Kevin Keatts: "We Are Excited Moving Forward"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 87-68 exhibition win over Elizabeth City State Monday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.
Opening Statement
Let's start with this, so glad to be in front of you guys. Thank y'all for being here. I know y’all could be at a lot of places tonight. Thank you for coming to watch us play an exhibition game against Elizabeth City State. It felt like we were getting back to being normal a little bit. You think about our roster, we’ve got 12 guys on scholarship right now and six of those guys have never played in front of a crowd. Maybe, I’m thinking back to the ACC Tournament against Pitt, we might have had a little crowd for that one, other than that I don't think we have had anybody. So it was different, it was unique.
There were some nerves. Some of our younger guys were a little bit nervous, which is quite normal when you get the chance to play in front of a crowd. I saw some good things, I liked some things that we had done well.
I know you guys are going to ask me about Manny Bates — I am going to tell you right now that Manny Bates will be available on Tuesday. This is completely a Kevin Keatts call. I wanted to get Jaylon Gibson and also Ebenezer Dowuona about 17-20 minutes, so I could see those guys play. I know what Manny brings to our team. At the end of the day, one of those guys is going to have to emerge as somebody that can back him up. I wanted to make sure those guys had a chance to play. As far as Greg Gantt, he will be questionable for the opener, just because he is still recovering. He is doing some individual workouts but I haven't thrown him into a practice.
Overall, I liked some of the things we did. With this team we are going to have to have four or five guys, or even six guys in double-figures. I thought we did that. One of the things we can hold our hat on is: it is tough to turnover a team 27 times, and we did that. We have one week just like most people in the country to prepare and we are excited moving forward.
Is tonight’s game a prime example of what this team could look like in the eventuality that Bates is unavailable due to injury, foul trouble, etc?
It's different, I will never go into a game and probably play as much as 10 people the same amount of minutes. Scrimmages and open exhibitions are a little different. I wanted everyone to play. I put out some different combinations that we haven't even had in practice. We’ve got a lot of different looks that I think we can use throughout the year.
Is this the kind of team you want to have that’s really deep and can press whenever you want to?
I have been preaching this and I’ve got 10 guys. I realize that we are still in a pandemic and hope that we can make it through that and no injuries. I do feel comfortable with putting all 10 guys, 11 including Manny, into the game.
How good was it to have Terquavion Smith and Breon Pass hit their first shots to quell their first-game nerves?
It was good. When you look at Terquavion, a lot of people didn't get to see how good he is tonight. He missed some shots he normally would make. That being said, when he missed a couple and after he made the first one, he started rushing some shots. As you know young guys try to determine if they’re scoring the ball, they play better. In Breon’s case, I thought he was a solid as any freshman we had. He made the right play, he made his free throws and he was the head of our defense. But when you look at all three of those guys, they all have a chance to be good. We just have to figure out how to put them in the best position.
Did you come into this game knowing the three-point shooting team you had?
It’s so tough because, last year, we had to shift. We went to bigs, and really our best three-point shooter was Braxton Beverly, and he could barely sit down during timeouts. So we have some shot makers this year.
Did you get what you wanted to get out of this game tonight?
You know, the best thing I got out of tonight is that everybody in the locker room was jumping up and down because nobody was hurt, and that’s the biggest thing for me. These are tough, any time you play an exhibition, every coach will tell you, they are praying that no one gets hurt and everybody is ready for the opener and that’s the biggest thing. I don’t read too much into if we win by 19 or 20, or if we won by 40; at the end of the day I just wanted these guys to get the experience.
What do you feel like the team needs to improve on before next week’s season opener?
Well I think I’m like every coach; I think we have to clean up some things. I thought we blew some assignments and most of those that we blew defensively were when we had freshmen in the game and they had a lot of miscommunication. The tough thing about freshmen, and I tell these guys, is that you have to over communicate. So a lot of our breakdowns on the defensive end is because we had the younger guys involved.
How different will this lineup look with Bates on the court in terms of rebounding?
It’s different. This guy is the best defensive player in the country. He’s long, he’s athletic, but not only that, he’s a leader. He knows where to be. He can put people in different places and so you lose that when you don’t have him out there when you're relying really on two freshmen, Jaylon and Ebe, to make those decisions.
How did Thomas Allen look in the preseason? What did you think about his performance tonight?
Thomas Allen is the weirdest deal I have ever coached, and I’m going to tell you why I say that. We chart practice, and we chart the exhibition and obviously this one, and I’ve got a running chart on how much you average and all of that. I have a stat sheet from the time we practice. He bothers me a little bit because he’s taken 62 percent of his shots up in [two-point range]. Think about that — 62 percent. I need it to be flipped. I need 62 percent of his shots to be threes and 38 percent be twos. It’s one thing we tell him is he has the green light. You have to be that guy that takes those shots. Usually, a coach doesn’t have to tell you to shoot the threes, but that’s one of the ones I’m struggling with him right now.
Would you call this the best three-point shooting team you’ve had since you’ve been here?
It’s too early to tell. I do know we’ve got some shot-makers, and I won’t necessarily call them “three-point shooters.” Those guys can make shots.
On Elizabeth City State...
I'm happy for those guys. What I mean by that is they had their entire season taken away last year. They didn’t get a chance to play. They competed. They’re going to be good in their league. They’re going to get better and the coach has done a great job with them.
On wearing suits this season...
We’re probably not. You are probably going to see this look. I won’t tell you that every now and then I won’t throw on a sports coat, but you probably won’t see a tie, and you will see the casual look. That's the [consensus] across the ACC. Not that it’s mandatory, but they like the look we have now and it helps that the NBA is doing the same thing right now. So the days of us wearing suits are probably gone now.