Coach Keatts Presser After The UNI Loss: Video & Transcript

Here is NC State head coach Kevin Keatts Press Conference with Omer Yurtseven after the 60-64 loss to Northern Iowa today, followed by a transcript underneath.

I thought it was a possession game, and obviously Northern Iowa won in the end. I thought we had our chances. I told our guys that I thought it was going to come down to the last few plays, and I thought they made a few more plays than us at the end.

I think our guys will learn from this and mature.

One of those games where neither team was doing a good job scoring the basketball, so the team that came down with a few defensive stops at the end would win the game, so give those guys all the credit.

On how NC State handled the prosperity after beating Arizona…

I thought we were fine. Northern Iowa plays a different style. They don’t get up and down the court like Arizona did. It was a different style game, and styles make the game. This was a different style that we haven’t played against.

UNI did a good job packing it in on defense, and rolling around ball screens. For whatever reasons we didn’t make shots today. I didn’t think we took an awful lot of bad shots, but we didn’t make the type of shots we normally make.

You win such a huge game yesterday, and none of that matters when you’re in a tournament where you have to play three games back to back. Everyone in this tournament is capable of beating you, as we saw tonight, and saw earlier today. W have to learn as a team when things aren’t going well, especially when you’re not getting baskets on the offensive end, then you have to get stops, and I thought we did for the most part. They just scored a few more baskets than us at the end. You can learn a lesson in a Win, and you can learn a lesson in a Loss, you hate to do it that way. We have to have short term memory, because we have to play tomorrow.

I don’t think we were fatigued. I just think we didn’t hit shots when normally make. It was a possession game and they did a good job controlling tempo, and we didn’t make some shots, and they did.

Omer: The more confidence I have, and have from the staff, the better I play.