KEATTS: "We'll Build On This"
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 88-70 win over Bucknell Tuesday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.
Opening Statement
I don’t have an update on Manny Bates at this present time. I don’t want to speculate on anything. I will wait. He is going to have an MRI done and as soon as we get any type of results, as soon as I talk to him and his family, I will share it with you guys. But I don’t know anything and I don’t want my mind to go to the worse situation. So I have no idea what the situation is, I just look forward to getting the results. I will keep praying for him.
As far as the game goes, I don’t know if we could have had a better opening game. What I mean by that is just having some adversity. You look at it, they jumped out on us 13-1 and we handled that. I thought we did a good job with some guys coming off the bench and giving us a tremendous lift. We started off slow, finished the half, and then from that point on I thought we did a tremendous job. We played NC State basketball in the second half. When you look at it, I think we outscored them 48-30, we were able to force turnovers, our young guys started to understand what we had to do in scouting reports and making the right play. So I’m happy. I’ll give credit to Jericole [Hellems], who's a senior who's been here before. He did a tremendous job. He was very calm in the locker room and in timeouts. I thought [Dereon] Seabron was tremendous when you talk about 18 points and 11 rebounds. And as you guys know, we talk about it all the time, Terquavion Smith is a bucket. There's not too many shots that he doesn't like. He’s going to take a lot of them, but he can play. We did some good things and we are going to build on that. I thought Cam Hayes was really good and really solid leading us with four assists. Breon [Pass] did a lot of good things. We’ll build on this. These games when you look across college basketball are always the toughest ones. I don’t know who has won and who has lost but we got out here and did what we were supposed to do in the second half.
On Ebenezer Dowuona’s performance...
I thought he rebounded the ball very well and that is what we wanted from him. I have been very critical of Ebe, talking about how I need him to become a better rebounder. He did a tremendous job. He's a guy that didn’t play last year and only totaled eight rebounds and two blocks. Tonight he had 10 rebounds and two blocks. This is new for him. He and Jaylon [Gibson], I thought, did their job and did a good job coming in. We are not asking those guys to score right now and so they are doing a good job rebounding the basketball for us.
On how calm the freshmen were...
It’s weird and I always say there’s certain things you say when recruiting a kid from high school that translate. I think rebounding is one but their ability to score is the other reason why I knew they were going to be successful early. You’re talking about two guys from the state of North Carolina that both have three state championships. One of them has it in three football championships and Terquavion has one and scored a lot of points. So no I’m not surprised. I know they can score. What happens with freshmen is what keeps them off the floor is them not being ready defensively and we have to get those two guys.
On updates about Cam Hayes...
I don’t, I just think Cam cramped up a little bit, but I don’t see any issues with him.
On defense in the first half...
I thought we did disrupt them early on. They completely put us on our heels, they advanced the basketball and they drove it hard to the paint. They made shots and we didn't put them in a situation where they were uncomfortable. Once we started playing the way we normally play, we kind of hit back. It was good for us, especially with so many young guys playing, to get hit just to see how we would respond and I thought we did a good job in that area.
On young guys playing with a deficit...
I thought they were great. You know it's weird because I was talking to Jericole, then Cam Hayes would say something. But the guy who was talking the most was Terquavion Smith and that's great when you got a freshman that is communicating and talking and telling everybody ‘let’s go’ then that’s a good thing for your program and you know as we talked about all three of those guys are going to be really good players at NC State and I like what they bring to the table.
On NC State fans at the game...
You know I want to personally thank everyone who came out. I completely understand those who are staying away right now. We have and when I say we have at NC State, we have to do our job and our job is to make sure that everybody understands that it’s safe to come to an indoor sport. We have some of the best fans in the country, probably the best fans in the country and I need them to start coming out. I need the atmosphere to be better. I’m not mad at it because I thought those who came out, I am so appreciative of them and they did a tremendous job and they were a big part of our win today. But as we move forward, I want to add to it I want those folks to go back and say what a great experience to have a chance to watch basketball again. What a great opportunity to see a team score 88 points and turn the team over 17 times and get out and get 18 fast break points. So we have a good program, a good team that we are putting out on the floor and I hope that everybody will understand that we will do our job to make sure that everybody’s safe and we are wearing masks and taking care of everybody so we can get back into the arena. But thank you for asking me that, that's good softball for me.