Kevin Keatts on Memphis: BULLETED

Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media on Monday to talk about NC State’s upcoming game against #16 Memphis on Thanksgiving Day. You can watch the video here, or check out the bulleted breakdown below.

• They’re playing extremely hard and they’re averaging almost 87 points a game.
• Turning people over 20 times a game
• Average 10 steals a game.
• Very big-time challenge because the way they play.
  • It’s almost like looking in the mirror at times.
• They try to play fast, trap you, get easy baskets.

Memphis utilizing Precious Achiuwa without James Wiseman…

• I see them going to him more.
• He’s playing great, he’s playing physical.
  • He’s a hard matchup problem because he plays so hard
• He’s getting almost double digits a game, maybe even 10 a game.
• He reminds me of the Kenneth Farieds and the Montrezl Harrells with how hard he competes.

Memphis’ loss to Oregon…

• I’m very cautious with the Oregon game because I know Wiseman played.
• Want to watch the games where he doesn’t play, to see how they play.

Importance of non-conference games like this…

• It’s important. I’m excited.
• This is 1 of the games we were excited to have, because we knew they had a tremendous job recruiting class.
• They’re good. I know a lot of people say they ain’t good without James Wiseman. It doesn’t matter. They got really good players. They’ve got youth.
• They remind you a lot of when Duke had Wendell Carter and Marvin Bagley. They’re a talented group.
• It’s a great opportunity to get a chance to see how much we’ve grown and where we need to get better.

Veterans stepping up…

• One thing we do have on our side is guys who have played in these type of games so we got the opportunity to see where we at.
• We took off yesterday, got a chance to practice today, tomorrow and Wednesday before we play.
• We’ve got a lot to take in. We’ve got to get better in a lot of areas.
• Those guys (Memphis) are tremendous on the offensive rebounds.
  • One of the biggest thing we’ve got to figure out is now how to stop them in transition.

A.J. Taylor…

• A.J. won’t play.
• Knee is back bothering him.
• Good chance that AJ won’t play the rest of the year.
• Could medically redshirt.

Danny Dixon…

• We’re hopeful.
• I was talking to our trainer, we hope we can get him in practice today and get some reps for him.

Manny Bates’ opportunity for a big game against Memphis…

• Manny certainly has got to be big in this game and also D.J. Funderburk.
• As we go along and we get more games under our belt, you’ll see Manny become a lot better.
• His defense is way ahead of this offense, but he’s starting to get better and feel comfortable in those areas.

On having Markell Johnson and D.J. Funderburk back for Memphis…

• I’m excited that we got healthy guys now.
• It’s not the team that I envisioned when I first began the season because I thought we would have 10, maybe 11 guys that played the way we want to play.
• Right now we’re playing with 8 scholarship guys, and those guys are playing the bulk of the minutes.
• If you add Danny Dixon to it that would be 9 guys available to play.
• I am happy to have D.J. and also Markell back because those guys bring so much value to our team.
• Look back 6 games ago (Georgia Tech), and not having those guys, you wonder what the outcome could be.

Pumping Markell up for Memphis..

• I texted him after our game and said “Man, another good game — another solid game.”
• What I meant by that is that was the 2nd game in a row that he had 12 points and he started to fill his offense a little bit better.
• I won’t pump him up, I’ll just hope that he continues to have a solid week and then on Thursday I hope we get the Senior that we all know is capable of being a really good player.

C.J. Bryce excelling in “Torin Dorn’s” role…

• He’s doing some of the things that Torin did.
• I haven’t been able to play him as a big guard.
• I’m only bringing one guard off the bench and it’s been Devon Daniels.
• He’s had to play the 3.
• It’s shifted a little bit this year, because you might see us more use a bigger lineup than smaller, because if Danny comes back, then I can move Jericole Hellems to more of a 3 and play D.J. some at the 4.
• Because we don’t have extra guards, because of the Dereon Seabron situation, and not having a couple of other guys, it’s made us become a bigger team than smaller.
• C.J.’s doing some great things.
• He’s obviously doing some of the things Torin did, leading us in scoring and rebounding, but he’s doing it more from the small forward position.
• He’s playing like a veteran.
• It’s funny because when I recruited him, he came in as an athletic guy who would run, jump..more of a slasher.
  • Now he’s moving more towards a mid range guy, and hopefully, as he gets comfortable throughout the year, you’ll see him making more shots behind the arc.