Kevin Keatts’ Postgame Press Conference After NC State’s Win Over Colgate: TRANSCRIPT

Wolfpack Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for his postgame press conference after NC State defeated Colgate 72-49 tonight. You can read the transcript below.

Did some really good things. It’s a game that you can see your team kind of growing in. This is a team that we play that has been to four straight NCAA tournaments, have won their conference (4 straight years).

This one may not seem as big right now, but it’ll pay off in March. It’s one of those things. But I thought our guys were completely locked in.

Ben (Middlebrooks) had three great days of practice leading to this where he just played with tremendous energy. And it’s always good to see you get rewarded on game day for how you practice. 19 points, 9-9 from the free throw line, 5-8 from the field.

I thought he started our defense with the deflection at the top of the key and then steal one on the other end.

I’m happy with where we are. This team is getting better per game, per practice, and that’s good.

We haven’t taken a step back, and I really like that part about us.

How good is it to see Marcus Hill be able to step up and especially hit some free throws tonight, too?

It was really good to see Marcus get back to his groove and play his game. A lot of times when you transfer here you’re always trying to overthink. We just say, ‘hey, just simplify the game in your mind and just play.’

That was the Marcus Hill we recruited, the guy that can get to the rack, the guy that can get to the free throw line. I thought he did a really good job. I thought he got himself going by rebounding the ball.

He had two really good, strong offensive rebounds and stick backs.

You had 22 points in the paint in the first half. That’s how many Colgate had the entire game.

We’re a paint touch team right now. That’s our identity.

We want to drive the ball and kick, or we want to throw the ball inside. I love our center position. When you look…between Ben and Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield), what they’re averaging, both rebounds and points, I think we’re doing a really good job.

Our guys are willing passers. So we’re getting better in that area. We’ve still got to grow in some areas, but I really like the things that’s happening with our team.

Are you concerned with the lack of three-point shooting so far this year?

No, I’m not, because if we were taking 30 or 25, I would be concerned. You only get concerned with three-point shooting if you’re jacking them and you don’t make them. We’re taking 13, 14. We’re not putting up a lot.

I’m okay with it if I’m scoring 72 and 80 points a game and we’re just doing it the way we are. We’re starting to get our identity. We’ll be able to make some shots, but I like what we have.

Obviously one more home game before some big-time opportunities with Purdue and Texas. What are some of those areas of growth you want to see? And what have you learned about this group so far?

I just want us to stay connected. I feel like it was a process for us last year, and you guys saw what the end result was when a team is connected. You just don’t know when they’re going to click.

And so every day in this modern era of basketball, where you’re recruiting, it’s getting better. You want small wins and see guys getting better and see guys high-fiving each other, see guys having a good time. The growth is the biggest thing.

We’ve got talent, but it’s not always the talented team that wins. It’s the team that comes together in this. I just want our guys to continue to grow.

36 defensive rebounds for your team tonight. How much of an emphasis was put on that given what happened last week?

We wanted to rebound the basketball. I didn’t feel like last week we finished possessions with rebounds.

We’re a running team. This team can get out and go. What we talked about is, if you don’t rebound, defensive rebound, we can’t run.

And so you got to trick them a little bit. You want some easy baskets, you got to rebound the ball. I thought we did a really good job rebounding.

We got out in transition.

Colgate had 22 points in transition against Syracuse, and you held them to 6.

Man, they’re good.

He’s done a great job with their program. I want you to think about that and you guys can do the research. I don’t know a lot of teams that have gone to four straight NCAA tournaments.

And they have to do it by winning their tournament. They’v got to be able to do it at the end. You want to talk about culture. He’s built a hell of a culture.

A lot of teams will not schedule a team like Colgate. When I was at Wilmington and we became really, really good, I had a hard time getting anybody to buy us my second and third year. Everybody wanted to play us my first year.

And then our second and third year, when we won 26 and 29 games, back-to-back tournaments, nobody would schedule us. We knew Colgate was available. That was a game that I wanted to have because I’ve been on the other side of it. But it also helps us to play against a really good mid-major team.

Do you have any update on Trey (Parker)?

Trey had an MRI and it came back negative, but he’s incredibly sore. He took a nasty fall. It’s going to be day by day. Ish (Diouf) is the same.

His was in practice, his elbow. So both of those guys will be day-to-day.

I have no idea when they’re coming back. We’re just trying to treat them. But it’s nothing I hope that will keep them off for a long time.

They’ve got some deep bone bruises is what I would call it.

Breon Pass had a nice little spark in the first half. Can you just talk about his impact off the bench?

Our bench scoring has been incredible, and Breon is a big part of that. The first game of the year he came out, he had 14.

The second game of the year, I thought he was trying to get 25, and I said, ‘hold on, big fella, you know, you let the game come to you, the first game. And so now you’re searching.’

And it happens. But I’m just happy to see an older guy who’s been in the program, who has seen us win and he’s been a part of it, now be able to get out there and be a big contributor for us. I thought he did some really good things tonight.

He’s only going to continue to get better. The more he gets a chance to practice and play, I think he’ll impact the game for us.

First time this season you haven’t scored over 80 points. What do you want to see offensively going forward? You were happy with it last week, but after tonight, what does this team need to do to really blossom?

I thought we didn’t – if I’ve got one negative — I hate turnovers. We had nine assists and 12 turnovers. That’s the one negative that I don’t like. I think we would have scored a few more baskets had we had some more assists.

We had 9 assists on 24 made baskets. I want to get to assisting on 40% of our made shots. ‘Hey, what can you nitpick about them? I’m going to say those eight points could have came somewhere else.

But I’m happy. When you’re scoring 80 points in college, it’s tough. You know, realistically, 77 is pretty much where everybody’s going to be and some guys in the 60s.

We played so well early. That didn’t bother me. But I do want to clean up the fact that we had more turnovers than assists.

I go in the game trying to say I can live with 10 turnovers or less because of the way we play. We had two too many.

Speaking of turnovers, you won the turnovers. How reassuring is that to see as the season starts to progress?

Oh, it’s great. It’s crazy. Colgate, they take care of the basketball.

Coming in, they – maybe five or six turnovers, and we were able to turn them over 16 times.

The one thing you got to respect about them is they move the ball. Look at this.

Look at this stat. They had 14 assists on 21 made field goals. Pretty good.

The Turnover Battle is important to us. That’s one of the things that I measure to see how are we winning that battle because of the way we play. The other thing we talked about is getting to the free-throw line, being a tougher paint-touch team.

We won the free-throw line 26-5. I look at the game within the game and the little stuff that impacts the game without the scoring part of it. We won, I think, three or four of them other than the nine assists.

Dontrez (Styles) came into the game with 14 total rebounds on the season and had 11 tonight. When you were recruiting him, was that something you could see for this team?

You guys can fact-check me possibly, but I think he averaged six or seven rebounds a game at Georgetown, so we knew he could rebound.

I want to get him into a little bit more space where he’s making more shots. He’s a better three-point shooter than he’s shown, but he did raise up and make the one at the top of the key. But we knew what we were getting with him, nice physical guard that can – big guard that can score and rebound the basketball.

I’m a little shocked because, if you told me before the season who’s going to lead us in rebounding, I would have said maybe Brandon, and I would say maybe Ben because both of them are great career rebounders. That’ll be a challenge I’ll put in front of everybody to see, you know, who’s going to lead us in rebounding this year. I know a lot of people had concerns about whether this team could rebound, but we got three or four guys that can go in there.

Marcus had five, and last game I think Trey Parker had five, and then JT’s rebounding the basketball. We’re going to be fine. Last year rebounding was Mo Diarra, and he rebounded everything now. And so it took care of itself.

But with this group, I think we have so many guys that can rebound.