just hope that nobody is seriously sick, and I hope they make it back. But it was about us building on the last couple of games. It was about us figuring out how we could capitalize on the things that we’ve done well, and to limit the mental mistakes. 

To get better, if we could erase a few of the mistakes. When you look at the Virginia game, and I went back and we looked at deflections, we only had 23. And we were still in the game. That’s just not who we are. We are a deflection team. We’ll pressure you, and we’ll turn you over. I wanted to come into this game regardless of how many played for BC, it was a great game for us because we were able to get away from Raleigh. We were on the road, and I just wanted those guys to focus on getting better. And I thought we did. 

How does the post game ice cream work in a pandemic? 

I pay a couple of guys a lot of money to try to figure that out. Chris Zupko, who is one of my directors, we were going into Clemson, and I’ll give you guys this. This is what you can print, too. This is why we lost the Clemson game. Not because they scored more points than us, we lost because we were walking into Clemson and I was walking beside him and he’s like ‘coach, I’m going to take the bus, and I’m going to go see where we can get ice cream.’ I was like ‘oh, man. That is the kiss of death.’ You can’t do that before a game, and if you do that don’t tell me...We are going to get ice cream. We are going to get ice cream, even if it has to be delivered to us. But, we are going to have ice cream today.