Kevin Keatts’ Postgame Press Conference After NC State’s Loss at Duke: TRANSCRIPT

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for his postgame press conference after the Wolfpack’s 57-67 loss at Duke tonight. You can read the transcript below.

Opening Statement by Coach: “I thought we had a lot of fight. It was a really good game. What we’ve discussed is how we’ve been on the unfortunate side of many wins and losses this year. But I told our guys, ‘Hey, if you can stay consistent and play the way we played tonight…’ And Duke’s good, I mean, Duke’s a really good basketball team, arguably the number one team in the country. I thought we did a really good job. In the first half, I thought we had great player and ball movement; we really shared the basketball and were able to get out in transition. Just thought they made a few more plays than we did. And obviously, Cooper (Flagg) is as good as advertised, and I think he’s the difference in the game. If I got Cooper Flagg, I might win that too, you know? But he’s a good player, and I think Jon’s (Scheyer) done a good job of settling a really good group of guys around a really good superstar. So, you know, we’ll learn from this, we’ll try to get better, we’ll continue to work. I think our guys understand that we’re capable of anything if we continue just to stick together and grind and play good basketball.

Q1: “What was it like for you to see Trey Parker start 6 for 6, and improve from the perimeter?

“I’m getting really excited about your young guys. It’s taking them a while to come into their own, but Paul (McNeil) has shown some moments last game, and you got Trey Parker and Bryce (Heard) all working hard. We needed them to develop, obviously, we don’t have Mike James, so we needed another guard to step up and play well. They’re starting to contribute, and I really like that.

Q2: What were your thoughts on Dontrez Styles’ performance?

Coach’s Response: “Yeah, he was good, he was locked in. I thought he came out focused. We scheduled Kansas so we could have that experience in the non-conference to prepare us for any atmosphere we’re going to be in, and obviously, these are two of the better atmospheres — Kansas and Duke. We didn’t play well early at Kansas, but once we settled in, I thought we played them even throughout the entire game. I think that really helped us. Dontrez was one of those guys that didn’t play well early at Kansas. I thought that game prepared us for how we played today, and I thought he was good. He came out, he was focused, he made shots, he was active, he drove the basketball, and even rebounded the basketball.”

Q3: “Coach, outside tonight, 7 of the last 9 losses came by a combined of 17 points. What’s your assessment of your team’s ability to not be able to close these games?”

Coach’s Response: “You know, we just don’t have a superstar. I thought when things got really tight for Duke, I mean, everybody in the entire building knew who they were going to. We’ve got a bunch of really good players that obviously need each other to play well, and so we don’t have that closer. Every game, we don’t have a Jarkel Joiner or Terquavion Smith or even DJ Horne or DJ Burns. And so that’s one of the reasons why you have to figure out at the end of the games like who is playing the best basketball and try to get them involved. That being said, I love our team, but this is one of the groups that, you know, when you say ‘team,’ we have to be a team to win because we don’t have that guy that can go off for 20 points a game.”

Q4: What were some of the things that weren’t going well when Duke went on their 19-0 run, and what were some of the things you did well to close the gap?”

Coaches Response: “Well, I thought the tables turned a little bit, you know, we probably should have been up seven points at half. I thought they missed the call when the ball got thrown out of bounds and it kind of shifted a little bit. Obviously they came down and got that three point play, which cut it to 4 points, and I think the momentum shifted. Basketball is a momentum sport. It shifted, and they went into halftime, and I thought they came out really fired up.

Q5: “What did your guys do well in the 2nd half?”

Coach’s Response: “We just settled in, I remember the score was maybe 41-37 somewhere in there, and then we settled in. We knew on their home floor obviously that they’re gonna make some runs and we just didn’t want the game to get away from us. We relied on our defense, I thought our defense was really good again tonight, but I’m proud of our guys, we scored it a little bit better, we shot the ball better than we’ve done in the last few games.”

Q4: “When they were using Cooper as a screener, it looked like you guys were doing some things differently defensively with Dontrez. Did you try to stay out of switches against Cooper, and how do you think your team did?”

Coach’s Response: “Yeah, Cooper’s tough, man. I mean, if you put a small guy on him, he’s got great size and he’ll take you. So we tried to stay with like matchups in this game. We typically would switch one through four, but it’s hard to switch against him. And then, you know, we went big and Ben (Middlebrooks) fouled him a couple of times, fouled him on the three-point shot. That’s what makes him a good player.”

Q5: “What was your message to your team at the end here and going forward, especially with five or six days off until the next one?”

Coach’s Response: “Yeah, I mean, we just got to continue to play, you know. We don’t take moral victories in this program, we just don’t, but we got to continue to get better. The unfortunate thing about us is we got to continue to work, and everybody in this team, obviously, you know, when you look at the talking heads, they’ve only got five of us that are going to make the tournament. So we all have to continue to get better and continue to work for March. It’s an unfortunate thing because I think we got at least seven, eight, nine teams that I think are tournament-worthy, but we all got to continue to get better. The one thing I’ve asked them to do is get consistent. I didn’t think Ben played great today. Marcus (Hill) didn’t have a great game. Trey did, and Dontrez did. How can we all get on the same page? And what do you do if you’re not scoring the basketball? Is there other things you can do that we can count on as a staff going into every game. Like, this guy is really good, but what’s your second thing you can do besides score the basketball? Just stay consistent. We’ve got to stay locked in. Obviously losing is tough, but when you’re playing better, I think we’re playing better, we’ve just got to get over the hump, and we will, I don’t know when it will happen, but we’ll get over the hump.

Q6: “Your three best three-point shooting nights have all come on the road in really tough environments. Is there a specific reason why we’ve seen that here and in Lawrence, but not necessarily at home?”

Coach’s Response: “Yeah, I got to figure it out. I mean, we didn’t even do a shootaround here; we made shots. Maybe we just don’t go, maybe we just won’t practice at our own facility anymore, I don’t know. It’s just, you know, shooting is a confidence thing. We’ve worked the last day because that’s all we had in between of being shot ready. I didn’t think we were shot ready and most of them, we were standing high and low, and then shoot, we wasn’t shot ready and I just think we made shots. We’re not as bad as we’ve shot the ball over the last two weeks and we made shots today and we just got to continue to do that.”

Q7: “Speaking about confidence, it seems like Michael was a bit rattled during the second half. He had those two airballs, sat him for 11 minutes during that half. What was your perspective on his composure there and how you’re going to boost that morale?”

Coach’s Response: “Yeah, I wouldn’t call him rattled. I mean, not a guy that hit the shot, you can’t call him rattled. I just thought the shot clock was running down, and he had to take a shot, and you know, now we, everybody that shoots an airball, you can’t call him rattled. I just thought he just missed a couple of shots.”

Closing Remarks: “Thanks, guys.”