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NC State Basketball

Kevin Keatts: "We're Battling and Fighting"

February 5, 2022
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NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media following the Wolfpack's 69-57 loss to Notre Dame Saturday afternoon.

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


Opening Statement

Let’s start with this: it was really good to have the 1988-89 team back in the building. Obviously, I wish we had a better result while those guys were here, but I’ve had the chance to meet several members of the team. A couple of them went by practice yesterday. [They’re] unbelievable people and competitors. I think you guys know what they mean to this university as far as basketball goes, so I’m proud that we were able to honor them. I wish we would’ve had a chance to win the game. It would’ve been a perfect day for those guys, but it doesn’t take away from them being in the building, and I’m just excited for them being here. The game was a tough game for us. We didn’t have our big three play well for us. I think Terquavion Smith did, but when you look at [Dereon] Seabron and Jericole [Hellems], they didn’t have great games. If those three don’t play great, it’s always a tough situation for us. Even when they play well, we still need one or two other guys to play well in order to win. I thought we did some really great things. We’re completely beat up. Seabron hadn’t practiced for the last couple of days because he had something going on with his neck from the Syracuse game. Ebe Dowuona toughed it out today, but I didn't know if he was going to play, and Jericole went down with a finger. We’re battling, we’re fighting, and our guys are trying and putting in their effort as much as they can. Give Notre Dame credit; they made shots when they needed too. It was a little bit of a slow start for us. We fought back. Once we got tight, they fought back and made some big plays.

On if Notre Dame going to a zone defense changed the momentum of the game...

We just played against Syracuse, and I told the guys before the game, “If everybody takes our tape from the Syracuse game, the way we moved the ball...” I thought we stood around against Notre Dame’s zone and didn’t have enough ball movement. I think that hurt us a little bit. We settled [for shots]. If you look at the Syracuse game we drove it, we hit the middle, we passed inside out, we made shots, we rebounded, and I think we stood around a little bit today.

On if Notre Dame drove the ball more than they did in the previous game...

We did a good job at defending the three-point line. We said that we felt like we got hurt at their place beyond the arc. I think we gave up 11 three-pointers, [and] today we gave up six. I think they made some plays and got some 50-50 balls that hurt us. We got beat off the dribble a little bit, but for the most part we wanted to stay on their shooters, They’ve been having a lot of success shooting the basketball. The last couple of games when they haven’t shot it great and so now they’re scoring in the paint. When they went small it kind of helped us a little bit because we don’t have a lot of [tall] guys on our roster. At one point during the game, there were 10 guards on the floor, and that’s when we made our run to get back in the game, just because that’s all we have on our roster.

On when it was 23-6 did he think his team had a chance to get back in the game...

The weird thing is with this team is I never think that we’re out of it. I don’t want to get into the habit of being the team that is down so much and so early that we have to come back. I didn't see any panic in our guys. We just weren’t making shots. When we got to halftime they had eight fast break points. Neither team was really scoring. They were getting easy baskets, and we were working for every shot we got, so I didn’t think it was an issue, and we erased it by halftime.

 
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