Keatts presser after win over #25 Florida State (BULLETED)

Kevin Keatts met with the media after his team’s 92-72 win over #25 Florida State. Above is the full press conference and below is the bulleted summary

• Became a better coach tonight, not because team scored 92 points, not because team held FSU to 0-15 from 3, but because I got Sam Hunt to take a charge. Might be first charge he’s taken since 8th grade. Found himself accidentally in the wrong place.
• Good game. Guys played good from start to finish. Did a tremendous job on defense in first half. Improved half-court defense. Guys were in gaps.
• Controlled penetration. Gave up 20 offensive boards to Boston College. Wasn’t happy. Guys bounced back. Outrebounded FSU by 4. Held them to 8 offensive boards. Had 12 ourselves.
• Guys shooting the ball well. Sam shooting at big rim. Markell and Al playing really good basketball.
• Proud of the team. Now have 10 ACC wins and 20 total wins. Couldn’t be more proud as a coach.
• Team is shooting well because we’re maturing. Playing better because playing with more passion. 18 assists in this game. Getting the right guys the right shots and not forcing things.
• Been doing good on 3pt defense for the whole year. Challenged FSU’s shots. Only got a few clean looks. Can’t stop them from taking 3s but want to challenge all of them.
• Held FSU to zero 3s because ball screen coverage has been better. Really worked with the bigs on guarding the screen and getting higher, staying longer (as we pointed out months ago). Guards doing a good job of going over top of screens and not getting stuck.
• Every guy on roster has improved. Malik has improved mentally after going through the knee ordeal. Sam Hunt has gotten better. Beverly has matured. Al Freeman is playing great team basketball. Yurt. You can talk about so many guys. We do a lot of individual workouts. The way we play is the way we practice because we practice the way we try to play.
• Talk about finishing games. Got sloppy with 4 minutes to go in the game. Did a tremendous job all game but gave up some transition baskets. Played 37 good minutes, but looking for 40. Guys played with energy for 40 minutes, just want to finish plays and games.
• Al Freeman playing very good. Most proud of Freeman. Guy that took flak early for shot selection. Now everyone should celebrate him. He has done great and matured. Excited we had opportunity to get him and Sam Hunt.
• Win was big because it created separation int he league. Didn’t talk about it with team but looked at standings. Difference of tonight’s outcome is you could be #4 or could be all the way down at 10 or 11. Didn’t tell guys because didn’t want to put pressure on them, but told assistant coaches. If you saw them working harder, you know what was up.