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Kevin Keatts Post Game Press Conference After Exhibition vs. Lees-McRae: BULLETED

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NC State Men’s Basketball Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media in his postgame press conference, after the Wolfpack defeated Lees-McRae 107-59 in an exhibition game. You can watch it here, or check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

  • We did some really good things tonight.
    • 1 of the things that was really good is that we had 22 assists on 40 field goals.
      • I don’t think that all of last year we had 22 in a game.
      • We shared the ball and we played with great energy.
  • Guys like Jarkel Joiner did a great job setting the tone on a defensive end.
  • We were able to play a lot of guys and see different combinations.
  • We had 4 games leading up to when we played tonight and I’m counting the 2 games in the Bahamas and the scrimmage and I am proud of our guys.
  • I will look at the tape and see what we need to clean up.
  • Our guys will be off tomorrow and ready to see Austin Peay on Monday.
  • We had 25 [deflections] at the half and I didn’t find out after the game.
    • 40 is our goal and we are trying to get 20 per half.
    • We were +5 at the start of the 2nd half, and I am going to guess and say 42 [deflections for the game].
  • You look at Terquavion Smith and 1 of the things that I wanted him to become, was more of a 2-way player.
    • He leads us with steals with 4
  • Jarkel Joiner can really dog the basketball and turn his guy over.
  • Being able to be play in the rotation of 9-10 guys can help us wear teams down.
  • It was great [watching Ernest Ross and Greg Gantt play together].
    • I didn’t play Gregg in the scrimmage because I wanted him to get an extra few days in before I put him out there.
    • It shows that Ernest and Gregg have the ability to switch 1 through 5 and play different positions.
    • It shows that we can be good with all the players we have. I was proud.
  • When any coach plays exhibitions you are crossing your fingers that nobody gets hurt and we accomplished that.
  • I wanted to go out and find some experienced guys.
    • When you look at us last year, our 4 guards were Freshman and Sophomores.
    • At our Center position, 2 guys had to play who really did not play as Freshmen, so they really were Freshmen even though they were Sophomores by the books.
    • We went out to try to get older guys and try to surround Terquavion Smith with some older guys.
  • I like our team. I like our energy, versatility, and experience.
  • The 1 thing that we ask from every player, even through recruiting, is 100% buy-in.
    • We are in a new age of basketball where there is always going to be a lot of transfers and we have to be selective with the guys that we bring in.
    • I am looking for guys that will play for NC State. If we can play for NC State, we will be fine.
  • When you look at it, because of the way we play there will be a lot of shots to go around.
    • We got 79 shots tonight and it’s enough for everybody to be successful if you share the ball and play together.
  • Give a lot of credit to Jarkel.
    • Here you are talking about a guy who has transferred from the SEC and he has kind of taken Terquavion under his wing as an older guy and embraced him and is excited about playing with him.
    • They feed off of each other.
      • You should see them in practice everyday. They are really excited about it.
      • They compete against each other in practice sometimes.
      • But, when they are on the same team, they just love playing together. I think that has helped our team.
      • Both of them are very unselfish.
        • I want to say in our scrimmage Terquavion led us in assists.
        • He had 6 in that one, you look at tonight he had 7.
        • Jarkel had 5 assists and then 6 tonight.
        • Those guys, we are seeing a path where they know they can score the basketball, but in order for us to be successful we have to get other people involved.
  • It was great to be able to throw the ball into DJ Burns to get some baskets.
  • Obviously, we are going to play a lot bigger teams where they are going to play more post guys, but I just wanted to see a sample size of Dusan Mahorcic, but also DJ where we can score the ball inside.
    • We didn’t have that dimension last year.
      • I feel like we were more perimeter than anything.
    • But those 2 guys [Dusan and DJ] are very unselfish.
  • I think every team is [worried about rebounding], unless you’ve got that 1 dominant rebounder and most teams don’t.
    • There’s a few teams that have that 1 dominant rebounder.
    • I think you have to rebound by committee now because more of basketball has become more positionless.
    • People are more all over the place doing different stuff.
    • We will be a committee rebounding team.
    • Jack Clark has been our best rebounder so far in the 4 games.
      • What did he have tonight…9… and he didn’t play like Jack Clark has played, which is a good sign for us.
      • He has been our leading rebounder.
      • Then we have got guys who get 6, guys who get 4, and guys who get 3.
      • Similar to the way we were last year, I thought we were a really good offensive rebounding team (last season).
        • Where we want to show improvement is on the defensive end.
  • You know he [KJ Keatts] is the smallest guy on our team…I wish I looked like him at times…but I think the and-1 finish…he will be talking about that.
    • But now, his younger brother, Kaden, won’t think it is impressive.
      • He will be like, “it was a weak move” or something like that.
    • I was proud. I was happy. I am happy for all of our guys.
    • Alex Nunnally goes in and bangs a 3 that sends us over 100.
    • Then you see KJ driving. It was a great moment for a Dad.
  • I don’t have to say anything to Chase Graham about his layup.
    • The team is killing him right now just so you know.
    • He tried to tell them he was euro-stepping, but I don’t know. I never thought he got to that part of it.

 

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.

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NC State Basketball

NC State’s NET Ranking After Defeating Maryland Eastern Shore

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NC State defeated Maryland Eastern Shore 93-61 last night, improving to 6-2 on the season. Ironically, they fell one spot in the NET Rankings, from 51st to 52nd.

(NCAA)

NC State’s two losses were against #1 BYU (!) and Ole Miss (#89). BYU was a Quad 1 loss, and Ole Miss was a Quad 2 loss.

The Wolfpack currently rank 7th in the ACC.

ACC Teams in NET Rankings

17) Clemson
23) Virginia
37) UNC
38) Miami
42) Duke
46) Pittsburgh
52) NC State
71) Virginia Tech
91) Boston College
105) Wake Forest
107) Florida St.
114) Syracuse
159) Georgia Tech
212) Notre Dame
276) Louisville

For a refresher on how the NET Rankings are calculated:

Image

Using the quadrant system, which was in its fourth season in 2020-21, the quality of wins and losses will be organized based on game location and the opponent’s NET ranking.

Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75
Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135
Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240
Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353
The number of Quadrant 1 wins and Quadrant 3/4 losses will be incredibly important when it comes time for NCAA tournament selection and seeding. (NCAA)

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NC State Basketball

Kansas Transfer MJ Rice Makes Quite the Impression in his NC State Debut

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We’ve seen a lot of new faces on the NC State Men’s Basketball team this season, but one face we haven’t seen yet is Kansas Transfer Guard/Forward M.J. Rice (6’5″/215)…until tonight.

Rice stepped away from the program for personal reasons earlier this Fall, and when he returned, he had a little catching up to do. It wasn’t until today during shoot around that Rice and Keatts both knew that tonight would be his debut.

“He’d been practicing for the last couple of weeks, and you know, I was just trying to figure out when he was ready. He and I, we talked a little bit after shoot around today and I said ‘MJ you ready to go tonight?'” said Kevin Keatts. “and he had this big huge smile on his face. He’s like ‘You sure you ready?’ He’s like ‘Ask me some plays.’ So he and I sit over there on the scores table at the Dale and we went over plays and I was like ‘You know what, you are ready to play.'”

Out of all the transfers Keatts brought in this offseason, Rice might have the highest ceiling. Rice was a 5-Star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, and ON3 ranked him as the #24 overall prospect nationally. He committed to Kansas, where he played in 23 games for the Jayhawks as a Freshman in 2022, averaging 2.2 points in 7.6 minutes per game. Rice was a huge pickup in the Transfer Portal, ranked as the #2 player in the Portal, with three years of eligibility remaining.

Rice also isn’t new to the area either, playing high school ball at Durham Academy, before heading off to Oak Hill Academy and Prolific Prep.

In a short sample size, Rice gave us a glimpse of what the hype is all about tonight. He scored 11 points in 11 minutes of play, also grabbing 6 boards. Rice was 5-6 from the field, and hit the only three he took. In the most electrifying play of the night, Rice took it coast-to-coast, finishing with a soaring dunk.

“He gives us another dimension. We’ve been playing with six of our new dudes. Now we added the seventh and I’m happy for him. He’s going to help us. He’s going to be really good for us.” said Keatts. “I said this on the radio just now…we’ve got some older guys, but two really good young players in Dennis Parker Jr. and also MJ Rice. It was good for MJ to see the ball going in. I think he played 10 minutes had 11 points. He made a three. He had a big time dunk, so I was excited for him.”

“He gives us the ability to play a little bit more small ball. If we have to, we can play him and Dennis Parker both at the three and four. Really good defender at that position and can rebound the basketball,” said Keatts. “It’s going to take time. I’m trying to figure out how to kind of put him into the rotation, and now we’ve added another really good exciting piece to it, but it was good to have him back out there.”

Welcome to the Pack MJ! We’re glad you’ve arrived!

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NC State Basketball

NC State 93 UMES 61: BOX SCORE

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NC State improved to 6-2 on the year tonight, defeating UMES 93-61 in Reynolds Coliseum. Below is the Box Score.

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NC State Basketball

Pack Insider’s Highlight Reel of NC State’s Win Over BC

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Ready to watch NC State’s Men’s Basketball team play in the ‘old barn’ tonight against Maryland Eastern-Shore? Well, until 7pm, go ahead and get yourself hype by watching Pack Insider’s Highlight Reel of the Wolfpack’s ACC opening win over BC this past Saturday. Check it out above.

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