Kevin Keatts Press Conference After Alcorn State: BULLETED

Head Coach Kevin Keatts spoke with the media after NC State’s 87-64 victory over Alcorn State yesterday. You can watch it here, or check out a bulleted breakdown below.

• We played good in stretches. We did some great things.
• My team is a little tired.
  • Three games this week, so we didn’t have our traditional day off.
  • We had to take two off the previous week.
  • Tomorrow, I told everybody in the locker room to stay away from basketball for a little bit.
• We got going in the 2nd half. Shot the ball well from three.
• We settled a little bit in the first half, where I thought we should have drove it and got some easy baskets.
• I’m happy with our win and I like where we are at. I think we are moving in the right direction.

Bench production…

• When you look at Devon Daniels and you look at D.J. Funderburk, they could both certainly be starters, and they probably will end up starting some games.
• All 8 guys could be starters.
• The 3 guys that are coming off the bench, they’ve been tremendous.
• Our bench is scoring just as much as the guys starting the game.
• I give Pat Andree, Devon and D.J. a lot of credit, because not once have they pouted about coming off the bench.
  • They just come in and do their job.
  • Everybody knows that they are going to play, so nobody complains.

Devon Daniels…

• Devon was really good tonight.
• He was aggressive. He made shots. He mixed his game up.
• He was very solid on the defensive end.
• He’s a good player. He’s starting to buy in and understand what I’m looking for.

Markell Johnson…

• It was good to see Markell Johnson score 16 points.
• He felt a little bit better, looked a little more confident shooting the basketball.
• I don’t worry about him, because he’s going to be ok.
• I still don’t think he played great tonight.
  • I thought he played good.
• It was good to see him play better, and it was good for him to see the ball go in the hoop.
• What’s lost, is that he’s passed the ball well.
  • He’s had a few more turnovers than I would like.
  • He’s passing the ball at a high level.
  • I can’t get him to go back. I don’t want him to be sophomore Markell where he thinks he’s got to lead the league in assists.
• On this particular team, we need him to have a balance of scoring and passing the basketball.

Reynolds Coliseum…

• This is a great venue to play in.
• We also have a really great venue to play in at the PNC.
• This is great because everybody is right on top of you and it’s a legendary place.
• I love playing here.
• We’ve got contracts where we’ve got to play a certain amount games at PNC.
• I’m not giving up on PNC, because I love PNC.
  • PNC helps us with recruits. It’s a pro arena.
  • It’s a chance to play in front of 20,000 when we sell out.
  • It’s a great place.
• We’re fortunate to be one of the few programs that has 2 great arenas to play in.
• I wish it was a little bit bigger.
  • I wish it held 10,000, but it doesn’t.
  • It’s a beautiful place the way it is.

Alcorn’s run at the end of the game…

• It’s crazy, because I don’t think that they beat us on the backboards or made shots inside during that time.
  • We just had too many breakdowns.
• We didn’t do a great job tonight of rotating out of the press finding guys.
  • Left some guys open for some wide-open shots.
  • They were 5-7 from the 3 going into the half.
    • A lot of them were because of the press.
    • We just didn’t rotate out of it.
• I thought we did a solid job of pressing, but out of the press we gave up some easy shots.
• It’s different when we’re playing Jericole Hellems or Pat Andree at that 4 or 5 position, they’re really not used to it so they don’t know where to rotate to.