Kevin Keatts Breaks Down NC State’s Victory Over Lees-McRae in Exhibition

NC State defeated Lees-McRae last night in their lone exhibition game of the 2024-25 season. Wolfpack Head Coach Kevin Keatts broke the game down in his postgame press conference afterwards. The transcript is below.

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Last dress rehearsal, and I think we can learn a lot from our secret scrimmage. We can also learn a lot from our last 20 minutes. I thought we did a really good job in our first 20 minutes.

Second half, I started big guys against small guys, and we came out and we turned the ball over three straight times. It’s a lot that we can learn from this.

As crazy as this sounds, I would much rather have this game than have a 40-point win because I don’t get a chance to see guys be able to react and who’s going to make free throws and who’s gonna be good at the end. I reminded our guys this, and I’ll remind you guys of this too, last year Mount Olive was 89-79, and we’re ACC champs.

I played 11 guys. I didn’t call one timeout until the end. I just wanted the guys to play through some different stuff.

I could have stopped a couple runs, but I wanted our guys to figure it out, and then we would get better for it. And so I like it. You know now we’ve got their attention to a couple things we’ve got to clean up. I thought we fouled too much, and it’s weird because we had too many offensive fouls. Also, you know we talked about Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) and those guys.

It’s a little tougher when you’re playing against smaller guys. If it’s a big vs. big, typically they don’t call those things. But they did.

But this is it now. We’re going to take off tomorrow, and we’re going to prepare Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And then, we’re into a new season, and I’m excited about it.

I think we’ve got a lot to look forward to and a lot to build on.

What was your message in the locker room after that one?

I just said, ‘hey, you’ve got to play better than we did in the second half. And a lot of that is what I did and what they didn’t do or what they did and what I did or all those type of things.

And so I just said I wanted us to play a little bit better. We had some combinations out there that I’ve never seen in practice, but I was throwing guys in and out and all that other stuff. I know you guys and people will look at it different. With me, I’m just trying to get through the game with nobody getting hurt and throw a bunch of guys out there to get a little chance to play in front of a smaller crowd.

Thoughts on Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Ben Middlebrooks

Yeah, I just never thought they got involved. I just I thought, they were digging down and they just never was aggressive. And then Ben got aggressive and then we missed a lot of shots around the rim that we left out there.

And I don’t worry about those guys. I’ve seen those guys play the high level. I know how good they’re going to be.

It’s great, though, like as a coach, you can go back and say, ‘hey, you think you’re pretty good. Let me show you the second half.’ So it’s really good for us.

It’s a great learning experience. You guys know I love motivating, and so I’ll get an opportunity to say, ‘hey, this is what we got to get better at.’

These are the things we got to work on. I just I didn’t think our bench really got involved as much.

Can you talk about Michael O’Connell’s growth as a leader? It seemed like his presence out there sort of calmed the storm.

This was his first time…he practiced I want to say yesterday, and maybe the day before yesterday. We hadn’t even had him in practice, but it makes it better. I came into this this game wanting to play him so he could be in shape. So I knew I was going to play him for a lot of minutes because he hadn’t had any game experience.

He didn’t play in the scrimmage. He hadn’t practiced. So I wanted him to get his wind up.

But he’s a really good player. He’s solid. His leadership is good.

There’s no panic in him. He knew what he was doing when it was towards the end of the game.

What do you think this says more about your team, Coach, that throughout the duration of last year, a lot of times you all were hunting the other teams, and this year you have a big target on your back. But your team, you know, weathered the storm late second half still got a W.

I don’t think this particular game says anything about us. If it was a regular game, we would have played it completely different.

I mean, they were aggressive. They’re going to play hard. And it gives us problems because we try to play bigger and everything else.

But I’m not going to take anything from the team. I’m going to get better in the areas we got to get better. I just thought we missed too many free throws.

I thought we turned the ball over. Those are things that we can control.

Has it been harder integrating the numerous new faces that you do have in the roster this year compared to years past?

No, it’s going to be like this every year.

I mean, we’ve got eight guys. Last year we had eight guys. Next year we’re going to have eight guys. Year after that we’re going to have eight guys. So it’s always going to be tough. And so I look at it as you got to figure it out and get better from day-to-day, practice to practice.

And that’s all it is.

You didn’t call timeouts. You wanted them to figure things out? What type of resolve did you see from them?

I thought they were great. I didn’t want to, you know, they looking over at me and I’m looking at them like, ‘I’m not calling a timeout.’

You got to play through this stuff. I’m not going to call it. You got to figure it out.

The only time I called a timeout the entire game was when we went up four and I said, ‘hey, you’re up four at the end, don’t foul.’ But it’s a teaching experience.

Like Trey Parker, I had an opportunity in this game because I put him in at the end of the game and instead of dribbling the ball out, he threw a cross-court pass. See, that’s good. That’s a game situation where I can teach him how to be really good in that situation.

I thought Ben (Middlebrooks) could have been better at the free-throw line. He missed two. Trez (Styles) missed free-throws. JT (Jayden Taylor) missed free-throws.

And so now we got to figure out now how do you step up in those situations and make those free-throws. But, no, I mean, I came into the game. I’m saying I’m not calling a one-time-out.

I want to figure out how this works. I want to let these guys play through some stuff, and that’s what we did.

Bryce Heard did a lot of little things early on when the team, I believe, tied for the team lead at the half, seven points and three rebounds. Just your thoughts on what he’s done this offseason and how much he’s kind of pushing the veteran guys ahead?

You know, he’s starting to feel comfortable. And what makes Bryce be able to get on the floor, I don’t know how much he’s going to play as a freshman, but what helps him is he’s got a really strong knowledge of the game. He knows how to play.

Where most freshmen, you’re trying to figure out, defensively, how do you not be a liability and be able to score offensively, he’s starting to get it a little bit. He understands spacing. He knows how to cut.

And so that’s going to help him. I think the other 2 guys, as they get to playing a little bit more, I think they’ll feel comfortable. Paul McNeil is not shooting the ball well now because of the fact that he’s working harder now than he’s ever worked in his life. But once he starts getting in better shape, he’ll start making those type of shots that he used to make in high school.

How important is Breon Pass’ growth to this team?

Well, I think anytime you got a guy who has been here for four years and understands what the program’s about and how hard we compete, I mean, you can’t substitute that. And I think Breon’s going to be able to help us a little more this year than he’s done in the past.

How much are you looking forward getting to raise two banners?

I’m excited. I mean, listen, I can sit up here and tell you guys, man, that I’m not. I would be lying to you.

I mean, you think about it. I mean, how often do you get to raise two banners? I don’t care what sport you’re in. I mean, it’s been a long time.

And, you know, when you look up in those rafters, we came over here and practiced a couple of days. And, man, I see, you know, 83 and I see 74. And, man, what unbelievable championships they were.

We didn’t win a national championship. But you don’t have anything that’s current. Like most of you guys in this room have never seen a championship until we got it this year.

I’m happy for our fans. I’m happy for our students. I’m happy for our team.

I’m happy for our city. I’m happy for ACC basketball because we were able to deliver something that hasn’t happened in such a long time with a team that no one expected to happen. And that’s beautiful.

Like, we don’t take it for granted. Like, that’s a beautiful thing, ACC champions.

Are you kidding me? Five games, five days.

Yeah, I’m excited. I may act like I’m not, but I’m telling you, man, I’m pumped up about that. I’m excited because I’m going to sit there and be able to look up there and watch and see, knowing that I was a part of that as the coach here.

Do you have an update on Dennis (Parker Jr.) or Mike James?

So Dennis has had a string of bad luck. Before the scrimmage, he turned his ankle. He was practicing his way back.

He’s playing well. He turned his other ankle. So I don’t know.

I don’t know if we got to switch his shoes or whatever.

Mike’s going to be out for about three or four games, maybe, hopefully. I don’t know.

He had to get his knee scoped. Nothing major, but, you know, I don’t know. I would expect him to be out maybe the next two or three weeks, could even creep up to four weeks.

So we’re probably going to be going without him for a while. I mean, we’ve been banged up a little bit. Michael’s been banged up a little bit.

We didn’t have a couple of guys. Ish (Diouf) was out a couple of days. So honestly, having 11 guys or 11 scholarship guys today, that was the most that we’ve had in probably the last two or three weeks.

And so we got to get healthy. This team hasn’t had a chance to be on the court practicing together because we had so many guys out. And so we got to figure out now how to try to stay healthy so we can practice together so it shows in the game.