Keatts: "We Just Came Up A Little Bit Short"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media after the Wolfpack's overtime loss to No. 1 Purdue.

Opening statement...
I’m very happy with the fight of my team. We played against a very good Purdue team, probably the best team I’ve seen so far in the early season. And we knew that coming in, we watched them on tape. What makes them so tough is they’ve got almost two of everything. Those two big guys inside, they make the difference.

On one night, it doesn’t matter which one it is, you’ve got two guys that can start basically for any program in the country. I thought our guys fought. It was a heck of a battle all the way to the end, and the message to our guys was, “Hey, you’re playing the number one team in the country and you’re fighting all the way to the end. We had our chances and we can play with anyone.”

I loved our guys' fight. Unfortunately things didn’t go our way at the end and we’ll just leave it at that.

On the biggest difference in the last six minutes and overtime...
I just thought they made shots. We did a good job, I thought we did a good job the entire game, at the end of the game, in regulation and in overtime. We lost 55 a couple times, he made a couple big shots.

And then Trevion Williams, he was the difference in the game. And that’s not a knock on my two young bigs, I thought they played their butts off, but at the end of the day, he’s really good. If we switch him, if we got him, we may win the game. It’s a good game, our guys played hard. I just thought [Purdue] made some plays down the stretch that they needed to have.

On the team’s defensive identity in the first half...
Gritty. We’re not necessarily turning you over and trapping you, but I think in the first half and especially the beginning of the second half, we kind of had them out of rhythm a little bit.

Purdue does a great job, they’re really good, but we wanted to disrupt their rhythm as much as we can. I think by picking them up full court, trying to deny some reversals, I thought we did that.

On if the team matured even in the loss...
Absolutely. Purdue’s gonna win a lot of games, and they’re gonna make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. They may even win the championship. We did a great job, we were toe to toe.

If you watch the game, you’ll say “Man, NC State basketball is gonna be fine.” I thought our guys fought, I thought we had our opportunities. I like where our program is at. We’re starting young kids. If you look at it, we’re starting freshmen and sophomores, and we’re really playing at a high level. So we’ve just got to build on it, the messages.

We don’t take moral victories in this program, but let’s build on it. If you’re gonna play these guys like that, it shows that you can play with anybody in the country.

On if this will help the team’s confidence...
I don’t think that we lacked confidence going in. But I think it only can help. You just don’t know, it’s so early in the season. Everybody is still trying to figure out their teams, and you just don’t know how your team is gonna respond. I learned a lot about my guys today. I’ve seen it at home, we’ve fought at home and we’ve had some opportunities. But this was a road game, mostly a road game.

Even though it’s neutral, I think there were more Purdue fans here than us. But our guys fought toe to toe, and I think we’ll mature and we’ll get better. With the young guys, you’ve got to live with some of the great things they do and be excited about it, but as you know, they’ll make you scratch your head a little bit. We had a couple things at the end because we’re so young that obviously didn’t go our way, but how can you not learn from that?

On making sure the team builds off of this game...
We lost the game. I could say that we won, but we ended up losing the game. We just came up a little bit short. These guys are locked in, they understand. The way we play, you’re gonna make some mistakes.

That being said, the way we played hard tonight, I just came into the locker room and just thanked them for how hard they played. And it wasn’t a moral victory, it was we’re all in this together. We had our chances. I watched every game that Purdue has played in.

Most of the scores don’t end this way, most of the teams don’t go into overtime. We had our opportunities and obviously just came up a little bit short.

On Terquavion Smith’s game...
He carried us [in the first half]. He was special. He was a good player. He made plays, he made shots. He was even active defensively, and we needed him to play well because [Dereon Seabron and Cam Hayes] didn’t get going until the second half. T

hat’s a freshman, in the moment, playing the number one team, on the road in a neutral court game. He doesn’t know he’s not supposed to be good. That’s what makes him special.