Keatts: "These Guys Are Competing"

Coming off a bounce-back win against Boston College, NC State men’s basketball is looking to keep its momentum going this week starting with a home rematch with Syracuse on Wednesday. 

Head coach Kevin Keatts spoke to the media Monday about the first game against Syracuse, the key this time around, and more. Here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say:

How much will it help having D.J. Funderburk this time against Syracuse? 

It’s always good to have one of your better players available. How does that affect the game? How does that change the game? I don’t know. When you look at the fact that both Jericole [Hellems] and Manny Bates had really career nights versus Syracuse on the road. But it’s good. He’s our best offensive rebounder. He’s a low-post scorer. He’s a leader in the locker room. Just having him available certainly is going to be a positive for our team. 

Have you seen a big reason for Thomas Allen’s shooting slump? 

He’s missing. What he’s done, and I give him a lot of credit, is he’s playing extremely hard on both ends of the floor. When you look at him he didn’t make a lot of shots against Boston College, but he had a huge block after he made a turnover. He had a huge steal that led to a layup. It’s going to go in for him. I just don’t know when it’s going to be. He needs to see the ball go in the hole. Once it does, he’s the type of kid that can run off three or four threes. I’ve wanted him to play better. He’s wanted to play better. I don’t think it’s anything that has to do with mechanics. It’s just the shot is not going in right now. It will. I just don’t know when it’s going to be. I hope it’s soon. 

How much does it stretch out a defense to have Thomas Allen and Braxton Beverly on the court together? 

No matter what their percentage is from three, you have to respect them from there. With those guys on the floor, it opens up our post guys to be able to score on the inside. Especially with Braxton Beverly. He’s been playing in this league for what seems like six years now, even though it’s only four. His ability to make shots is one of the reasons that we are able to get some inside baskets for some other guys. Certainly with Thomas’ reputation of being a shot maker and Braxton on the floor, it helps our guys as far as stretching out the defense. 

Has this year changed how you think about everything as a coach in terms of pushing your guys while also understanding what they’re going through? 

Yeah, I’ve had a different outlook as a coach, my perspective as a coach, starting a couple years ago when I ruptured my patellar tendon. It’s one of those things as coaches where we look at kids and say ‘are they hurt or are they injured?’ You have a different found respect for them when you personally go through something and see how hard it is to come back. 

I’ve looked at things different for these kids. I worry about their mental health. These guys are competing, they’re fighting their butts off. We’ve been dealt an unfortunate hand, number one like everybody else with COVID, but when you lose a player at the stage that you do with Devon Daniels, then certainly you have to be able to adjust. It’s not easy. I’ve understood the struggles and challenges that some of our guys go through. I’ve been able to obviously be able to talk them through it because it’s an unusual year. No matter how much everybody tries to act like everything is normal, it’s not. The way you travel, the way you do things is not normal. 

All of these kids signed up to come play for these universities and be able to play in front of, for us, at least 22,000 people. When you walk out of the tunnel there’s nobody. It’s different. It’s a scrimmage every time. The mental health part of it, being able to talk to them every day and understanding the struggles that they go through. And then you don’t even know some of the situations that they have to deal with with their own families at home. 

I know you guys aren’t playing Duke until Saturday, but I’m just curious how much you’ve gotten to see them play this year and how you feel you match up against them?

You’re right, and you’re not going to get me to do that. I’m concentrating on Syracuse, which is tomorrow. I will answer the first part of it, I’ve seen everybody play because I’ve been able to watch film vs. other people, but you can ask me that on Wednesday and we can talk all day about it, but I’ve got to figure out how to solve Syracuse’s zone right now. 

Looking at that matchup with Syracuse a couple weeks ago, Kadary Richmond seemed to kind of be the difference in the game towards the end of the second half. He played a really strong 16 minutes, and his length on the perimeter seemed to be a problem defensively. Is he a guy that you specifically circle in your scouting report leading up to this second matchup?

He hurt us. We knew coming into the game defensively that he was one of the guys in this zone that did a tremendous job getting deflections and getting steals. He came in, I want to say, averaging seven points a game and he left out there with 14. He hurt us. But that being said, they’ve got really good players. They’ve got really good shot makers. So we’re not going to just focus in on him. Their guard play in particular. It’s really good, especially when they’re making shots. But I will, as you said, he was a problem for us. He drove us to the hole, scored over us several times, got to the free-throw line. And he was a huge difference in round one. Certainly, we’ve got to do a better job of keeping him in front, not letting him get to his spots. 

You’ve been to a couple places that have had fans.  Do you think that’s been a more pronounced advantage this year because kids aren’t used to it? 

I do, and I’ve joked that the venues that we’ve been to that have had fans, it was a sellout. And it was. That’s the closest thing that we’re going to get to a sellout. It makes a difference. I know people don’t think it does. The two places to me that really stood out was when we went to Clemson and Florida State, they both had fans. It’s crazy, because when you have young guys like my guys, that’s the first time this year that they’ve ever played in front of anybody. So if you’re able to have at least 1,000 people in your stands, I consider it a sellout. 

So we’ve played in front of a few sellouts. It does make a difference. We’ve got passionate fans at every university in our league and when you’re making a run and making shots, and you make a big 3, you get a big steal or you get a dunk, just having some energy in the building. That being said, I think everybody’s taken advantage of the best situation that they have without fans. I understand, I’m not one of those guys that when we leave off the call, I don’t want you to say ‘Kevin Keatts thinks that we should have fans.’ That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that it makes a difference that we don’t. But I understand why we don’t. We’ve got a virus that we have to get under control. When our fans come back, it’ll be a big treat. But we do miss them.