Keatts, Dorn and Freeman talk to the media after loss to Seton Hall (BULLETED)

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts spoke to the media with Torin Dorn and Al Freeman about the team’s NCAA Tournament loss to Seton Hall. Above is the full presser and below is the bulleted summary…

• Keatts: Congrats to Seton Hall. They played tremendously. Tteam feels like Seton Hall did for the last two years. They have guys who had been here but not won, came back and played like seniors in this game.
• Keatts: Very proud of this team. Came to NC State not just to have a team but to build a program. Guys did a tremendous job. Came to play here before they even knew type of game we’d play.
• Keatts: Proud of these guys. Think about it. First-year program going 11-7 in the ACC and win 21 games. Finished 3rd.
• Keatts: Just couldn’t get over the hump in this game. Would come all the way back and make a play, they would answer
• Freeman: Got close but they had older guys who had experience and made the most out of the possession. Turned momentum. One of those things where one loose ball, getting one rebound, one shot goes in and you could get momentum to snowball.
• Freeman: Seton Hall did a great job of handling adversity and handling runs. Able to keep us held off. They did a great job.
• Dorn: Good to get this experience. For a lot of guys in locker room, this was their first tournament. Will be able to have guys that have tournament experience next year and build on what was started this year.
• Freeman: Maybe a few tic-tac calls on our end that wasn’t on theirs, but they can probably say the same thing. Lots of whistles, but players have to make adjustments and guard more with our feet and not our hands.
• Freeman: It was more, when lead got cut down , they put their head down and tried to get to the FT line to stop momentum. Seton Hall guards did good job tonight.
• Dorn: Lots of whistles but coach say you have to win all types of games. Learn how refs are calling it and adapt to win. Weren’t able to do that. Will be able to take experience into next year and build on it.
• Freeman: Tough to lose any game. Wish we could run it back. Doesn’t work like that. That’s the beauty and ugly of NCAA. One and done. Seton Hall held us off. Protected the ball enough.
• Freeman: It sucks as a senior. Hear coaches, former players say they’d give anything to put the jersey back on. You try to take that in and digest it, but don’t understand it until it’s happening to you. When 10 mins are left and it’s back and forth and this is it. You give everything you got. It’s tough.
• Dorn: Tough because team worked so hard. Hard working group in there. Tough when you work this hard and don’t get the result you want.