WATCH: Kevin Keatts Weekly Press Conference Before NC State’s Game Against Texas Tonight

NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for his weekly press conference yesterday before the Wolfpack’s game against Texas tonight in the ACC/SEC Challenge. You can watch it ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.

Looking at the games last week and watching the film of those. What have you guys kind of been honing in on as you prepare for Texas?

Yeah, that’s a good question. First of all, I thought we played two really good teams.

I went back and watched both games. Both teams really shoot the basketball very, very well. I think the biggest thing that stood out for us is we didn’t do a good job of finishing possessions with defensive rebounding.

Which I thought really cost us getting out in transition. For the entire weekend, we gave up 28 offensive rebounds. Obviously, you don’t rebound the basketball. You’re not able to get out in transition.

I thought we got hurt in those situations. I thought in a couple possessions, we stood around. Early on, we had a lot of player and ball movement, but I thought a couple times it stuck late in the second half.

So those are the things we really have concentrated on. Obviously, blocking out and continuing to move the basketball as we can. In the early season, we have really passed the ball very well, and we want to continue to do that.

Can you speak on what you think the players learned about themselves in the back-to-back losses? 

Well, I just think it’s early. And obviously, when you have so many new pieces, you think about Purdue. I know they lost (Zach) Edey, but they’ve got the preseason play of the year back and a lot of good pieces. We’re still trying to figure it out.

Obviously, the unfortunate thing for us is last year, we didn’t figure it out until it was right time to go to the ACC tournament.

One valuable lesson that I think every team with transfers is learns, is that in order to be successful, you have to do it together. The teams that come together a lot faster are the guys who are going to win a lot quicker.

I think that was the biggest thing. You can’t do it by yourself. In particular with this team, we’ve talked about this, everybody has to play and everybody has to fit a role. I think one of my messages to our guys is, if you’re not scoring the ball, what are you doing? What else are you doing to affect the game? And are you rebounding the ball? Are you playing great defense? Are you being a good teammate? Are you bringing energy to the team? And so I think those are some areas that we’ve talked about from our two games out in San Diego.

Tre Johnson has been one of the most electric freshman guards in the country, if not, regardless of class as well. What makes him so difficult to defend with his size and his shot making abilities?

Yeah, he’s been really good. I think that the biggest thing for him is he has no conscience. He plays much older than a freshman.

He’s got the ultimate green light. He’s a tough matchup because very seldom do you see a guy that has a great mid-range jump shot, he can dribble you into some iso’s and post you up and shoot over you. But he also shoots it well beyond the three-point line.

He’s having a great year. We played BYU, and now coming up Texas. We will have played against two guys who will probably be in the top 15 of the NBA draft for next year. And he’s a tough matchup because he’s got great size and he knows how to get to his spots and make shots.

Do you sense an increased urgency among the team of not only trying to get past last week’s losses, but have a game like this being played at home rather than on a neutral floor?

Well, I think it’s the next game. And we’ve dropped the last two games.

Obviously, very seldom do you get a chance to have a really good Power 5 team come into Lenovo. We’re excited about the opportunity.

Is there a sense of urgency? I would say that we have a sense of urgency in pretty much every game that we play with a great opportunity.

Texas is really good. Rodney’s (Terry) done a good job with the program. They’ve got some really good players, unique transfers.

It’ll be very physical. This is probably going to be the most athletic team that we’ve faced so far on our early schedule. We’ve gotta be ready for that opportunity.

How important is the ACC/SEC challenge for the league?

I think it’s very important. As you guys know, yesterday, the first version of the NET came out. I don’t think anybody can put too much into the first version that came out on December the 2nd, but there are opportunities for us and everyone in our league.

Obviously, when you look at the SEC, they had a lot of teams in the top 50 and top 100. I do think it gives us a chance as a league to kind of showcase and show people early on what we have. Especially our situation, we get an opportunity.

I made sure that with the Purdue, and obviously, knowing we were playing either BYU or Ole Miss, and then scheduling Texas and then going to Kansas, I wanted to have four really hard Power Five games to kind of showcase ourselves, but also to strengthen our schedule, but also prepare us when we get into the ACC. Certainly, we’ll get that opportunity tomorrow.

Obviously, playing BYU and Purdue, two really good offensive teams. How would you evaluate your half court offense and first shot defense in those games? Because you weren’t able to really play much in transition.

I thought it was great.

I told our guys, I said, ‘hey, man, we did a great job.’ You think about this, you guys will have a chance to be able to follow Purdue and BYU. There won’t be many games where they’ll have around 71 and 72 points a game.

We did a great job of, I thought, especially with Purdue, holding them to five 3 pointers. Even BYU, they made their first four, and then they made nine for the game. That’s a team that averaged 12.

We just gave them second and third opportunities, and that cost us not to score. So we ended up with 61 points for the two games. I thought defensively, we did some really good things.

Yeah, they had some moments where they made some shots, but I thought, for the most part, when you take those two high-powered offensive teams and you hold them to 71 and 72 points, if you score more points or you block out a few times and get out in the transition, then you have the opportunity now to be able to score as many as they did or more.

You started Trey Parker for the first time in San Diego. What kind of went into that decision? How have you seen him grow throughout the year, being the most used freshman through these first seven games?

He’s gonna be good.

I just I wanted a spark. Trey is, when you look at our bench, the two guys that I would say, throwing Breon (Pass) in there, Trey’s always come off the bench and given us a great spark, and so has Ben (Middlebrooks). I wanted a spark, and just to light a fire under Trey and our team needed some energy.

We wanted to reward him. He’s getting better. Obviously, the thing that we’ve got to continue with him is just consistency.

Punching the clock every day, being the same guy every day, improving every day. He has a chance to be really good. I like our freshmen.

Bryce (Heard) has played some good minutes, and Paul’s (McNeil) going to catch up sooner or later with all of the rest of the guys. I think at some point during the year, all three of those guys are going to play a big part in our success.

Texas has nine transfers. You have your contingent of transfers. How much of an advantage is it to a program when you look at it from the viewpoint of, there’s so many really good mid-major players coming out of either Texas or North Carolina, the CJ Bryces of the world, for instance, who then end up maybe moving on up the food chain. How much do you kind of look at that where you’re not just looking at high school players that end up at high major schools, but you might also pay attention to guys that maybe two, three years from now could be good players at a high major school?

The transfer portal has changed the game. You can plug in and you can recruit to your needs. It still comes down to, obviously, NIL and the opportunities.

There’s so many good players out here that’s playing college basketball. So many guys at places that, unfortunately, may not be happy. We may have some guys on our roster that’s aren’t happy.

So you’ve got to figure out, obviously, what your need is. I think at every level, and we talk about even mid-majors, I think there are even Division II guys now who are really good players that you’re going to see playing at the highest level because of the opportunity to transfer right away. I think it’s important that you try to get some guys that fit your system.

That being said, it’s going to take a lot longer than people anticipate. Sometimes you get lucky and your group will click a lot earlier. But in most cases, it takes a little longer for groups to come together because there’s just so many new pieces.

Kadin Shedrick is coming back home in this matchup. He played at Virginia, obviously, so y’all are not total strangers to him. Did you recruit him when he entered the portal in 23?

Yeah, I was trying to think about that the other day. I can’t remember. Let me tell you, there’s been so many transfers.

Now, let me say this about Kadin. Kadin’s been a really good player in this league, and he’s doing a good job at Texas. I cannot remember if we recruited him or not.

I don’t know if we had, at that time, did we have DJ Burns already in the fold? Did we have Mo (Diarra)? We had Ben. That being said, he is a good player, and he is having the opportunity to come home and play.

You guys had some success late against BYU with the three-point shot. Watching that game back, was it anything different outside of simply making them? Did you get better looks? What’d you notice?

We got better looks. I thought all of those three-pointers that we made against BYU, we did a great job of driving the ball and kicking the basketball.

I think our team is a better three-point shooting team, obviously, than we showed earlier. We’re much better when we can set our feet. When you get in trouble is those three-pointers where you’re going off the dribble. I thought we did a good job of driving and kicking and making the right play.

Typically, when you make the right play, the ball usually goes in. I think that’s where it came from at BYU.

The fact that you guys have FSU coming up after this, does this sort of accentuate the importance of these games, because conference play is gonna start so much earlier this year?

I think it’s so important regardless. You know me, if you’ve covered me for many years. My job is to try to get these guys to lock into Texas and obviously figure out what’s next after that.

But I think every game, when you’re in a non-conference, every game is more of a fact-finding mission. You can learn a lot. You can learn a lot through a win.

You can learn a lot through a loss. In our situation, we’re just trying to get better to prepare us for the Florida States, for any team that plays after that in the ACC. We’ve got to continue to grow because at the end of the day, you just never know how many teams that we’re going to get in the tournament.

You have to be prepared and battle-tested as we were last year to go into the tournament in case you need to have the opportunity to win the tournament to be able to go to the NCAA.

You talked about the non-conference being a fact-finding mission. You’re almost a quarter of the way through the year. What have you learned through these first seven games, not just looking at the two games in San Diego, but also the first five at home? What’s the biggest takeaway you’ve seen about a quarter of the way through?

I would say the biggest takeaway is that when we play really good basketball together, we’re really good.

We’re a really good team when we’re connected. I’ve said this about this team. We don’t have the DJ Horne that can go score 20, 30 points.

But when we play and everybody contributes in a positive way, whether it’s just doing your job and what is your job that night, I think this team has the chance to be really good. We’ve got to continue. Defensively, we’ve been really solid.

Obviously we’ve defended the three-point line very well. One thing that we have to get better at is we’ve got to do a good job of rebounding the basketball. We do have guys that can rebound, but a lot of times we’re giving up too many offensive rebounds.

And that’s an area that we have to improve at.