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Kevin Keatts After NC State’s Victory Over Austin Peay: BULLETED

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NC State Men’s Basketball Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media last night in his post game press conference, after the Wolfpack beat Austin Peay 99-50 in their season opener. You can watch the press conference here, or check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

  • Great energy for opening night, our guys came out with a lot of passion.
  • We set the tone on the defensive end.
  • I know we’re going to talk about the fact that we scored 99 points.
  • I’m proud that we were able to turn them over 20 times.
  • I thought we did a great job of keeping them in front.
    • They have great size for a mid-major team.
    • They did a great job, especially on Elijah Hutchins Everett in the 2nd half. I’m proud of them.
  • We played on both ends of the floor.
  • We were able to make shots, share the ball and had 19 assists on 40 made field goals, 11 three-pointers.
  • We were efficient from the free-throw line.
  • We’ll take the game, we will continue to build on it and continue to get better.
  • Terquavion Smith was fantastic tonight, he did a great job, very efficient, and made some really good plays. He played on both ends of the floor.
  • I thought it was great [no scoring lulls].
    • That’s what we try to work on when you’ve got some older guys.
    • A guy like Jarkel Joiner, you can talk to him and he can lead our younger guys, which I thought was outstanding.
    • It was good that we didn’t have those two or three minutes where we didn’t score.
  • We had fun at times [last year], but this is a good bunch.
    • They have bonded both on and off the court.
    • We will continue to be a work in progress. We will continue to get better.
  • “I think that it was great [opening the season like they did].
    • This is the toughest game, in my opinion, in college…the 1st game of the year.
    • I don’t care who it is around the country, it’s still tough no matter who you’re playing against, because you just don’t know.
    • You want to get off to a good start, which we did.
    • I’ve been on the other side of it in the 1st game where we were able to squeak away with a win, but we didn’t play well.
    • I thought everything went as we planned tonight.
  • They were great [big men DJ Burns and Dusan Mahorcic].
    • I usually tune the crowd out and get locked in, but when DJ made those first baskets, man, you could just hear everybody like, “Woah, here we go now.”
    • Those guys were tremendous. I consider both of those guys starters.
    • I think between the two of them we had 18 points and 14 rebounds. DJ Burns had 9 of them [rebounds].
    • They played well. We have two guys where we feel like we can throw the ball in there and score.
    • They both are getting better. Dusan’s a little better on the defensive end, but trust me, we’re working with DJ to get better in those areas. But I love that we can score some inside baskets.
    • What makes those 2 guys great is their competition in practice is unbelievable.
      • Half of the time they foul each other every day, but at the end of the day they really make each other better.
  • DJ [Burns] is playing hard. I’m proud of him, because one of the knocks on him is that he couldn’t rebound the basketball, but he can score.
    • I think he did a good job defensively and rebounding the basketball.
  • When you have a veteran guard [Jarkel Joiner] in college basketball it goes a long way.
    • We talked about what Jarkel did tonight, he had 18 [points] and 8 [assists] and only 2 turnovers as much as he had the basketball.
    • He really works so hard, he puts in so much work every day.
    • He’ll drag someone into the gym tomorrow. We’re off tomorrow, I don’t get to see him, but I can guarantee you Jarkel Joiner will be one of those guys probably in the gym with someone else working on his game.
    • To have a veteran guy who the player respects and plays hard on every possession. I’m proud of him.
  • This is a confident bunch, we’re going to have a lot of success, and we’ll have some ups and downs, but at the end of the day, I think because they are veterans, we will save that moment for a long time.
    • I think those guys are able to fight through some adversity and everything else.
    • It’s good to have older guys.
  • I think it’s a talented backcourt [Terquavion Smith & Jarkel Joiner].
    • These guys feed off each other.
    • I can move either one of them to the 1 and 2…we’re playing Terquavion a little bit more at the 1.
  • Greg’s [Gantt] knee has been bothering him a little bit.
    • He got an injection in his knee, and we just decided to hold him out.
    • There’s nothing major with anything. He just got a shot, and it’s really aggravating him a little bit.
    • He got the shot on Saturday after the game, and it’s kind of been really sore for him.
    • I hope he’ll be back for the Campbell game.
      • That’s the plan, I’ll say, until I diagnose him on Wednesday. We’ll be off tomorrow, but that’s the plan.
  • I want them to play with a lot of energy.
    • It’s great when your star player [Terquavion Smith] is playing with that type of emotion.
    • It’s great when the guys who are playing the most minutes are the most energetic guys on the sidelines, and that helps.
  • We talk about winning the 4 minute segment and going to a timeout, “Let’s win the 4-minute segment.”
    • At halftime, when you have such a big lead, I think we were up 28, sometimes it’s hard to maintain and to play at a high level when you have a bigger lead.
    • We talked about, “Hey, play like a scrimmage. I want it to be zero-zero [in their minds]. Let’s figure out how we can win the half.”
    • I think the guys did a great job winning the 2nd half. I think we came out the first 2 or 3 minutes in the 2nd half and did some really good stuff. They scored a little bit, and then we locked in.

 

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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Papajohn
Papajohn
1 year ago

Excellent first game. Campbell will be tougher on Friday.

NC State Basketball

An NC State Win Over Marquette in the Sweet 16 Would Be…

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Awesome. Obviously.

#11 seed NC State will play #2 seed Marquette tomorrow night in the Sweet 16. What would a win mean for the Wolfpack? Many things, but here’s just a few:

It would give NC State 25 wins on the year (25-14), which would be the most wins since 1982-83, when the Wolfpack went 26-10, winning the National Championship.

It would mark the 12th time in school history that NC State has won 25+ games in a single season.

1982-83 – 26-10 

1973-74 – 30-1 

1972-73 – 27-0 

1954-55 – 28-4 

1953-54 – 26-7

1952-53 – 26-6 

1950-51 – 30-7 

1949-50 – 27-6 

1948-49 – 25-8 

1947-48 – 29-3

1946-47- 26-5

It would be the 7th time NC State has advanced to the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament.

1950

1951

1974

1983

1985

1986

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NC State Basketball

NC State has Won 5 ACC Championships this Year

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NC State has won 5 ACC Championships this year, which is the most of any athletic program in the conference this year.

The Wolfpack has won ACC Titles in Women’s Cross Country, Men’s Swimming & Diving, Wrestling, Men’s Basketball and Gymnastics.

The last time NC State won 5 ACC Championships in one year was 1979-80.

As far as I can tell, here’s a look at the Wolfpack Conference Titles from 1979-80:

Football
Women’s Basketball
Women’s Cross Country
Men’s Swimming & Diving
Men’s Tennis

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NC State Basketball

NC State is 1 of 4 Schools to Have Both Men & Women’s Basketball Teams in Sweet 16

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NC State is 1 of 4 schools to have their Men and Women’s Basketball teams BOTH advance to the Sweet 16, along with Duke, Gonzaga and UCONN.

NC State and Duke are the only two schools in the country to send both Basketball teams to the Sweet 16, and also send the Football team to a bowl game.

This marks only the third time in school history that BOTH teams made the Sweet 16.

Years NC State’s Men & Women’s Teams Made the Sweet 16

1985
1989
2024

Despite the fact that the Men’s team has made the Elite 8 six times (1950, 1951, 1974, 1983, 1985, 1986), and the Women have made it 2 times (1998 & 2022), in the three occasions they both went to the Sweet 16 in the same year, neither team advanced to the Elite 8.

In 2024, Why Not Us?

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NC State Basketball

#3 seed NC State Holds on Against #6 Seed Tennessee, Defeating the Vols 79-72 to Advance to the Sweet 16

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#3 seed NC State held on last night, defeating #6 seed Tennessee 79-72 in Reynolds Coliseum to advance to the Sweet 16 for the 5th time in the last 6 tournaments.

The Wolfpack led by only 1 after the 1st Quarter, but they looked like they had things under control at halftime, leading by 18 points.

At one point, NC State led by as much as 20 points in the 3rd Quarter, but the Lady Volunteers weren’t about to give up.

With 4:19 left in the 4th, Tennessee cut the lead to 2 points, but NC State might have bent, but they wouldn’t break.

Junior Guard Aziaha James led the way with 22 points and 7 assists, which were both team highs. She scored 7 points in the final 3.5 minutes, helping to squash tue Last Vols’ comeback attempt.

Junior Guard Saniya Rivers had 20 points (6-14 FG) and 6 boards.

Freshman Zoe Brooks was clutch off the bench, chipping in 16 points and 6 boards.

This marks the 16th time the NC State Women’s Basketball team has advanced to the Sweet 16.

The Wolfpack will play #2 seed Stanford on Friday night at 7:30pm on ESPN in Portland.

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