NC State’s Kevin Keatts Talks Seton Hall: BULLETED

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts spoke with the media today about the Wolfpack’s upcoming trip to Wichita to face Seton Hall this Thursday. You can watch it here, or check it out in bulleted format below.

Opening

• Excited about the opportunity. NC State hasn’t gone the past couple of years. Huge for us. Most of the guys on this team haven’t played on this big of a stage. Al Freeman played three years in the dance, Malik and Lennard once as Freshmen.
• We have our work cut out for us with so many inexperienced guys.
• From a coaching and staff perspective, this will be their third NCAA in as many years. They’ve done a tremendous job.

Seton Hall

• Seton Hall gets out in transition, and shoots the ball well. Elite big guys. Mix up defense. Swagger and toughness.
• They start 4 guys who have played in back-to-back NCAA’s. They’re hungry.
• In the press conference they said Desi Rodriguez’s ankle was 75%, which means he will be 95%. I expect him to be at full strength. He’s good. Matchup problem. He has great size and will post our little guys up. He can get to the basket and is the emotional leader.

NC State

• We are going to go and have more fun than the other 67 teams this week. We will prepare, and I want them to be excited. Want them to do what they have done all year: play hard and compete.
• It means a lot to do this in the first year. If you look at how we started, picked 12th in the ACC, the way we started ACC play, and then finished tied for 3rd.
• You could have your best team here at NC State and may not win 11 conference games. Excited about what these guys did in a short period of time.
• This means everything to Sam Hunt. Such a wonderful and humble kid. NC kid that grew up an ACC guy and is playing with NC State in the NCAA tournament. Hope he’s so excited that he hits 6 threes in a game.
• We have to compete like it’s your last game. Leave it all on the floor for 40 minutes. Don’t worry about the next game. Don’t worry about rest. Live in the moment.
• Against BC we didn’t play well in the first half, but 2nd half was more of our identity. Played well. We didn’t fly around enough on defense. We didn’t hit shots at the beginning, and weren’t able to get in our press. I thought we just missed shots. Omer missed chippies. Don’t think it was the big stage. I know I’m fighting the NC State Stuff. This wasn’t STUFF. We missed shots. Give BC credit. They played good.
• Georgia Tech was a game of different styles, & they played good basketball.
• Gave the guys a couple of days off. Practiced for an hour and fifteen minutes yesterday. They were business like. Played hard. These guys have moved on from the loss. From a coaching stand point, it’s harder to move on.