Kevin Keatts: "I Didn't Think We Did Everything The Right Way"

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 88-73 road loss to No. 8 Duke Saturday afternoon.

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

How difficult was the process to trying to slow Duke down?

I’m so used to having a guy like Mark Williams and Manny Bates, but before we go any further, let’s talk about the night [Williams] had: 19 points, 11 rebounds, and eight blocks. I thought he was the difference in the game. When you look at the game, I thought our guys played. We competed. You look at them, and we got 15 more shots than them. I thought Mark was a big difference. We got a little extended defensively, and once we got extended defensively, they were able to get some stuff inside. [Paolo] Banchero is as good as advertised. You read about these kids, and you see them in recruiting, but then you get a chance to play them. Their front line was tremendous tonight, not to take away from the guards. I thought they were the biggest difference maker in the game.

Unless you meet in the ACC Tournament, this is your last meeting with Mike Krzyzewski. What are your thoughts on his coaching style? What’s it like to play a Mike Krzyzewski team?

Forget about his coaching style; let’s talk about one of the best to ever do it. Give him props. He’s been doing it a lot longer than anybody in the game, he’s won a lot of games, and he’s forgotten a lot more basketball than any of us could ever remember. He’s a Hall of Fame coach. His teams always play hard. He’s done a great job recruiting, but more than coaching, I think he’s probably been more of a father figure to a lot of guys that obviously, at the time, didn’t realize they were getting that. I’m excited for him. I’m happy for him. He and his wife deserve to drive off to a beach or hang out wherever they desire to be and spend some time with the grandkids. What a tremendous career he’s had. I still keep waiting for him to say, “April Fools!” When you’ve got such great players, and he’s done a great job, you can say, “I don’t know if I’m ready to give this up right now.”

There were a couple of sequences where things seemed to slip away. Is it a function of a young team playing in this environment, or was it just Duke being Duke?

I thought [the Blue Devils] were just really good today. Some of it was probably partly because we do have some youth, but a lot of it was that they were good. We were playing a team on their home floor, and the last time they played here was against Miami, and they weren’t happy. I thought they did a good job. I thought our guys fought, and we played hard, but I didn’t think we did everything the right way. I didn’t think we were in great help style. I didn’t think we did enough to deny the ball inside. When you look at earlier in the game, there were a couple plays early in the game that I think really hurt us. We gave up two free-throw block-outs. Those are things we need to get better at. I thought they got on the transition early, we did a better job in the second half not letting them get on the transition. We talked about getting back because Duke scores in bunches. When you look at the way we played at Louisville, I don’t think Louisville made one transition basket. You look at these guys, and they feed off transition, they feed off offensive rebounds, and obviously Mark Williams does a great job anchoring the defense.

The fight in your team is there, but how do you get through to them to help them take that next step?

We have to play smarter. We now know our young guys aren’t afraid of any moment. We know that they’re going to play hard against every team. Now, the next step is getting in the right position and knowing where you should be. As a coach, if you get your team to play hard, you’re moving in the right direction. We’ve capitalized on that. We’ve done a great job in that area. Now, we have to start playing smart. For us with the new pieces that we have, chemistry goes both ways. On the offensive end, I think we’re getting it. Defensively, we’ve got to trust in each other and get better in that area.

Now that you’ve seen one of the more talented rosters in the country, what can you take away from this and build off of?

Now that we played them, I’ll double down on it. They have one of the most talented teams. I thought we did a good job with the guards. When you look at it, I thought the guard play was even. What I didn’t know coming in, I knew it, but I didn’t realize it, but that front court, that’s an NBA front court line. You talk about a 7’1” guy and a 6’10” guy who both are good at what they do, and they just completely dominated us at the four and five. We were already a little bit short-handed, but it’s a talented bunch, and they are going to win a lot of games. Certainly when those guards get to playing as well as they did today, they’re going to win a lot of games.