Kevin Keatts’ Postgame Press Conference After NC State’s Win Over Coppin St.

Wolfpack Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for his postgame press conference tonight after NC State’s win over Coppin St. in Reynolds Coliseum. The transcript is below.

A couple things, it felt good being back in Reynolds. Let’s start with this, because I know we’ll get these things. I always love it this time of year when we play in Reynolds, because the first thing is, ‘Why don’t you play in Reynolds more? Then, boy, those jerseys, man, you guys really know how to poke fun and mess with the fan base. Oh, these are so good. Oh, why don’t we wear these things?’

So, let’s start with that. Reynolds is a great place, and we enjoy it. Would we play more games in here? We could, yes, but we’ve got so many season ticket holders, and, unfortunately, when they cut it down from, I think it was 11,000 to 5,000 seats, it’s not a good place for us to play because we’ve got a lot of followers in our fan base.

That being said, let’s start off with this. I thought Coppin St. was really scrappy and played aggressive basketball tonight.

They did a really good job. I thought they had a great game plan. I thought they came in saying, ‘hey, we’re not going to try to play fast with these guys. We’re going to slow it down,’ and they ran most of the shot clock down. Then, unfortunately for us, I thought we did a terrible job at the end of shot clocks when they were going to take a bunch of bad shots, and we fouled. I didn’t think this was one of our better games.

That being said, you can learn a lot from a win, instead of a loss. I just didn’t think we played like we needed to. We can say, ‘hey, did you play down to the level of competition?’ I would say, ‘no, I just think they controlled the tempo, and we kind of fell into that mode a little bit and got behind a little bit.’

But, like some of the guys, I thought Ben (Middlebrooks) was really good. I thought Marcus (Hill) was good. I thought Dontrez Styles was okay.

I thought Dennis Parker, Jr. came in and gave us a tremendous lift.

How big was that second half for Dontrez after starting off one of eight from the field in the first half?

I thought it was good. I mean, just for him to see the ball to go in the hole.

I thought he had some great looks, and it just didn’t go. The one thing I like about him is I like his mentality now. He’s not hanging his head.

He’s still being aggressive. Early on in the year when he would miss those shots, he would hang his head, and you guys know this. I’ve coached the likes of Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner.

They don’t think they’re ever going to miss, even if they miss ten. I want a guy like Dontrez to kind of get to that mode. Hey, on the sideline, the coach that you’re playing for, he doesn’t care about that.

Importance of energy…

Yeah, you know, I’m an energy guy.

You can miss every shot, not every shot, but you can miss most of your shots, but you have to play with great energy. I think having a guy like Dennis Parker back as a guy who’s been in the program for a couple years who knows how to play.

Some of these guys that are in our program, the newer guys are still learning how to play for NC State. What I mean by that is we compete hard every day. Our energy is always high, and it’s going to take a little time for these guys to get to that point.

Speaking of Dennis, you know, what was it like to see him come back? He kind of seems like he’s a lot closer to being what he was last year than.

Man, it’s great. He’s been so frustrated.

He and I have had a couple meetings, and he’s just frustrated. I heard him over there. He said he sprung three ankles.

I was like, ‘you only got two,’ but he cleared it up. But just to see him get back out there and play, it was weird because he turned his ankle, and then I was like, ‘he turned it again.’ I was like, ‘is it the same one?’ And the trainer says, ‘no, it’s a different one.’

Okay, it was the other one. Then every time in practice, we would get him back, and then two days into practice, he would do something.

He would turn his ankle. So just trying to keep him healthy. We’ve tried every shoe.

As you guys know, I’m about to go back to the old school where they’re above the ankles, and these guys are wearing these low tops, and we’re taping them and bracing them, and he still was turning it, but it’s good to have him back out there because he gives us something at his size that we don’t have in there. Without a Mike James, we were out without length and also with Dennis.

So we became really small on our perimeter.

Now, the next question is, ‘when’s Mike James coming back?’ I don’t know. He’s trending.

He’s getting better. He’s doing some more, a little bit of individual workouts now, but I don’t have a timetable when he’s going to play.

What does this place mean to you? What does it mean to be able to coach here?

Well, it’s special.

My press conference was here. I said Kevin Keith is a winner, and we did. We won the ACC championship.

It was a great place. It’s an electric place. Every time I come in here and when you walk through the entrance, and you see the history of NC State, it’s tremendous.

It’s a basketball place. I’ll go back to this, man. Would we play more games here? Absolutely, we’d love to.

If we can figure out how to get about 5,000 more seats in here, we can figure it out. Maybe we go to standing room only and we can do that. They do it at concerts, but they take over the floor, so.

Trey Parker and Paul McNeil…

I’m trying to get those guys as much minutes as I can so those guys can grow. When you got Freshmen, you try to steal minutes so it will pay off later in the season.

I think Trey is going to be really good for us. As a freshman, as a point guard, they’ll make you scratch your head a couple times, because they’re fearless, and he tries a little bit different things, but I love his confidence. Paul is starting to, and I’ll talk about Bryce (Heard), too.

Paul is starting to feel a little bit more comfortable. Coming into the summer, he was the one guy that wasn’t as comfortable as the other two guys for some reason, but now he’s starting to find his groove. He’s getting in better shape, and the same thing with Bryce. I think both of them are growing, and we’re putting them in situations in practice where they can grow and trying to put them into some games.

Even with this game right here, I played all 14 scholarship guys, because I wanted all of them to get some action.

We’ve seen a different Brandon Huntley-Hatfield ever since you got back from San Diego. What do you think’s gone into that?

I just think guys go up and down.

You think about this in San Diego, some people were saying ‘Marcus Hill and Dontrez Styles aren’t good enough. Matter of fact, you asked me about that, but now you see those guys.

That guy’s a proven guy in the ACC. He’ll be better. Unfortunately, players don’t have bad games all the time, and they don’t have great games all the time, and so with this group, one of the things I’m trying to do is get everybody to be consistent.

Right now, the two guys who have been the most consistent right now is Marcus and also Trez. I’ve got to get Michael (O’Connell) playing better. Michael’s not making his free throws. He’s not doing those type of things, and we’ve got to get him back. I may have to tell him it’s March. If I tell him it’s March, then he’ll turn into a great player.

But Brandon is healthy, right?

He is. Yeah, he is. Just trying to get into a flow, and certain games you can’t judge guys on. Think about the Florida State game.

They did a tremendous job on all of our post guys. We were able to drive their bigs, but their guards, because they’re so big, they fronted the post, and we had a hard time getting the ball inside, but our guys followed the game plan. We wanted to drive and kick, and we got some great shots off of that.

You mentioned San Diego. You used zone that kind of seemed to cause fits, and then Coppin St. used it today. What do you think is kind of leading to some of the struggling inside?

I don’t.

I just think we missed a lot of shots today. Listen, don’t take it for granted. I know you guys, we don’t get in this building a lot. We’ve only been in here one time to shoot.

Now, that’s no excuse, because sometimes you go on the road, and you play great, and you never go in the building and all that other stuff. We just, at the end of the day, we didn’t make some shots that we made the other day. We didn’t make them tonight, and that’s just what it was, and I thought Coppin State was scrappy. I told them, ‘hey, don’t play their record. Just play the team, and it’s natural.’ People look at that and say they hadn’t won a game, and so maybe that has something to do with it. I’m not saying it did, but that possibly played into it.

Kind of a weird night for Jayden Taylor. A guy that’s usually so aggressive, only two shots on the night for him, 15 minutes of play. Thoughts on his performance.

He wasn’t very active today. We’ll have some conversations over the next couple of days, and these guys will be off. Obviously, we’ve got two days to prepare to go to Kansas. He just didn’t have a good game, and sometimes it just happens that way.

So, Michael, Jayden, and Brandon all combined for just four points. What does a win like this say about the rest of your squad? You can have three of your front six have a horrible night and still get a win.

Yeah, it says we can’t have that happen very often.

We’ve got to figure that out. Say it again. Tell me who it was so I can go back to it.

It was Brandon, Jayden, and Michael.

Yeah, we can’t do that. It can’t happen. We got to do better.

But to answer your question and give you a fair answer, it’s good that some other guys played well and contributed, but at the end of the day, you need your players to play, and we’ve got to get those guys playing better.

You have consistently scheduled an HBCU at least one time in the seasons that you’ve been here, sometimes more. How important is that for you?

I think it’s important.

I didn’t go to a historical black college, but to have the opportunity to bring those guys in and help them. You think about Coppin St., I mean, think about their situation.

That team right there has been on the road 11 straight games, and it’s tough because, I want to make sure that a team like Coppin St…we can pay them revenue to come in here and play us because they take care of the entire athletic department, and that’s a tough deal. Just to make sure that we can do that, it means a lot to me just to have the opportunity to do that every year.

You mentioned what Reynolds means to you. What do you tell the players, the players that have never played here before? What did you tell them about it?

I just told them how electric the building is. I told them it’s historical. You can tell them a lot of things, and most of them have been through Reynolds, because when we recruited them, we bring them through here on a recruiting visit so they can able to see it.

We just talk about the legacy of this place, the coaches that have been in here, the players that have played in here, and it’s a great venue. It is. I don’t know that there’s a venue in the country its size that’s better. This place is great. I mean, it looks great in there.