Yesterday, NC State’s Men’s Basketball team was represented by Head Coach Kevin Keatts, Michael O’Connell and Jayden Taylor at the 2024 ACC Tipoff. You can read the transcript of their press conference below.

THE MODERATOR: We will start with questions for Coach.

Q. My question is, after last season’s appearance in the Final Four, has there been any major changes within the team to ensure success of another Final Four appearance and the possibility of a championship?

KEVIN KEATTS: So I pride myself in not changing and being the same coach that I have been meaning before the Final Four run being culture-wise and everything else. The one thing that I will tell you about our guys, and starting with J.T. and also Michael, is we’ve got eight new dudes, but they’ve done a good job of really pushing our culture on the new guys. I think that’s important. We lost some really good pieces, but we’ve got three guys that played a lot of minutes, those two guys and Ben. The one thing I’ve asked them two is teach the other guys how to compete and play hard. It’s my job to teach them the system. That’s winning and losing and running plays and everything else. But the biggest part of it is we play so hard. I think that’s one of the things that we have to show the new guys that’s coming in, how hard we compete every day.

Q. How have you been able to get the eight new guys to buy into your identity and culture at NC State after your Final Four run?

KEVIN KEATTS: Well, I don’t know if anybody can see you, but somebody get a picture of him, man. That’s some big-time hair you have right there. You are going to have to repeat that question because I lost it when I saw your hair. I was, like, man. I’m jealous because mine can no longer get that long, so I don’t know. Say that again. I’m sorry. I apologize.

Q. The eight new guys that you have brought into your program, how have you been able to get them to buy into your culture and identity at NC State?

KEVIN KEATTS: You know, we have talked about competing every day. These guys will tell you everything that we do has a consequence, and we have a lot of games that we play in our practice. That being said, you win, you win. If you lose, then obviously you have to run. One of the things that we want to do is we’ve got to build a winning culture. I think we did a really good job, assistant coaches, going out and getting guys in the transfer portal and then the young guys that we have in our program, but we have a standard of how hard we compete. Might not win every game at the beginning, but the way we play is different. So we talked about you can’t take practices off. We don’t have but 30 practices total in the 42-day window that they give us, and so during that time we don’t have the ability to waste any practices. We want guys to get better from practice to practice.

Q. I wanted to ask you specifically. Jim Phillips earlier today said he felt like part of the issue for the ACC has been the fact that the brands of the ACC and sometimes across college basketball get overlooked or get all of the publicity while when some teams, like yourself, or others are stronger teams in the conference and may be looked at as a weakness of the conference. What are your thoughts on that, and do you feel like that has led to the ACC getting overlooked when it comes to NCAA Tournament time?

KEVIN KEATTS: You know, I think it’s several things. I’m very disappointed at the amount of teams that we have gotten into the tournament. And it doesn’t really make sense because when our teams do get (audio cut out)

The reason we’re going to the Final Four is because we have a great conference and we’re battle-tested. I think there’s a couple of things that we’ve got to do as coaches in our league, is for whatever reason, the committee, the particular committees in the last three years have put a lot of emphasis on November and December. As a conference we have to try to go on and schedule better November and December if that’s going to be a major criteria as far as how many teams we get in there. It’s a little frustrating because you know you’re playing 20 ACC games, and those 20 games are pretty tough. I would invite anybody outside of our conference to come and play in any of our home venues. They’re tough to play in. I hope that we have a great November and December where they can no longer use your non-conference against you, and that’s been one of our biggest issues is our non-conference according to the talking heads hasn’t been great. The last thing I will say about it is that I think we lost some really unique Hall of Famers that have been into our conference over the years. I think everybody has kind of taken it for granted. I think we’re getting a little bit punished because we don’t have the Hall of Fame coaches in our leagues as we did in the past. Hopefully they forget about that. They were great coaches and everything else, but we’ve got a great league, and we should be getting in my opinion nine or ten teams into the conference — into the tournament every single year.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you. Questions for Michael, please.

Q. Michael, Coach talking about obviously some of those guys from last season’s run no longer with the team, so who have you seen on the rise in the pack that you believe will step up this season and create potentially another strong season?

MICHAEL O’CONNELL: I think it’s kind of hard to pinpoint one player at this point. We’ve had a lot of good guys come in. They’re all proving themselves each day. Every guy is getting better. I would say Dontrez Styles has been performing every day I would say at a high level offensively and defensively, rebounding. So just all aspects of the game he is playing really well. Our big man, Brandon, has been playing really well too. Our guards, Marcus, Trey. It’s hard to pinpoint one guy that’s going to be super helpful throughout the season. I think everyone is going to contribute at different levels and help us win some games.

Q. With the likes of DJ Burns and DJ Horn being gone, I know you’ve had to step into that leadership role. Can you talk about stepping into that leader role as well as leading the new young guys that have come into this program?

MICHAEL O’CONNELL: I would say just being a point guard you have to be more vocal and try to be a leader on the floor. Obviously you’re running plays and trying to help guys be in the right spot and talk through things on defense. I think you just kind of have to be a leader in a sense or be at least vocal. I think my voice has grown from when I first got here until this point. I try to just continually be vocal, talk to guys, whether just helping them out, whether understanding things, or just trying to be more comfortable with the team and the program. Especially with the new guys, the biggest thing is I’ve been in their shoes. I know how it is to be a new guy, be a transfer and just helping them understand it’s want going to happen overnight. It’s not going to go well every day. It’s going to be a struggle, and just being there if they need to ask questions or just be a guy to talk to.

Q. Last year over those nine postseason games you stepped up your game offensively. You shot 50% from three. Were there any changes that you made to your shot in particular for that, or is that just about getting more opportunities?

MICHAEL O’CONNELL: Yeah, I wouldn’t say I necessarily changed anything. I think the biggest thing for me was just staying consistent throughout the whole year. A lot of times getting in the gym with Coach Justice and just working out, making sure no matter if I had a good game or bad game, I was always in the gym the next day working out getting shots up. I think just throughout the whole year kind of always getting those shots up, just compounding days, compounding hours helped towards the end of the season. It’s never going to happen over one game or one day of just getting shots up, but I think just continually putting my head down and continually working and just trying to get better every day led to some good things at the end of the season.

Q. The shot that led to that huge post game run — you know I’m talking about the one against UVA — do you still get jitters from that moment? Is it ever when you fall asleep you think about that moment?

MICHAEL O’CONNELL: I don’t know about when I’m falling asleep, but it’s definitely a cool moment when I see the video where people bring it up. It’s something that I kind of get to relive a little bit in my head and talk to people about or just see the video and just kind of think about what was going on in that moment and what it’s led to. I’m definitely grateful for that moment. It’s definitely something I’ll carry with me forever.

THE MODERATOR: From the podium, last question, when you watched that video, do you ever think you’re going to miss the shot?

MICHAEL O’CONNELL: Never (laughing). It’s always going in, and thankfully I’m always right at the end of the video.

THE MODERATOR: Michael, thank you. You can switch places with J.T. Questions for Jaden Taylor.

Q. What is it about Coach Keatts’ leadership style that has really spoken to you personally and brings the best out of you?

JAYDEN TAYLOR: I would just say his confidence that he walks with and the joy that he comes in every day with. It just kind of inspires you to just play hard for somebody that can be so passionate about the game. It’s kind of like we’re playing for him. He believes in us, so it gives you a different type of level of confidence every day.

Q. With NC State being one of the three schools here in North Carolina in the triangle area specifically, can you talk about that rivalry with Duke and Chapel Hill?

JAYDEN TAYLOR: Obviously it’s a competitive sport. We all want to be the best, and I feel like we kind of established ourselves this year as a team not to be looked over just because we’re in a triangle with Duke and North Carolina. We’re NC State. That’s just the attitude that we have. We’re here to play. We’re here to compete.

Q. For you what is the culture and identity of NC State?

JAYDEN TAYLOR: Yeah, I say if you’re coming to NC State, non-negotiable is playing hard and just talking every day and being confident. You can’t come here if you’re not going to play hard. That’s one thing that Coach K harps on every day, is at least come out and compete. I would say that’s really what the culture is, honestly. If you’re not making shots, how can you impact the game in other ways? How do you get the deflections, rebound? I feel like just competing. That’s the culture we’ve built here.

Q. With as great as you performed last year with how highly active the transfer portal is, it would be easy to go that route after everybody leaving. What is it about NC State that made you stay and say, I’m a Wolfpack until the end of time?

JAYDEN TAYLOR: After doing some of the specials that we did with the guys that I came in, it’s like why would you not want to come back and do the same thing over again? We won five games in five days. That’s never been done. I want to come back and try to repeat it and win the big thing this time.

Q. Can you just talk about the importance that coaches pretty much made your team realize that, hey, the Final Four is last year. Let’s build on that and just keep building the momentum.

JAYDEN TAYLOR: What we did last year, that’s last year. Carrying the momentum is going to be huge. It did happen, so it’s not like we can just say it’s last year and just forget about it. Like, it happened, and it was a good thing. We want to carry the momentum. Knowing it’s a new year, we have new players, it’s going to be a different story, new adversity, but it’s like keeping your eyes, like, just ahead, you know. We didn’t have a great, perfect season last year, but at the end it all clicked at the right time, and we kept our head down and just keep working.

THE MODERATOR: Jayden, thank you. NC State, good luck this year.

Today NC State’s Women’s Basketball team is represented by Head Coach Wes Moore, and All-ACC Guards Saniya Rivers and Aziaha James at the 2024 ACC Tipoff. You can read the transcript of their press conference below.

THE MODERATOR: Happy to have NC State Wolfpack with us. Head coach Wes Moore, Aziaha James, and Saniya Rivers. Wes, I’m going to start with you. Last year at this time unranked. Picked eighth in the ACC. I think there’s a lot of coaches that will not be picking you eighth again this season. Just give us what you thought the catalyst was for that Final Four run with such minimal expectations to start the year a year ago?

WES MOORE: Without a doubt, I think the key to our run was our chemistry. I think everyone really bought into the team-first mentality. Everyone was unselfish, actually enjoyed celebrating their teammates’ success as much if not more than their own.

It just made for a great culture and just an unbelievable ride for sure.

THE MODERATOR: With two key pieces returning, can you kind of give us a quick preview of this upcoming season?

WES MOORE: Yeah, again, you mentioned last year. We were probably picked a little bit low. This year we might be picked a little bit high. I think everyone looks at our guards, especially these two and think, oh, wow, you know, NC State is going to be really, really good. But we lost two really good players in River Baldwin and Mimi Collins, who are both playing overseas in Europe now professionally. Those are going to be big shoes to fill. Again, when you have these two, Madison Hayes, Zoe Brooks, along with the freshmen that came in, we’re definitely excited about the season. But, again, we have a whole lot of work to do.

Q. You just mentioned a lot of key pieces coming back, two of them sitting right next to you. As far as the culture that was built over the course of last year, how important was that to have so many players back to maintain that and kind of pass it on to the younger players?

WES MOORE: Yeah, no doubt. These two are going to be a really important part of that. They know how much fun last year was. They know the success we had because of the culture and everybody buying in. So I think they’re going to be vocal, and they’re going to get those points across. Hopefully, sometimes you have to have players kind of keep things together in the locker room and that sort of thing. I think these two will play a big part in that.

Yeah, we keep talking about it, and we talked about it last year. We started out unranked and next thing you know, you’re in the top five in the country. You’ve got to keep reminding everybody to stay humble, stay hungry. That was kind of our motto last year. I think we’ll keep that rolling.

Q. With all the hype around the end of how y’all finished, how do you as a coach and y’all as players prevent the outside noise and the distractions when it comes time to play on the court?

SANIYA RIVERS: I think like Coach mentioned just buying into our team. Obviously you can’t win by yourself, so when everyone is bought in, it makes it easier to win big games. Obviously Coach has to be bought into us. We’re bought into him, and we prepare ourselves well every game. Just buying in, recovery, everything that looks like on and off the court. That’s an important factor.

AZIAHA JAMES: Definitely. Just the same thing we did last year. As you said, we was unranked last year and we didn’t care what the media had to say. We went to every game, gave 110% every game. So just keeping that same energy and intensity every step of the Q. You mentioned you lost — a lot of key pieces back, but the two that are gone were big pieces in the front court with Baldwin and Collins.

Q: Can you break down how y’all are going about reloading that front court?

WES MOORE: It’s still a work in progress as far as reloading the front court. I’ll be honest with you. We have some question marks there. We’ve got to have some players step up. We may play four guards some with the talent that we have at that position.

Yeah, it’s really too early to say, and we’ll hopefully figure it out before November 5th when we tip it off.

Q. When you have question marks like that and with the bigs, how much does it help to have lengthy guards like Saniya or Madison Hayes to kind of help especially on the defensive end?

WES MOORE: No doubt. We’re probably going to be playing four guards quite a bit. Heck, we may play five guards. I don’t know yet, but you’re right. With Saniya’s length and athletic ability you can play her about anywhere on the floor. We are definitely looking at a lot of different options. We want to get our best players on the court and then kind of adjust the system to fit that line-up.

Q. Saniya, defense wins championships, and that’s one of your significant characteristics as a player. Can you talk about how the defensive output changes depending on the position because you play almost every position.

SANIYA RIVERS: It’s definitely tough. That’s when you have to be versatile. I feel like I take pride in being a versatile player because I’m very unselfish. I want to be able to put my team in a position to win so whatever I need to do to help contribute to the wins, that’s what I’m going to
do.

So if Coach needs me to control the team, then I’ll play at point. If Coach wants to run five guards, then I’ll go to the post and wall up with the post. I got to be a little stronger. It’s a mentality switch as well. Last year I played a lot of point guard. This year moving
around, maybe playing three, four, five, I definitely have to switch my mentality. I think physically I’m there. You mentioned me being very long. I think that’s a big factor, and I’m excited to play different positions this year because I do take pride in my defense.

THE MODERATOR: Aziaha, you’re the veteran now. What have you added to your game this last season?

AZIAHA JAMES: Trying to be more vocal. Also in the locker room as well just making sure players just not getting upset when something happens or we maintain our focus or we’re just buying into the little things, because the little things are always going to matter no matter what it is.

Q. Aziaha and Saniya, last year was y’all’s first season as full-time starters. Just what was that like being full-time starters, obviously being two of the most relied upon players on the team?

AZIAHA JAMES: I’ve been here for four years and just the journey that I have been on, that felt so good. It just shows me all the work I put in. It really paid off.

SANIYA RIVERS: I’ll piggyback off that. I think it was definitely well-deserved, well-earned. A starting spot is not something that’s given to you. It’s something that’s earned. It took us four years — or three years to get here, and we’re definitely looking forward to keeping our spot because anybody can take it at any given time. You just want to stay humble, stay hungry, and just grind and keep the spot.

Q. Obviously a lot of success with last season’s Final Four run, but this is a new season. How much are y’all as leaders kind of stepping up and saying, hey, we have to — this is a new season. We have to earn it. We can’t just rest on the success of last season.

SANIYA RIVERS: I think everybody is excited about us going to the Final Four last year obviously. Our Fans, Wolfpack Nation is still talking about the Final Four, but it’s a new season for us. We’ve been going for months now. We’ve been going since summer. We had a little break. We got to enjoy it, but it’s time to flip the page. Obviously we celebrate the wins. We celebrate going to Final Four, but it’s time to turn the page at one point. I feel like bringing our freshmen along or a transfer we have of who wasn’t a part of that last year, we can’t obviously put them on that stage that we were on last year, but we can tell them, hey, it was fun, it was hard to get there. We can tell them everything we need to do to get there. They still won’t know what it’s like until they actually get there. So we’re going to do our best to prepare them to get
back there just so they can experience something we did experience.

AZIAHA JAMES: Definitely. Just to piggyback off ‘Niya, telling them it’s hard. It’s hard to get where we got last year, and people is not going — teams are not going to come it a game like, oh, they’ve been to a Final Four, we’re going to back down. They’re going to be hungry for us.
We have a big target on our back. You always want to be better than the year you was before, so just maintaining that.

THE MODERATOR: Wes, many will argue this is the best women’s basketball conference in the country, and you just added three more teams. For you and your staff, was there anything that you did this offseason to prepare for those three new teams or to prepare for the gauntlet that’s
coming up this season?

WES MOORE: Well, I think you’re always preparing for the gauntlet. The reason the ACC is maybe the best conference in the country women’s basketball-wise is because of the talent. We have so many great players in this league. Every night you’re going to be going up against some of the best. So I’m excited about adding Cal and Stanford and SMU. Again, three great schools, great programs. I think it’s kind of fun. We get to go to California. Maybe slide over to San Francisco on that trip. Then growing up in Dallas, I’m excited about going back to SMU as well.
Yeah, I think it’s awesome. I’m looking forward to it.

Q. Saniya and Aziaha, obviously y’all had the opportunity to go to the draft or you could have
transferred. What went into the decision to stay at NC State?

AZIAHA JAMES: Nobody want to leave Coach Moore now.

WES MOORE: What kind of question is that? My goodness. Security!

AZIAHA JAMES: No, we love this atmosphere. We wouldn’t want to play for another team or another school. Just love and happiness over here. So yeah, that’s why I stayed.

SANIYA RIVERS: I’ll say the same. I love the team here. I love the coaching staff, love the fans. It’s a very family atmosphere. Especially being from North Carolina, I’m very happy here. You know, back home, close to family. I get to sneak home and get those home-cooked meals every once in a while. I love being here. I wouldn’t want to transfer anywhere else.

WES MOORE: Then add our fans also. We came back from Portland at 3:00, 3:30 in the morning, and thousands of people there waiting to welcome us back. It’s a pretty special fan base. It’s kind of fun being a rock star in Raleighwood.

SANIYA RIVERS: Yeah.

Q. Coach, first off, you have been in the game for a while, and you look at the growth from these ladies from all the years, including these two stars right up here. What does it mean to watch your players grow as team goes on? Then, secondly, what is the phrase “Tobacco Road, NC State, Carolina, Duke” mean to you?

WES MOORE: As far as the growth of the game, I’m just so happy for these players because they’ve been putting in the work and making sacrifices since they were small children, and now they’re being recognized for it and on a big stage, whether it be in person. We sell out about all
our games. Then we go to some great venues as well on the road where we have unbelievable crowds and on TV, on the air. It’s really an exciting time to be a women’s basketball player at the college level and with all the things that now are out there for them. It’s great to see them being
rewarded and kind of reap the benefits of all they’ve done. As far as Tobacco Road, it’s great. I mean, you’ve got us, Duke, Carolina. We’re 30 minutes apart from both of them.
I think they’re probably about 15 minutes apart from each other. Just makes it fun, you know. Again, they all played against a lot of them when they were playing travel ball or with them. Again, wherever you go, you have got your Carolina fans, your Duke fans, and then you got The Wolfpack fans, the rabid fans. It’s a fun deal. I enjoy being a part of it.

Q. You talked about Hayes coming back. She was doing a lot of rim running, offensive rebounding for you last year. Is that something you envision for her? Is that something you envision for her? Is that something maybe Saniya can add to her game as well should Hayes take a breather and she is filling in that role?

WES MOORE: Who did you say initially?

Q. Hayes, the rim run.

WES MOORE: Madison Hayes. Again, I think you got to keep in mind these two, and like I said, Madison Hayes, all three of them have been in the program now for at least a few years. You know, Saniya and Madison got led astray initially and the Lord brought them back where they belong. Aziaha has been with me the whole time, baby, thataway. No, Madison Hayes, you’re right. That’s going to be a big part. Especially if we’re playing four guards. She sometimes will be that kind of forward position, and we want her to use that speed to beat people down the court.
Obviously these two can push tempo. Saniya is so long and athletic getting to the rim, and Aziaha will get out and run, push tempo. It’s going to be fun, and we’ve got to keep that in mind. We have to make sure that that’s an emphasis because we need to take advantage of these great guards.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, give me a teammate who right now maybe your fans don’t know much about, but based on what she’s shown so far in practice you think she’s going to make a major impact for you guys this season.

SANIYA RIVERS: I feel like everyone knows Zam, so I’m going to go Tilda. She’s from Sweden. She’s so sweet on and off the court, so we have to get her — yeah, she’s sweet on the court. We have to get her —

WES MOORE: We need to get her unsweet on the court.

SANIYA RIVERS: Yeah, We need to get her this dog mentality. She’s a three-level scorer to the bucket, mid-range range pull-up threes. She’s going to be big for us whether we need her to play the wing spot or bang with the fives down low. She’s also unselfish, so she’s going to do whatever she can to help contribute to the wins.

AZIAHA JAMES: I wouldn’t say y’all don’t know her, but I feel like Zoe’s name can be out there more. Zoe’s game has been going unnoticed a lot of times, and she contributes to the team so many ways. This year is going to be her breakout year. I feel it.

WES MOORE: I agree with that. Zoe, again, she’s that — you know, bringing in the four guards, she’s one of the four basketeers if you want to call them. She’s an important part of our tempo. I thought she had an unbelievable freshman year. Now you add her to the three senior guards, it’s a special group.

THE MODERATOR: Well, thank you, rock stars of Raleighwood for sharing this morning with us.

NC State Offensive Guard Timothy McKay met with the media for a postgame press conference after the Wolfpack lost 30-34 to Wake Forest this afternoon. You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.

Tim, what was it like seeing Grayson go down? And as an older player, how much do you feel for him not knowing how the rest of the season is going to go for him?

It was heartbreaking to see that. He’s the guy who fought hard for us. He came here from Coastal.

He was the captain. To see him go down earlier in the season and go again this year, this week is kind of disheartening. Just how hard he works for us is really sad seeing that.

What was the mood amongst the players in the locker room after the game? And in your opinion, what are the keys to moving forward from this loss?

Just disappointed in ourselves.

A lot of opportunities where the defense had takeaways and the offense went out there and didn’t respond, didn’t score points. Happened multiple times. And just feel like going forward, you need to do a better job playing complimentary football.

Just stay on the field as the offense, making sure the defense isn’t on the field the whole time. Really important.

How tough was it to get those two turnovers from the defense and not be able to put any points on the board, but then bounce back? So what happened? What was different once you kind of recovered from that and got the two scores?

They were just really pissed off at that point. I feel like after the first turnover, we should have been more pissed off.

But after the second one, we didn’t score again. Just going back out there and just really punching it in. We felt we had momentum going into that after those two turnovers, but we just didn’t capitalize on the ending.

What changed offensively after that that allowed you guys to kind of get on a little bit of a roll?

I think it was just more mentality. It’s crunch time now. We have to score.

We have to keep going.

NC State’s standout Senior Guard duo of Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers will serve as the Alpha Wolf Starters at the Wolfpack’s football game tomorrow against Wake Forest.

If you’re not familiar with what the Alpha Wolf Starter does, they come out before the team takes the field with a microphone in hand, for the sole purpose of hyping up the crowd, and getting the Wolf—Pack cheer going.

Rivers earned 1st Team All-ACC honors last year, and was also named AP All-American Honorable Mention. James also earned 1st Team All-ACC honors last year.

Rivers averaged 12.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals, and James averaged 16.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists.