Kevin Keatts: "We Played Like We Were Young"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 84-70 loss to Wright State Tuesday evening.

NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Keatts’ press conference.

Opening Statement

Well, the obvious is we didn’t play very well tonight. I didn’t think we played well on either end, defensively or offensively. For whatever reason, we’ve got five guys who have been leading us, and everybody didn’t play well tonight. When that happens, I’ve got to figure out, as a coach, how to get a win. I’m a little disappointed that we weren’t able to put it together. One of the things I told the guys in the locker room was that we’ve got to figure it out, go home, get away from this, look ourselves in the mirror, and figure out how to get better. We did a poor job of defending the paint. They through it inside against us, and unfortunately, we don’t have Manny Bates, and he’s not coming back [this season]. Our guards have got to do a great job of pressuring the basketball. Our bigs have to do a great job defending the post. When you look at it, we gave up 46 points in the paint. That’s never a great formula to win. I just wasn’t happy with the way we played today. We’ve got to figure it out. We’ll get better.

Terquavion Smith said one of the biggest things was that the guys didn’t play as a team. At this point, how does it feel to hear one of the players admit that after the game?

I don’t know if that was the case. Of course, he’s young, so he’ll see it in a different way. When you look at [Dereon] Seabron who’s been great for us, he didn’t have it tonight. He’s not going to have a double-double every night, so we’ve got to figure out, when he’s not playing well, how to get better and how someone else can step out. Cam Hayes was 2-for-12, and Seabron was 4-for-12. That’s 6-for-24 on a team that normally gets five guys that score a bulk of the points. I just think we didn’t have it. Defensively, I agree a little bit. I don’t think we were connected as much, but offensively we just weren’t sharp.

What did you think of Ernest Ross’ performance tonight?

Ernest was a bright spot. What’s happening is he’s worked extremely hard the last couple of days in practice, and he’s demonstrated that he can play. He’s going to get his opportunities. The tough thing is when you get to Ernest, Terquavion, and Breon [Pass], it’s not a great formula for an ACC team to play three freshmen. Certainly, if he earns those minutes, he’s going to get them.

How do you feel about the outlook of this team heading into ACC play?

If you’d asked a couple of days ago, I’d say, “I feel great.” We played a No. 1 Purdue team down to the wire, and some good things happened in the Richmond game. Hopefully, this is a one-off. Hopefully, this is a game that’s affected by getting ready to go home for Christmas, a young team not mentally focused or locked in enough. I don’t know that, but I hope that’s the case.

How relieving is it to have the NCAA investigation behind you?

The NCAA stuff has been one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to deal with as a coach. There wasn’t one phone call or one recruit’s parent that I didn’t have to have that conversation, even if they didn’t ask. We wanted to be honest with them, to let them know that we were under investigation for something that happened with the prior staff. That being said, I’m excited that it’s over. We still have some challenges. There’s a scholarship reduction. There’s some recruiting days and some communication banned. I’m very appreciative of the IARP for looking at it for what it was. When you look around the country, everyone has a lot of opinions about our decision and what had happened, and what I would say is there shouldn’t be any opinion because this is the first case that went through the IARP, so nobody knows how they’re going to look at it. When you look at a program like Oklahoma State, I don’t think they should have gotten a postseason ban, but they also went through a different format. The way the committee is shifting, I think we’ve been wrong for a long time; why punish kids who were in eighth grade? Why punish my entire staff and me, as a head coach, when we had nothing to do with it? I think we’re starting to see a shift in what really happens. If someone made a mistake and someone did something that was improper, punish that person, but don’t come at kids who had nothing to do with it.

Is there anything different in your approach that you’re going to take heading into the Miami game?

The funny thing about it is that I thought we had two really good days in practice, but you can’t predict when you’ve got so many new guys. This is the first time that I will say that we played like we were young. When you look at the other games, we played like an older team. We made some young mistakes in the other games, but from the start to the finish, I thought we played young [tonight].