Kevin Keatts’ 2024-25 Preseason Press Conference: TRANSCRIPT

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media yesterday for his 2024-25 preseason press conference, with practice starting on Monday. Check out the Transcript below.

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I had a great summer, not a good summer. If anybody asks me how my summer was, it was a great summer. I got a chance to do a lot of good things. I had a chance to reflect on a lot of things. I watched every game backwards. The nine elimination games that we won, amazing. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It was an unbelievable run that our guys had.

I’m proud of it. I’m proud for everybody that’s a part of Wolfpack nation. The former players, the current players, the alumni. It was so great to run into a bunch of people this summer. You know that you won a lot of games when you get a bunch of grown men that are crying and saying ‘what a great tournament run.’ We were excited. ACC champions.

Those 5 days in D.C. were incredible. They were incredible because our team loaded that plane to go to D.C. understanding what the task was and we did it. We did a great job at doing it one game at a time and getting to the championship and making the tournament.

When we went into the tournament, we didn’t just want to go to the tournament after having such a great ACC run. We wanted the opportunity to go win the national championship and make it to the Final Four. Eventually losing to a really good Purdue team. It was a very successful season for us.

We move on. We put that in the past. Excited about the banner that we will eventually hang. We start practice, it’ll be 2 of those banners now. Southwestern region champion and ACC Champion, Final Four. Then we move on and we start practice on Monday. This group is very focused and excited about practice.

Are you the same coach as last season?

I am the same coach. I go back, and I’ve told you this over the last 7 years, I do a lot of reflection in the offseason. On myself, on our team. ‘How can we get better?’ You go back and look at a lot of things. Nothing’s changed. We were even that team that you saw last year that everybody, in my opinion, panicked at the end of the year because we lost the last four games. They were the same team going into the tournament. We knew that we could be a really good basketball team. We just stopped making mistakes.

To answer your question, no, I’m the same. I’m always going to be happy. I’m always gonna be excited. I get an opportunity to work with a new group. That’s what really motivates me.

Improving as a coach this offseason

I was really good. I don’t know what type of post coach I’m going to be now with DJ Burns gone. All my life, I’ve had some really good players and really good post guys, but we play with a lot of guards and played through guards. That guy, I don’t think we understand the impact that he had on our program. He was unique.

I’ll be honest with you, I went out to try to find anybody I thought could be similar to DJ Burns. Guess what? I found no one. We got good players but they’re different.

As far as a different coach, nothing different. I understand I’m a little bit calmer than I am. Maybe that’s because I’m getting older, one more year older. As far as the way we prepare, the way we do things is pretty much the same.

Post players this season

I have 2 great, proven Centers in our league. Ben (Middlebrooks) where he started at Clemson and then making the run that he made. I think back in every game, I can point to a guy who was really good. We don’t get past Texas Tech if he didn’t have that great night. You saw him being mature. He’s going to be really good.

“Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) being at Louisville, though they didn’t win a lot of games, his stats and his numbers were really good. Those two guys are really unique. They’re different than DJ Burns. They’re more pick and pop guys that can get up and down the floor a lot better than he can. They’re really good on ball screen defense. I got two guys.

Then when we throw Ish (Diouf) in there, Ish can play some 4 and some 5. I got 3 really solid frontcourt guys that I really liked that could play some 5 for us.

Balancing reflecting on last year, and moving forward to this season

It’s different. If I had 7 or 8 guys back we would talk about it a lot more. We got 5 guys back and of those 5, 3 guys really played. In college basketball, it’s a one-year deal now. Though we’re excited and pumped up about it, we have to turn the page. We got 3 or 4 more days where we’re going to celebrate what we did last year. Then we’re going to move on on Monday and be ready with this different group.

I got so many new pieces. The 5 guys that are back, 3 of them that played a lot which is Michael (O’Connell), Jayden (Taylor) and Ben, have been great leaders for us. Trying to develop the culture and keep the culture the way it is. How hard we play and what we talk about.

Breon Pass is still here after 4 years

We should appreciate Breon Pass. I’ve said this before, very seldom will you see a guy start at a Power 5 school and end up graduating there. They will either transfer or they’ll go to the pros early or whatever it has to be. I’m excited about him. He’ll be in the mix this year as an older guy.

Understanding the 2 guys that really benefited from the run that may not have played a lot would be Breon and also Dennis Parker Jr. Sometimes, as you sit and watch, being able to watch is like playing too. You get a chance to see people’s mistakes and how you can get better. You can tell Breon has a little focus and wants to be in the mix more.”

Ismael Diouf

We talked about whether we were going to go with the 12 scholarship guys this year. At one point we thought about maybe we would go with 12 and hold a scholarship for the second semester. We got to talking and calling around. We figured out that Ish was a good player and somebody that could fit into the way we wanted to play. We lost a really good rebounder in Mo (Diarra). Ish is different. Ish can play some 4 and 5. He gives us the versatility to move him to different positions because of his ability to pick and pop.

Do you put much stock in the regular season after last year?

How could I answer that question without somebody being disturbed by it? No, you have to play the entire year. I said this before, I will say this again. What’s disappointing is that we’ve got a great ACC basketball league. Now we’re going to 18. What was disappointing is that if we didn’t make our run and we don’t make the tournament by winning the tournament, the ACC gets four teams out of 15 into the tournament. I am hopeful that all of our ACC teams have a great November and December because it seems like the committee’s more valuing what you do in the early season as opposed to the tournament.

We don’t have the luxury. No one in our conference has the luxury of waiting until the tournament. We all have to win early if we want more teams in the tournament.

Scheduling a game vs. Kansas

What was I thinking? We wanted to be challenged. I said this before, if we have opportunities to start great home-and-homes with programs, we would do that. It presented itself for us to play Kansas. We get a chance to go. Our guys get a chance early to play in that atmosphere. I would imagine they will be #1 or #2 when we do travel there. We also get a chance for them to come back here and play us. It’s a good deal for us. We’re excited about it. We’re excited.

I know I’m going to get questions about when’s the schedule going to be released. Somebody was waiting. They didn’t want to start the press conference that way. Thank y’all. I’ll tell you, I’ll answer it now. You’ll have the entire schedule probably on Tuesday. There will be ACC included. We were so close to releasing a nonconference. Then we said, ‘Hey, the ACC schedule is going to be ready too.’ We’re going to release it all at once. Without getting in trouble. I would guess that you will see it sometime on Tuesday.

3-man Freshmen Class

I love what they bring to the table. None of those guys act as though they’re Freshmen. They all believe that they can play. You look at Bryce (Heard) and you look at Paul (McNeil), the one thing that’s stood out about both of those guys is they’ve both added about 10 pounds of muscle. When you guys get a chance to see them in a little bit, you’ll see a bigger version of them. They are 2 guys who can play some 2 and 3 that have a chance to be really good in this program.

Trey (Parker) is unique. Trey is a combo guard that’s super athletic, that can play on the 2 and 1. Those 3 guys will compete for playing time. It’s not like we’re bringing them in as Freshmen, even though we’re in the transfer era, thinking that they won’t play. Those guys are going to have great opportunities to get on the floor.

Bryce Heard’s maturity despite his age

Bryce is good. I caution everyone for thinking, and I’ve read this a couple of times, because he is the last guy, that folks have talked about Bryce coming here to be a redshirt guy. That was not ever in the plans. If it happens with any of the Freshmen, we’ll talk about it if we don’t feel like they will play enough minutes. He’s recruited to come in and play right now.

It’s hard to recruit guys if you think they’re going to come redshirt. He’s going to have every opportunity. Now, that being said, if we get close to the season and I feel like any of those Freshmen aren’t ready, we will have a different conversation. They’re all going to compete, starting on Monday, for an opportunity to play.

Favorite moment with this team thus far

This is a great bunch. For the first time in my career here we’ve got a bunch of self starters. These guys, we got 98% of our team that outside of us, when we’re allowed to work them out, right now we’re in a period where they can only be 4 hours on the court with us, those guys live in the gym. They love it. They love to play pickup. They get after each other. They’re developing some type of chemistry.

We’ve done some Top Golf. We do it through tailgating. We have a pretty good tailgate over there. We’re going to have a couple. We’re taking them out to dinner tonight so we can get together. The one thing that we’re trying to do is we’re trying to force chemistry or develop chemistry. People can use it one way or the other. With us, we’re trying to, one thing about the group last year, that bond was so tight that when we got towards the end of the year we were prepared for March. Like every coach says, let’s get prepared for March. This group, I want them to get together more than they are right now with new people.

Team building trip with the team

We’ll have our annual trip to Wilmington in the next couple of weeks. We do that and get out on the beach. It’s not all fun. You guys think we’re going down to Wilmington just to have fun. It’s not all about that. It’s a bonding trip. We learn so much about each other and everything else. We’ll have that trip in a couple of weeks.

How do you know when a team has chemistry?

We had an hour this morning. I won’t say which team because one team got their butt kicked this morning. It was defensively. It was everything. We pressed the entire hour. You can just see guys understanding where to be on the court. It’s weird because we talk about so much of offensive chemistry to win games.

One of our biggest strengths at the end of the year, our defensive chemistry was so good. That’s what we’re starting to develop a little bit earlier with this group. This group is a little further along defensively than the other group. Last year we were further along offensively because we had some good players that returned.”

Dontrez Styles controlling his emotions when he plays UNC

We don’t play Georgetown. He transferred from Georgetown. He’s one school removed. He shouldn’t be emotional when we play at North Carolina. These guys are competitors. No matter how much as coaches we downplay opportunities and playing guys who are local, they understand that. They play. I would be lying to you if I told you that emotions will not be involved. That’s a great question to ask Dontrez. I would imagine he has some type of emotion.

Styles’ development since high school

He’s grown in a lot of ways. He is starting to shoot the ball better than he ever did. Coming out of high school, for you guys who followed Dontrez, he was a really good player, but he was more athlete than he was skilled. Now his skill level is pretty good. He had a great year from stats at Georgetown. We hope that we can put that into our system. He’s unique because we can play him at some power forward and also at small forward position. The biggest thing he’s grown from is his ability to score the basketball and shoot it behind the three-point line.

Michael O’Connell’s growth from the end of last season

For all of you guys who wrote this guy wasn’t a point guard…and I know y’all did, too. I ain’t calling a couple of people out in here because it’s not what this is about. What a great postseason from the guy who couldn’t shoot, that everybody said was slow and couldn’t shoot. He went from whatever he shot at Stanford, I think 20 percent, to 37 percent from behind the three-point line. Of course he’s booming. The guy’s playing at a high level. He’s a really good basketball player. He’s a tremendous person. His leadership has been really, really good.

When we became a better team is when Michael found his voice. He wasn’t a big talker. One time I turned around in the locker room during the run and I heard somebody talking. He was encouraging, getting after people. I looked around like ‘Hold on, is that Michael?’ What he’s done now, he’s got a lot of confidence. And he should. His run was incredible. It started when DJ Horne could not play against Louisville. All of a sudden we went from a guy who scored six points a game to now he’s 14 to 15. Great program, man. Coaches do a good job of developing that guy.

NC State in the Transfer Portal

There’s a difference. We’ve done well in the portal. We’ve done well in the portal. We’ve done well before you could sit out. We go back to Devin Daniels and CJ Bryce. We go back to Al Freeman. We’ve done well. We have a lot to sell when we talk about transfers. Those guys who have come into our program have impacted our program and helped us win.

The run helps. Being able to say ‘Hey, this is what we did last year. Look what DJ Horne did. DJ Horne had an incredible year. Here’s what DJ Burns did. Casey Morsell.’ The seven dudes that really played for us at the end, they all started their careers at another school. We had a lot to sell as far as coming into a program being ready to play.

Pressure to repeat the end of last season

I don’t think it’s because we went to the tournament there’s pressure. We want to do it every year. We want to have that opportunity. I remind everyone it is so tough in this league with the amount of teams that they’re putting in the tournament. In the last couple of years, we’ve had five. It’s only been three teams that’s been the back-to-back NCAA Tournament. We happen to be one.

It’s really hard. I know sometimes, as fans and I know as you guys cover when you’re writing, I want you to think about this now when you’re killing that coach because he’s not making the tournament, think about the percentages of it. There’s five teams the last couple years and we’ve done it twice. It’s some great programs that have been around for a long time that haven’t been to back-to-back tournaments in this league.

It’s not fair because the ACC, we’re going to 18 teams. We’ve had 15. That being said, we should be getting nine, 10 teams in. When you get five. It’s hard. It’s really hard. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been back-to-back. We want another opportunity to go to back-to-back-to-back tournaments and have the chance too.

Is this years team faster?

This team is faster than last year’s team, but we ran a lot last year, too. Here’s what was unique about this team. This is what made DJ Burns such a special player. We ran when he didn’t. When we didn’t get an early basket, that’s what he did. We threw the ball inside to him or we threw it to the top of the key. He was such a great passer that he made some amazing things.

We’ll get a few more transition baskets from our post. But that’s not not to take away from DJ Burns. He was smart enough to understand who he was. We played fast. When we needed to go through him, it became him and Michael as the point guards.

Burns playing professionally in Korea

He’s getting his chance. What a great personality. I don’t think you guys understand getting a chance to cover a guy who is that unique, who’s a really good basketball player. He was very grateful for every interview that he had with you guys.

I don’t know that I will ever coach a guy with a personality that big. He’s a big teddy bear. You think about his impact off the court. He’s the first guy, when he leaves and he goes up upstairs and leaves the arena, he’s out there taking pictures with fans,. He’s involved and everything else.

I’m so happy to see him perform at the highest level. Unfortunately, I wish he was in the NBA. The difference is the NBA doesn’t play with that type of center now like it used to,. He’s going to make a lot of money. He’s going to be very successful at whatever he does.

Did NC State earn the respect it deserved last season?

No. No, we didn’t. We went to the Final Four. In the final poll we were #10. Some people do pretty good math. How does that work? That’s part of it. Whether we get it or not, it’s our job as a coach and player that we’ve got to go out and earn it. Every year is different. We can’t live on the memory of last year’s team. Nor can Purdue, nor can UCONN, nor can Alabama. We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to create our own opportunities with this group.

How is this team improved?

We have to figure out a couple of things. We had two unique guys. The DJs were really good. I say that from an offensive standpoint. DJ Horne could break off a play and go score. His impact was really good. DJ Burns was, we talked about that enough, how unique he was. A great passer. Mo was a tremendous rebounder. Casey Marcel did a little bit of everything. Didn’t shoot it as well as he did in the previous year but defensively, he was really good. He showed leadership. We lost those four Seniors who were really good.

We have some older guys that have to step up. We didn’t know during preseason that DJ Horne was going to be as good as he played. We knew he was going to be a good player, but he stepped up. He had a stretch during the regular season when he was really, really, really good. We’re looking for that type of player. Whether it’s going to be Marcus (Hill), whether it’s going to be JT (Jayden Taylor), whether it’s going to be one of the younger guys.

We’re looking for guys to fill those roles. They’re not trying to do it the same way that those guys did it. Nobody’s going to play like Mo. When Mo realized that his bread and butter was going in there and rebounding the basketball, we became a really good basketball team. He would make the occasional three, he would rebound the ball. Casey, who didn’t shoot it well but decided ‘hey, I’m not shooting it well but I’m going to become a great defensive player.’ The player that I’ve always jabbed at him about being, one of the better defensive players. These guys now have to find their identity in this group.

Does last years success help the new players transition?

Because Louisville didn’t have a great year record-wise, those guys have been a little bit forgotten. I hope they understand that. With Mike James and Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield), they both have a chance to be really good basketball players here. I’ve talked on Brandon, but Mike James, he has two years to play. He’s a big, strong wing that can shoot the basketball, that can drive the basketball. He has a chance to be good.

Marcus (Jones) comes in as our highest returning scorer in college at 20 points a game. Yeah, he did it at the mid major level, but he’s really good. He’s a paint touch guy who can play both positions. Both of those guys can really have a big impact on our program. I want all our transfers to play older. I want them to be transfers. Even though they played at different universities, I want the experience to be brought into NC State.

Returning players bringing transfers along

I said this earlier: there’s not another player in the country that’s having as much fun as Ben. Some of you guys have probably seen him downtown a little bit. Don’t tell me because I don’t want to know. That man is having a great time. They play with swag. They play with a sense of urgency. They’re out front showing people what we do and how we do it and the culture that we built. It’s been great. I’ve been in an era where you don’t have many returners. You want to have, at least the small amount of returners that you have, be leaders. They all have shown some leadership during this.

Secret sauce to finding good transfers

Yeah, but I’m not going to tell you that. I told you now, we’ve been good with transfers. A lot of people can say how good their transfers have been. Our transfers have been really good. I’m not giving up what I look for in a transfer. I will say this, it’s important to find guys that fit the way you want to play. I will say that. So many people make some mistakes in taking some guys that don’t fit. You guys won’t argue with me that DJ Burns didn’t fit the way I wanted to play. I’m going to argue with you and say ‘yeah he did.’ I wanted to throw the ball inside a little bit more, that’s all.”

Former players caring about last seasons run

No, our former players are great. They really are. They were involved in the game. A lot of them could not make the game. They were watching, they were yelling. Even though I may not have talked to all of them, I talked to some of them, they were talking to our players. We got the connection with Levi (Watkins) as a former player. They were ecstatic.

When we won the ACC after 37 years, it was great because it wasn’t just about us. It was about everybody who’s ever worn the uniform, making them proud, but also giving them a little bragging rights because the way we did it was unique. It couldn’t have been scripted any better. The teams that we played and how we won and who we beat and everything else. It was great. I’m happy for our former players.

When you win a championship here at NC State for the basketball program, it’s not just for the basketball program. It’s for our entire school. It’s for our entire alumni base. It’s for our entire fans. It means something. What makes it special is that no one saw it coming. It means so much to everybody. You won’t believe this but our players and us, we talked about it. We talked about, going into D.C., that we were going to do it. We talked about it after Louisville. We talked about it after Syracuse. We talked about it after Duke. We talked about it after the regulation against Virginia, too. We were like alright, we’ve got a chance now because we hit that big shot.

Some people go through and they cover teams and they may not ever win a championship. If this is your first time winning the championship by covering NC State basketball, then this is for you, too.