NC State beat Notre Dame 76-58. After the game, Kevin Keatts met with the media to talk about the win. Above is the full video and below is the bulleted summary of his presser.
What a difference a month has made. At Notre Dame team played the worst game of their season. Turned around and played extremely hard. Great 3pt defense in first half. Team is getting better and today was special.
Team is believing in themselves. Trusting one another. 20 assists on 30 made FGs. When team shares the ball, we can be special.
Scary week. After you win over UNC you ant to get back to playing. Team got rest and got back in gym on Tuesday. Guys were fresh and played with great energy.
Team takes pride in getting stops. Talks to team about deflections. Talks to team about winning 4-minute wars and getting multiple stops. Braxton Beverly said this team does the things on defense that most teams don’t want to do. Good for a freshman to say that, it means the program is headed in the right direction.
Team never watched the first Notre Dame game. Stayed in the moment and talked about next opponent.
Team is playing hard and getting in the passing lanes. Turning TOs into baskets on the other end. Excited that team got to the fold line 14 times. That’s above what Notre Dame usually allows. Means team played really aggressively.
Malik Abu had a great week of practice. He did it all. Wanted to play him 30 minutes. Wants him to start playing. Abu gives this team another dimension.
Told Coach Yow he’d win 35 games this year (kidding). Opinion of team has never changed. They are learning how to compete and play hard. No special formula. Guys have gotten better because of individual workouts and they are playing with tons of confidence. Main thing is, they are starting to believe in one another.
Would have loved for his team to play better in the last 5 minutes. Guys weren’t selfish, but were trying to score a little bit too much for themselves. One day will see a perfect game.
Louisville Transfer Guard Mike James (6’5″/200) is on a visit to NC State currently, according to a source.
Indiana State Transfer Ryan Conwell was on campus last week, but he just committed to Xavier.
From what I hear, the staff preferred James over Connell anyway. A plus with James is he has 2 years of eligibility, whereas Conwell has 1.
News broke about James entering the Transfer Portal back on March 25th, and NC State was quick to reach out. Kevin Keatts and his staff recruited the former 4-star prospect out of high school heavily, but he ultimately chose the Cardinals.
Rivals ranked James as the #71 overall player in the 2021 recruiting class, and ESPN ranked him as the #7 prospect in the state of Florida.
After redshirting his first year in Louisville due to torn achilles, James has been a starter for the Cardinals the past two years. This year, he averaged 12.6 points and 5 rebounds.
For a more extensive look at James’ game, click here.
Rivals ranks James as the #77 overall player in the Transfer Portal.
Louisville Transfer Guard Mike James (6’5″/200) is a priority for NC State, according to a source.
News broke about James entering the Transfer Portal back on March 25th, and NC State was quick to reach out. Kevin Keatts and his staff recruited the former 4-star prospect out of high school heavily, but he ultimately chose the Cardinals.
After redshirting his first year in Louisville due to torn achilles, James has been a starter for the Cardinals the past two years.
This past year, James averaged 12.6 points per game (3rd on the team) and 5 rebounds. He’s extremely physical and aggressive, taking 47% of his field goal attempts at the rim (making 46%). As a result, he draws a lot of fouls, ranking 10th in the ACC in Fouls Drawn, and 4th in Free Throw Rate. James made opponents pay this year when they put him on the line, making 81.8% from the charity stripe, which ranked 15th in the ACC.
James shot the ball better as a Redshirt Freshman, than he did this past season. His Effective Field Goal Percentage in 2022-23 was 55.8%, which ranked 19th in the ACC, and his True Shooting Percentage of 59.6% ranked 14th.
He does have the ability to knock down a three, making 34.8% for his career.
Prior to this season, the record for most games started in a single season in NC State history was 37, with three Wolfpack players doing so: Lorenzo Brown, Richard Howell, CJ Williams.
Morsell now sits atop the list, and a fellow teammate, DJ Burns ranks second, with 40 games started this season.
Styles was the 2nd leading scorer for Georgetown this season, averaging 12.8 points per game, while grabbing 5.8 boards. He shot 36.8% from three.
Originally, Sytles was a consensus 4-Star prospect in UNC’s 2021 recruiting class. 247Sports ranked him as the #62 overall player nationally, and the #2 player in the state of North Carolina, playing for Kinston High School.
After two seasons with the Tar Heels, Styles entered the Portal, and took an Official Visit to NC State and Georgetown, and ultimately chose the Hoyas.
ON3 ranks Styles as the #104 overall player in the Portal.
With his final year of eligibility, Styles’ made the right choice this time.
NC State now has 2 scholarships remaining after Styles’ commitment.