NC State head coach Kevin Keatts took the podium today at ACC Media Day. Here’s the transcript of what he had to say:
Q. Coach, what is the latest on Braxton’s hand, and how does that injury — do you have a sense of how long he’ll be out? How does that injury impact your season?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, Bob, he had successful surgery yesterday, and had a great conversation with him after the surgery, talked to the surgeon. Told everything went very well. We’re very hopeful that mid-way through non-conference we’ll get him back. But it certainly changes our team a little bit. At the time he was playing great basketball, he was shooting the ball very well. Certainly he’s a guy that we have on our roster that can stretch the defense and open up driving lanes for us, and you know, with that being said, we’ve got to have some other guys that step up and play well in his absence.
Q. I didn’t get a chance to ask you down there but with so many new pieces this year and guys that are now eligible to play, who are some guys that you expect to have a big impact that wasn’t able to play for you last year?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, obviously, Torin played for us last year, but we had three guys sitting out that I think have a chance to impact our team and help us become better. One of them to my left is C.J. Bryce who played for me at Wilmington, and had two really good years for us. Almost averaged 18 points a game as a sophomore. The thing that makes him special is he’s a guy on our roster that’s played for me the longest, which is two years. But C.J. will bring a certain toughness to us, when you look at him, he’s 6’5″, I know he wants to say he’s 200 pounds, but we’ve got him listed at 6’5″, 1393. But I think he brings score being, his ability to get to the rim. He’s developed an outside shot from behind the arc from three. Then Devon Daniels is a guy that transferred in from Utah who averages almost ten points a game. He’s a slasher, can score the ball. Then last but not least, Blake Harris who is also a transfer from Missouri who can play the one and two.
Q. Coach, last year you got a win in Chapel Hill in overtime, and this year you’ve got Duke at Cameron. Does last year’s win in Chapel Hill in that raucous environment give you extra confidence for this season’s match-up?
KEVIN KEATTS: Are you asking me because we won at Chapel Hill will we win at Duke?
Q. Yes.
KEVIN KEATTS: You know, I’ve said this, our win at Chapel Hill was special for a lot of reasons. The reason being because before I took over the program that year before we as a program lost about 51. I thought it was great for our guys, especially the guys who played in the program, like Torin, Markel, Malik, and Lennard to have a chance to go back into Carolina and be able to win. That being said that has nothing to do with this year. We have a new roster, a new team. We’re going to take one game at a time. Right now I have no idea when we play Duke. All I’m getting ready for is our first exhibition, which will be on Monday, but I like the team. I like our versatility. We’ve got to get better. One of the things I think we’ve got to get better as a team is defensively we’ve got to talk and communicate more.
Q. Coach, I’m sure you’ve been following that federal trial on corruption in college basketball. Just minutes ago all three of those defendants were found guilty. What, if any, impact can you see that having on the program and on recruiting?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, I don’t see any of this really having an impact on our program. Obviously, a lot of that stuff predated me as the coach. We’ve been able to just lock in and obviously focus on our new roster. Really haven’t put much thought into what was going on in the outside world. You know, the fortunate thing about it is that most of our guys are new, and they have nothing to do with or understand anything that’s happening in college basketball. So for us, we’ve kind of shut out the outside world and really just concentrate on this current roster and be able to get better as a team.
Q. You did talk about all the new players on the roster. I’ve heard you say before that because of your experience at Hargrave that you’re comfortable with rebuilding the roster, but it’s not for everybody. What is different about a season like this or a season like last year where you’re bringing in so many new players as opposed to a coach who has seven or eight players back from the same team?
KEVIN KEATTS: Yeah, that’s a great question. For you guys that don’t know, I spent 12 years at Hargrave Military Academy, ten of those being the head coach. And we ended up in those ten years as head coach, I had 103 guys sign Division I. So we were able to put in a system where guys would play as hard as they could for as long as they could, and then raise their hand up and then I would put five more guys in. That being said, every year I lost my whole roster. So I’m not saying that I’m the only one in college basketball that can, you know, withstand a new roster. But if anybody’s equipped to do it, it’s me. I’m used to teaching, and that’s one of the things that we spent all summer and early part of, so far since school has started, being able to teach these guys. It helps. A little bit different from Hargrave because I’ve got three guys that played for me last year, obviously, Torin being one, and then C.J. Bryce playing for me at Wilmington. So I’ve got four guys to help teach my system where I didn’t have any at Hargrave.
Q. Different subject, Torin’s versatility, his ability to guard bigger people, go inside and rebound and take the ball inside as well as shoot the three, how does that help you play the style you want to play, which is smaller, faster shots?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, his versatility is what made us special last year. You know, obviously we play four guards, and I consider Torin as a big guard. But what allowed us to play small last year is that if you go back and look at the stats, are he led us in rebounding. I thought that was impressive. But when you look at the season that he had, you know, if you needed a guy to get to the rim, he got there. If you needed somebody to get to the free-throw line, he got there. When he needed a big shot, he made it. When you needed a big rebound, he made it. So you were able to play that way if you got a guy that can fill the stat sheet up. Ironically, we’re talking about it. I sent him a text the other day and just said get back to who you are, because you are a guy who fills the stat sheet up.
Q. I hate to beat the same drum for you, but what kind of process, again, we’re talking about the investigation, but what kind of process does your school or even the compliance office go through when you’re looking at recruits to make sure that things are on the up and up?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, you know, first of all, anytime somebody is recruited to N.C. State, we try to educate them as much as we can on the visit. When you look at what we do, anytime you have a kid take an official visit, we give them a form that they have to read to fill out to make sure that anything — nothing improper went on. I think that’s one of the processes that we go through. Plus, I do this a little different than some of the programs. Anytime a kid will come on our visit, if available, I try to have him to meet with our athletic director and our chancellor to be able to answer any questions that they may have outside of basketball about our program. And I think that’s important because you want to be able to — anytime somebody’s taking a visit, you want to make sure that can you give all the information to make sure that they can make the best decision for them.
Q. Coach, you took your program down east for a series of practices. What was the back story to that?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, C.J. Bryce wanted to get back to Wilmington, first of all. No, I’m only kidding. Last year we had the opportunity to go to Italy for a foreign trip, but it was very helpful for our team. Per NCAA you can only do it once every four years, so I needed somewhere that I could go to get them away from the distractions, to have practice for us to come together as a team, for us to do some team building stuff. I thought it was great. Our guys responded. We had tug of war, we had a bunch of games on the beach, but more importantly, we did an exercise where I would take Torin and I would take C.J. and they’d have to interview each other and stand up in front of the crowd, in front of our team and tell us something about each other that we didn’t know, and it was hilarious. We got great answers. I found out a lot of stuff about different guys. But it was one of those things that I thought was necessary for the team.
Q. What type of team are you going to bring back here in March?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, I hope I bring a team back that has matured by March. I’ve said the word, the word that I would use to describe this team more than any other team is versatility. We have a bunch of guys who can play a lot of different positions. Our weakness right now is our chemistry. Unfortunately, because we’ve got so many new guys, we haven’t had a chance to be on the floor a lot together. So we’ve got to take the nonconference to grow up and get better as a team.
Q. Last year, Coach, your seven was the non-guard on the floor most of the time. Who do you see as the two or three leading candidates to be the nonguard this year?
KEVIN KEATTS: Well, we have three guys that I think have to step in. Anytime you lose a guy who averages 14 and 7, you don’t automatically replace him with new guys. We’ve got three guys that I think can step in and do it in a different way. White Walker who was a good player at Samford, transferred as a graduate student who has two years of play. He’s more around the basket guy, very good rebounder, very good passer. D.J. Funderburk who was arguably the number one JUCO player in the country last year, he’s long, he’s athletic. Can step out, shoot it out the three. Has a chance to be a really good basketball player. Defensively he can be solid. Then obviously last but not least is Ian Steer who is a freshman who is physically ready to play but has a lot to learn. (ACC)
