Kevin Keatts Press Conference After Louisville Win: TRANSCRIPT

Kevin Keatts met with the media for his postgame press conference after NC State beat Louisville 76-64 tonight. You can watch it here, or check out the transcript below.

Proud of my guys, and here’s why. This is always the toughest game to play, that game right before Christmas and I wanted to keep them focused and it didn’t matter who we were going to play.

It’s tough because we played an ACC team, even though it’s a team that hasn’t had a lot of early success. I’m gonna give Kenny [Payne] a lot of credit. His team is still playing hard even though they don’t have a great record right now, and believe it or not, they’ll win a few games in the ACC if they just continue to play hard and compete.

I thought the difference in the game is in the 2nd half we came out with a lot more energy. Proud of the way we passed the ball. Look at it, we had 17 assists on 26 made field goals. You know we’re really good, I think we’re undefeated this year when we have 11 or more assists in the game. The great thing about it, we had five guys in double figures which I thought was really really good.

I’m happy our guys get a chance to go home for a couple days and be able to hang out with family and that’s important to me.

I didn’t think we played hard enough in the first half and that’s just not who we are, not this particular team, so I had a few choice words and you know we we talked about it, and I thought our energy level went up to another level in the second half and thought guys really got after it.

We shared the ball. We didn’t make some shots we would normally make. I didn’t think Terquavion Smith was Terquavion Smith today, but that being said, we have to find ways to win when our two leading scorers don’t play great.

One of our bench guys, DJ Burns, has become a starter, and so as we continue to go, we’ve got to continue to develop someone else off the bench. He played 33 minutes tonight. I’m trying to get him up to 40. If I can get that guy to play 40 minutes you guys ought to give me a gift. He’s as gifted post guy scoring a ball that I’ve seen in a long time, and you know there is no traditional Centers anymore, and for a guy that you can throw the ball inside, and can get baskets, that means a lot, but he’s talented. If I can continue to help him get better defensively, I know that’s a stretch, but we’re going to continue to work on it. He’s really good. He’s tough to stop down there.

They’ll be off the 23rd, 24th and then Christmas and then we’ll get them back on the 26th and we’ll practice, and it’s important. I encourage everyone in this room just like I told the players, there’s some person or a bunch of people that made it possible for you guys to be where you’re at right now, and when I told our guys when you go home, the easy thing is to hang out with your friends, or to hang out with a girlfriend, but go see someone, put a smile on someone’s face. You don’t know what other people are going through, and so I encourage you guys the with the same thing. If you get time over Christmas, make someone else smile. We forgot the true meaning of Christmas, and I know it’s about great gifts. I know my wife’s gonna get great gifts, but at the end of the day, it’s about family, and so make it about family

Casey’s [Morsell] worked really hard to become a really good three-point shooter, and when he runs the floor and gets out, and we can advance the basketball, he’s usually very efficient from there, but you’re talking about, I’ve got about four or five guys that I call workout Warriors. He’s one of those guys. He stays in the gym. He stays working on his game. He’ll grab a manager when we can’t work him out, but I’m proud of him, because of the hard work that he’s put in to get to this point. I just think he’s getting comfortable, and you know, I know that sounds weird, because he’s been here for a couple years, but he played in a very good system that was completely different than the way we play, so I think he’s starting to realize how to play fast and to be able to score that way.

We will see if he’s [Isaiah Miranda] ready for the Clemson game. I would say maybe Clemson, maybe Duke, and the toughest thing for him is right now, is his head is spinning, we are throwing so much at him. This kid was in high school last week, and so trying to figure out ball screen coverages, knowing plays, and getting in shape. Believe it or not, you guys will laugh when I tell you this, DJ Burns is in better shape than Isaiah right now. Now that won’t last.

I love all of my guys from last year, we just were so undermanned, we just didn’t have it, but this group, because of Bahamas, because they hate to get off the court, we’re building a great culture inside of this group by itself and they are holding each other accountable, and you know they’re friends off the court, and certainly I think that’s paying off.

I think that’s the key word grow. You know we would have lost a week ago, we would have lost a Vanderbilt game, because we couldn’t finish the game. We grew, I thought we grew in that game, and then obviously we needed to have baskets. I thought we did a good job tonight, but that’s because we trust one another, and they’re starting to trust each other, and it’s really fun to watch when you got a bunch of guys that like each other and they feel like playing a game.