Connect with us

NC State Basketball

VIDEO: Kevin Keatt’s Press Conference After NC State Beat BC 89-80 (BULLETED)

Published

5 years ago

on

Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts spoke with the media in his postgame press conference after NC State beat Boston College 89-80 on Wednesday night. The video is BELOW, and a bulleted breakdown is UNDERNEATH.

  • The game actually ended the way I told our guys it would. What another great ACC game.
    • I told our guys that going into every game from this point on, we have a small margin for error and every game could possibly come down to the last second.
    • Surely, I didn’t expect overtime.
  • I thought we played great to finish the second half and started the half well.
    • During the middle, we hit a spurt where we didn’t score the ball.
    • Then Ky Bowman got going, and before you knew it, we were down.
    • Give our guys credit– we fought our way through. I am proud that we took care of it at home. This was a good win for us. We get to live another day and move on.
    • I thought our guys finished the game and I was excited about the way that we finished.
    • I thought we took a big step forward.
  • In the overtime period, we wanted our guys to come out aggressive.
    • We actually switched what we were running. I know to the naked eye it looks like they are running a 3-2 zone.
    • But every time we swung it, they would switch to man-to-man principles.
    • Instead of running our zone stuff, we went to our man-to-man stuff.
    • We were able to find CJ Bryce going backdoor.
  • I thought Devon Daniels was tremendous, especially in the overtime period.
    • He almost won the game at the end of regulation.
    • He did a great job on the defensive end.
    • He is understanding how he can help his team.
    • When you look at his five steals, you have to talk about that.
    • He also scored the basketball for us.
  • I am getting these guys to play for NC State.
    • When you have so many guys come from different programs, it takes a while for guys to understand their role.
    • I know that’s crazy since we only have four more regular season games.
  • That’s the first time I have been excited to hear an official say that he is part of the court. That was good. I was glad that it happened.
  • Torin Dorn wasn’t playing great, but he had five offensive rebounds.
  • CJ Bryce made some great plays down the stretch.
  • Markell Johnson was able to sacrifice some minutes to allow some other guys to come in and play.
  • We talked about it. Steffon Mitchell for the last two years.
    • I don’t know why, but he kills us on the offensive glass.
    • I think we focused in at timeouts about how to find a body to block him out, and you certainly have to have some guys on him.
    • We did that at the end of the game.
  • I thought they beat us on the offensive end early on.
    • I think at halftime they had 11 offensive rebounds, and we were able to hold them to four (2nd half).
    • I thought our guys came back and competed on the offensive glass.
  • It’s our conditioning (on being prepared for OT).
    • We start in the summer, and I don’t think our guys were fatigued.
    • I thought we had a run in us and we just played.
  • We’re third or fourth in the conference in scoring, and our transition offense hasn’t kicked in.
    • If you look at tonight, we had 24 fast breakpoints.
    • If you go back to a lot of our games, we haven’t gotten out and transitioned much.
    • Reason being, I don’t think we’ve done a great job defensive rebounding.
    • Offensively, we’re one of the best in the country as far as offensive rebounding.
    • Because of our size we haven’t rebounded well defensively, because instead of hitting people, we just try and out-jump people.
    • Basically, we couldn’t get rebounds and they got offensive rebounds.
  • The last 4 or 5 games, other than Duke, if you go back and look, we’ve won the free throw battle. Tonight, I went into this game saying we had to win the free throw battle.
    • Two things I’ve focused on is trying to win the rebound battle and trying to win the free throw battle. I thought we did both.

Related Topics:

Matthew is Co-Owner of Pack Insider. He writes for all sports, with a focus on football and recruiting, and is in charge of business strategy. He is an NC State alum who majored in business. Matthew is also the lead pastor of The Point Church in Cary, NC.

Click to comment
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NC State Basketball

NC State’s Mohamed Diarra Will Not Return to NC State for Final Season

Published

15 hours ago

on

April 24, 2024

By

NC State Forward Mohamed Diarra will not be returning to NC State for his final season of eligibility. Rather, he will give 100% of his focus to pursuing his professional career.

Image

Diarra is declaring for the NBA Draft, and will explore that possibility as far as it goes, but the likelihood of him playing professionally in his home country of France are high.

Diarra was a significant player for NC State all season long, averaging 6.3 points and 7.8 rebounds (team high), but his impact in March was tremendous, recording 10+ rebounds in 7 of the Wolfpack’s 10 postseason games, and five of those performances were double-doubles.

Wolfpack fans will always remember the grit and mental toughness that Diarra put on display in the NCAA Tournament, playing game-after-game while fasting for Ramadan.

The Wolfpack’s frontcourt just got a little bit thinner. In the past two weeks, NC State has lost Diarra and Ernest Ross.  Ben Middlebrooks is returning, and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield transferred in from Louisville. Dontrez Styles transferred in from Georgetown, and while he is more of a Small Forward, in certain lineups, he could play the Small 4 position. With all that being said, I fully expect NC State to try to find another post player in the Transfer Portal with Diarra’s exodus now official.

With Diarra not returning in 2024, NC State now has 2 scholarships available for next season.

Continue Reading

NC State Basketball

Louisville Transfer Guard Mike James Commits to NC State!

Published

2 days ago

on

April 23, 2024

By

Louisville Transfer Guard Mike James (6’5″/200) has announced his commitment to NC State!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tipton Edits (@tiptonedits)

This past year, James averaged 12.6 points per game (3rd on the team) and 5 rebounds. He’s extremely physical and aggressive, taking 47% of his field goal attempts at the rim (making 46%). As a result, he draws a lot of fouls, ranking 10th in the ACC in Fouls Drawn, and 4th in Free Throw Rate. James made opponents pay this year when they put him on the line, making 81.8% from the charity stripe, which ranked 15th in the ACC.

James shot the ball better as a Redshirt Freshman, than he did this past season. His Effective Field Goal Percentage in 2022-23 was 55.8%, which ranked 19th in the ACC, and his True Shooting Percentage of 59.6% ranked 14th.

News broke about James entering the Transfer Portal back on March 25th, and NC State was quick to reach out. Kevin Keatts and his staff recruited the former 4-star prospect out of high school heavily, but he ultimately chose the Cardinals.

After redshirting his first year in Louisville due to torn achilles, James has been a starter for the Cardinals the past two years.

He does have the ability to knock down a three, making 34.8% for his career.

James has 2 years of eligibility remaining. With James’ commitment, NC State currently has 1 scholarship available for next season.

Continue Reading

NC State Basketball

Bowling Green Transfer Guard Marcus Hill is on a Visit to NC State

Published

2 days ago

on

April 22, 2024

By

Bowling Green Transfer Guard Marcus Hill (6’4″/185) confirmed with me that he is currently on a visit at NC State.

Hill averaged 20.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for the Falcons this season. He earned 1st Team All-MAC honors. Even though he was only at Bowling Green one season, he had one of the best seasons in school history, scoring 698 points, which ranks 5th all-time in program history for a single season.

For his first two years of collegiate ball, Hill played for Southern Union State College (JUCO) in Alabama. In 2022-23, Hill earned 3rd Team NJCAA All-American honors, and ranked as the #32 overall Junior College prospect.

247Sports ranks Hill as a 4-Star Transfer Prospect, and the #78 overall player in the Transfer Portal, and the #11 Shooting Guard.

According to a source, the NC State Coaching Staff is extremely high on Hill, and they are recruiting him as a Point Guard.

Continue Reading

NC State Basketball

What did an ACC Title & Final Four Mean to NC State Legend Dennis Smith Jr.?

Published

3 days ago

on

April 22, 2024

By

What did an ACC Title & Final Four mean to NC State Legend Dennis Smith Jr.? The man who won the ACC Rookie of the Year Award in 2017 gave me a statement.

It means a lot. It means a lot to the university, the state of North Carolina and a lot more to my dad, grandma, and myself. They have been NC State fans since forever, so their excitement level was though the roof when they saw BOTH of our basketball teams shining like that. It was a great feeling!

2017 was Smith Jr.’s only year of College ball, averaging 18.1 points, 6.2 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals. He earned 2nd Team All-ACC honors, and obviously, he earned a spot on the ACC All-Freshman Team.

DSJ was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the 9th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.

Smith Jr. just wrapped up his 7th season in the NBA. This was his 1st season with Brooklyn, playing in 56 games for the Nets. He averaged 6.6 points, 3.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game, averaging 18.9 minutes per contest.

Continue Reading