Keatts: “We will not play conventional basketball this year.” ( Pre-Season Presser Part 1 )

Today was media day for the NC State basketball team. That means that we got to finally hear from Kevin Keatts, and got to talk to the players about this coming season. Over the next few weeks, we’ll have a bunch of stories, interviews and articles previewing the upcoming basketball season.

Let’s start off with the man in charge. Here is Kevin Keatts talking to the media in his pre-season press conference. (Above if the full video and below are the bulleted highlights)

Opening Statement…

• Thanks to the media to covering Hurricane Florence and getting the word out about aid. NC State will continue to support victims.
• ‘Prime Time with the Pack’ on Oct. 19th will be a type of hurricane relief effort. Will donate some of the proceeds.
• Wants media to keep reporting on it so people keep paying attention and keep helping.
• Lost AW Hamilton this year. He took the head job at Eastern Kentucky.
• Went out and hired another sharp young man named Roy Robinson. Followed the same model used as when AW was hired. Looked for a guy who had seen success in the HS ranks. Brings a lot of experience and value to the program.
• 2 injured studs. One is Manny Bates, the other is Kevin Keatts.
• Hoping to get good news from Bates on Wednesday. Sat out his senior year of HS and now has to sit out his freshman year in college. Hoping to get out of sling on Monday. Will have an update at a later date.
• Keatts was hurt playing pick up basketball. Don’t play if you’re over 40. Now going to pick up golf.
• Joe Giglio (N&O reporter) is a horrible basketball player.
• Keatts is 6 months out from surgery. Thought he was David Thompson, Quickly found out he wasn’t. Will continue to do trick shots, but won’t be playing anymore pick-up.
• Excited about this bunch of guys.
• Only 3 guys are on this team wore an NC State jersey last season. Not sure any team in the nation can say they have 10 new players on their roster.
• Excited because this group has a lot of versatility. Lots of guys who can play a lot of different positions.
• Will play a lot of different combinations. There will be times when you see Braxton, Markell and Blake Harris on the floor at the same time.
• “We will not play conventional basketball this year.”
• You won’t see a 6’8 PF and a 7-foot center. Likes that about this team.
• All the returners (Dorn, Markell, and Beverly) have been leaders.
• Guys who sat out last year have done an amazing job (Bryce, Harris and Daniels).
• Excited about schedule. Thinks it will prepare the team for ACC play.
• Saw a tweet from Bruce Pearl (Auburn) that said he thinks he has best offensive team he’s had. That’s scary because they scored over 82 ppg last season. They are also returning a lot of guys an start as a Top-1o team.
• Vanderbilt got two Top-10 recruits, so they should be very good, Penn State is the defending NIT champ, and then have to go to Wisconsin and play a 9 pm game.
• Tough start to ACC play. 4 of their first 6 games are on the road and then 6 of the next 7 are against Top-25 opponents.
• Should be a fun year. Fans will really enjoy this team thanks to their versatility.
• Braxton has been playing great and shooting the ball really well.
• When you see Markell you’ll notice some extra bulk on him.
• Has 3 centers who are competing for minutes. Trying to see who emerges.
• Ian Steer is physical but has a way to go, Funderburk is the best scorer of the group and Walker is the most experienced and knows how to play the game.

On whether there was anything in his first ACC season that he just couldn’t prepare for?

• Can’t predict a win for ANY game. Every team looks at the conference schedule and thinks they have a tough one.
• No days off. It’s tough. Top to bottom. You can win every one or you could lose everyone.

On how minutes will go around for such a deep team…

• Would like to go into every season thinking he’s going to play 10 guys. Would like that type of rotation.
• The players, however, will determine how many guys he will play.

On takeaways from last year that can help this year…

• Needs guys who played in ACC games to be leaders on court and in locker room. They know what is expected.
• Only other guy who knows how he wants things done is CJ Bryce who played under Keatts at Wilmington.

That’s it for Part 1. Stay tuned as we’ll be bringing you Part 2 shortly…