VIDEO: Kevin Keatts’ Press Conference After NC State’s 94-78 loss to Duke (Bulleted)

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts talked with the media after the Wolfpack’s 94-78 loss to Duke in Cameron Indoor last night in his postgame press conference. The video is ABOVE (via TheWolfpacker), and a bulleted breakdown is BELOW.

• We competed. We had some chances. We answered some runs. I told the guys in the locker room, I thought we competed and I thought we lost some of the toughness plays.
• Give Duke credit. They’re a great team.
  • He (Coach K) has done a tremendous job.
  • Great recruiting class that actually lived up to the hype and they do a great job.
• Zion (Williamson) is as good advertised. We didn’t have an answer for him.
  • I thought he was obviously the best player on the floor, and RJ Barrett is very good.
• I’m proud of the way my guys competed, but we have got to get a little tougher because we are not the biggest team.
  • Obviously, I thought we got beat up on the glass and in the paint.
• I thought Markell Johnson was good.
  • I thought he was a leader on the floor.
  • He made plays when we needed to have them.
  • His conditioning is still not all there, but when you look at his numbers, he was effective. He did a tremendous job of finding guys (10 assists & 3 turnovers).
  • He’s starting to get back. The longer it goes on, he’s getting his conditioning back.
• I thought every guy we had on the floor competed.
• We did some really good things, but we lost to a better team on their home floor who was a little tougher than us today.
• Not surprised (on rebounding difference).
  • We have done a better job most games getting offensive rebounds. We didn’t have that tonight. We didn’t get the offensive rebounds. We typically get about 12 offensive rebounds a game and we didn’t get those.
  • On the other end, we gave up 14, which is certainly not a good enough to win. I think they had 17 second-chance points. They hurt us. They beat us in the paint.
• I thought we finished the half the right way.
• We came out (2nd half) and cut it to eight and then in the 2nd half we came out and they executed, got a couple big baskets, then we played from behind the rest of the half.
  • We cut it to single digits three or four times. Then we would give up an offensive rebound, miss a free throw, block-out, those type of things. Those are things you have to do if you are going to have the opportunity to be a good team on the road.
• Any time a team goes up on you that much it’s a big moment in the game. Certainly, we have the type of team where we can answer runs.
• I thought we did some really, really good things.
• When you look at it, on the road, they made 21 free throws on the road, we made six. They got 14 offensive rebounds, we got five. Those type of things are not a great formula to help you win.
• I don’t think it bothered them at all (roster distractions). We were focused, we came in with a really good gameplan.
• We played the best in this league. We played toe-to-toe with everybody in this league.
• When you’re playing on the road in a hostile environment, you got to cut down your mistakes and be able to rebound the basketball.
• I like my team. We have fought and competed with everybody in this league now and hopefully we will clean up some of the things we need to if we face a team like Duke again.