VIDEO: Kevin Keatts’ Press Conference After NC State Beat St. Peter’s 85-57

NC State mowed over Saint Peter’s last night 85-57 (ACCDN Highlights and Condensed Game), improving to 5-0 on the year. Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts spoke to the media in his postgame press conference, and the video is ABOVE, and a bulleted breakdown is BELOW.

• We came out in the first half and played extremely well. There was a 12 or 13 minute stretch where I thought we did a great job defending those guys. I’m proud of my team because in these five games leading into Thanksgiving, they have played extremely hard.
• We’re not doing everything great. As a coach, I can find things we need to work on. Because we’re a young group as far as maturity and playing together, I’m trying to work these guys up to being able to play 40 minutes a game.
• I’m happy with the guys. They’ll have tomorrow off and those who are close by will get a chance to spend a little time with their family and we’ll have a Thanksgiving dinner for the team on Thursday. We’ll enjoy it and get ready for Saturday.
• We started the game with 16 assists on maybe 18 made field goals. That was very, very good. Shared the basketball and got good shots. For the game, we had 20 assists on 27 made field goals.  We’ve talked about passing up good shots for great shots.
• Defensively, I thought we did well. I would love to know how many deflections we had for the game. Guys are in the passing lane and guys are playing hard. Our style of play is tough because we pick you up 94 feet the entire game and you’ve got to be in incredible shape to do that. It’s a work in progress. I think we can play probably 32 or 33 minutes of it, but we’re going to work our way up to where we can play longer stretches.
• I’m not ready to call him (Jericole Hellems) the microwave yet, but he can score off the bench. Talented freshman. Works hard. Deserves to play well. What I like about him is his ability to shoot behind the three-point line, his ability to put the ball on the floor, and his ability to rebound the basketball. He gives us a guy off the bench that can really score.
• The great thing about it is, I think the officials were trying to help both teams out, because all 3 big guys ended up with 2 fouls early. I think that was a great thing, because we were able to put Jericole at the five,  and then just switch all screens. There will be situations where we’ll play that way, believe it or not, throughout the season. He’s a little bit dangerous on the offensive end. We ran a play for him and he nailed a three. I looked like a good coach, because I called it for my center, who is not a center.
• That’s something we talked about at the end of the game (playing a complete game). There is no team in college basketball right now that has put 40 minutes of basketball together. The times that we have played well, we have played really, really well. I’m proud of these guys and how hard they’ve competed in the times that we’ve played well.
• It’s important we’re shooting the ball with confidence. To be a good shooting team, you have to be a great passing team. If you look at every team that shoots the ball well, they’re good passers. We’re starting to pass the ball well.