Kevin Keatts’ Postgame Press Conference After NC State’s Loss to Cal: TRANSCRIPT

NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for his postgame press conference after the Wolfpack lost at Cal. You can read the transcript below.

Just your initial thoughts after this one.

Once again, we’re playing hard. It’s just getting that consistent scoring.

Marcus Hill was the guy tonight. I thought we got great looks. I thought Dontrez Styles got great looks, especially in the middle of the zone. We struggled to score the basketball. We struggled to score the basketball.

I thought Cal did a great job of getting points on the other end.

First half, we did a great job of blocking out. We gave up a bunch of offensive rebounds in the second half.

When you struggle to score, sometimes your defense really struggles, and I think that’s what happened to us tonight.

How impactful were those 2nd half offensive rebounds for them, because I think you guys had rebounded almost like 80% of their shots in the first half, and couldn’t seem to come up with them in the 2nd.

Yeah, it’s hard. A couple guys didn’t play well, and that’s what’s been happening to us most of the year. If you look at the Clemson game, you go back to that. You had Dontrez Styles. You look at Duke and you had Dontrez and Trey (Parker). Tonight with Marcus. We got to try to figure out how to get a couple guys playing well on the same night.

We just haven’t been able to do it.

You talked about Marcus Hill. Obviously a bounce back game for him tonight. What was that like to see him be able to come back after two down games for him?

I thought he played. I just wish he had some help tonight.

It’s just one of those things where you look at every game and you’re like, ‘all right, so-and-so had a great game.’ I wish he had some help. We missed some shots.

We couldn’t have asked for better shots than we had. They just didn’t go in for us. It seemed like there was a lot of opportunities created for Dontrez.

He’s kind of in the middle of the court there. Some of them fell, but a lot of them didn’t, unfortunately, this game.

Was that trying again to feed the hot hand that you’ve had the last few games?

When they played zone, he’s probably our best guy to play the middle of the zone.

He’s a mid-range guy and can shoot threes. He got great looks. They just didn’t go in.

Without Brandon Huntley-Hatfield in this game, what was the reasoning for him not traveling?

We’re trying to get his shoulder right. He hasn’t been right. He’s warmed up a couple times.

I always trust the players, and in his mind, he felt like he couldn’t go. It was something that was happening all the time, so we thought it was the best thing for him to stay back and try to rehab it as much as he can, obviously giving him a chance to help us down the stretch. We made the decision because every game there was something different with it, and I trust what he says. He just didn’t feel like he could help.

A frustrating night for Ben (Middlebrooks). A couple of fouls that took him out of the game, but it seemed like Ishmael (Diouf) stepped up in his place. What did you think of his performance tonight?

I thought Ish was a bright spot.

I thought Marcus was great, but I thought Ish took a big step forward today. Ben didn’t have a great game. He wasn’t the energy Ben that we’ve known, and then he never really got into the flow of the game.

Obviously another quick turnaround going into Saturday. What do you feel about the Stanford game on Saturday?

Ah, S%&$, Corey. I’ve got to try to get through this one and process it.

But, you know, obviously Stanford’s good at home. I don’t even know. I think they’re playing Wake Forest right now.

I have no idea what the score is. We’ve got to shake it off. We’ve got to try to get back on track. Right now, we’ve got to play great, especially offensively, and we’ve got to try to figure out in a couple of days when we play a good Stanford team.

(PP)