Keatts presser after win over Louisville (BULLETED)

Kevin Keatts met with media after last night’s 76-69 win over Louisville…

• Excited for seniors. Malik and Lennard welcomed me into their program. Proud of them. Both have sacrificed their game a bit for the team. Winning 21 games and 11 conference games means a lot to them.
• Want to thank Al and Sam. They trusted me before coaching a game here.
• Special evening for it work out this way. Senior nights don’t always work out with a win.
• Told underclassmen one day this will be them and wanted them to play as hard as they could for the seniors and help them go out with a win.
• Both teams came out flat in first half. Low energy. Told team to stay the course. In 2nd half we’ll find energy, play hard and win.
• Give the guys credit. Did it on the defensive end. Shared the basketball and really took care of it. 12 assists on 26 makes and only 4 TOs.
• Great regular season. Was 10-3 in non-conference. 5th game of season, beat the #2 team (Arizona). Started ACC play getting blown out by Clemson, lost by 30 to ND. For this team to bounce back and win 11 conference games shows character of the kids in the locker room.
• Excited about way team is playing. Winning 5 of last 6 regular season games. Team is playing good basketball. Starting to figure it out. Sharing the ball is the key.
• To be successful we have to play together and guys are understanding that. Have to be a high assist team and low TO team that takes good shots. Starting to become that.
• Talked about taking cares of the ball. Talk about it every game. Louisville is long and athletic, but we forced them into bad situations. Defense was sharp as it’s bee. Locked in. Even when team wasn’t scoring, defense stayed good.
• One day turnaround form GT was tough. Friday, watched film and went on the floor for an hour and cleaned some things up. One day prep means you have to rely on how hard you play as opposed to what the team is running because you don’t have time to go over all their sets. Older guys had to just pick up things from watching film.
• Did a good job cleaning up mistakes from GT game.
• People starting to see it now. We are in better shape than most teams. Shows during end of games. Closing games well and did so tonight.
• Omer struggled with shot early but kept him in. Going with the guys that got us here. Kid had a tremendous year. Give him credit.
• Yurt did well defensively. 5 blocks. Played against two really good guys. Two of the top shot blockers in the nation. Thought he was just as good as them
• Don’t know about NCAA Tournament. Committee has to decide that next Sunday. We look like a Tourney team. Team answered every question the NCAA could ask. Beaten 5 top 25 teams, 4 top 20. 11 ACC wins. You guys make the case. Just stating facts.
• We run lots of ball screens. Tough when teams can switch 1 to 5. Need to get a lot of ball movement and player movement. Even when ball goes inside, need guys to cut. Did a good job. Found stride in 2nd half.
• Lots of gratitude owed to senior class. Dr. Yow said we didn’t know who we’d have on the roster. Lost good pieces from last year. Guys that decided to stay have battled and now making NC State something we are proud of. Punch clock every time we play.
• Might not be most talented team, but we play hard. Give guys credit. Omer could have gone to draft. Lennard could have been a grad-transfer. Malik could have transferred. Without those guys we would not be here.
• Proud of this group. Most people say we could win or weren’t tough enough.
• What do you guys call it “NC State Stuff” ? What is that. Don’t know what that is. We’ve stuffed that stuff and would like to not hear the NC State “stuff” anymore this regular season.(Note: Keatts reading PI? He reiterated what we wrote about this past week. Read it here.)
• Proud of guys and assistant coaches. Second time taking over a program and winning in year one. Able to bc of lots of practice. At Hargrave, never had guys back. Different team every year. Not saying guys wont be back, but used to teaching from day one.
• Basketball coaches should be teachers. Pride myself in teaching.
• Not going to grade myself. I’m sure media will grade me soon. Not taking credit for this. Everyone gets credit. Fans are tremendous. Dr. Yow gave me the chance. Our players, family. Thank the lord for this opportunity.
• Excited about ACC Tourney, butn ot overwhelmed. Not going g00-g00 eyed to the tournament. We’ve played everyone that is there. Excited for the chance to see what my guys can do in the tourney.