Kevin Keatts’ Weekly Press Conference: TRANSCRIPT

NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for his weekly press conference today. You can read the transcript below.

Do you have an update on Mike (James) and where he of sits right now, coming into these last eight games?

No, I’m gonna try to get with Mike this morning and get with our doctors, not this morning, but sometime. We practice at 2:30. So somewhere in the next 24 hours, I’ll have a little bit better, clearer understanding of where we are with him.

I want to meet with him and our training staff, our doctor, just to get an understanding of where we at with him.

Y’all are in a precarious position right now, trying to make the ACC tournament. Is there panic or is there an additional sense of urgency knowing how few games are left?

Well, I don’t think there’s panic. We have to play the schedule that’s left in front of us. And obviously, as you know, I can only obviously prepare them for the next game and that’s obviously Louisville on Wednesday.

We need to play well down the stretch, and I think our guys understand that without putting extra pressure on them, but you have to focus on, on the next game, and that’s the only way we’ve ever done it, and it’s worked out for us in the past.

I wanted to ask you about Trey Parker and when you recruited him. Obviously he’s been shooting the ball well here the last couple of games. How did you evaluate his skillset coming out of high school or prep? Did you view him as a playmaker, scorer, defender? What were your thoughts on his game?

When we started recruiting him, and obviously had been committed to us for a couple of years, we looked at him as a combo guard, but what I liked about him is his speed and athletic ability.

He’s probably one of the few guys that we have on our team that can create his own shot, but get others involved. The great thing about Trey, he can play two and one. He’s really been working lately, getting in the gym, working on his outside shot, and it is obviously paying off. It’s really good to see him starting to play really good basketball.

It took him a little time, you know, inconsistent in practice habits and all that other stuff. It looks like he’s turning the corner, and he’s had a couple of really good games for us, which we’ve actually needed. But in the same token, I think he’s just gotten better.

So I saw a guy who I really thought could be a really good basketball player, play both guard positions that could do some things on the floor with his athletic ability and also on the defensive end. Now everybody’s starting to see that a little bit.

So I wanted to ask you, as far as the rotations are concerned here lately, there’s obviously been a lot of younger players getting the opportunity to play, but there’s been kind of some randomization of when guys go in…things along those lines. Just wanted to get your take on what leads up to the thought process on who you’re going to put in, and how those rotations work on a game-by-game basis.

Yeah, I don’t consider it.

It’s kind of random. I consider it as just, what do we need at the time? Like who’s playing well. We needed Trey because when you have the flow of the game, we just couldn’t get any shots without someone creating a shot for themselves.

Paul (McNeil) obviously has come in because we need some shooting at times, and times we didn’t. Certainly if those guys can play well, we need them. Same thing with Bryce (Heard).

It’s more of a, you know, not going into the game saying that, but certainly if a guy plays well, in the back of your mind at a certain, so-and-so has practiced really well, but more importantly, it’s more of a game feel. We’re not married to any particular lineup, even though we start a certain lineup that we’ve been starting.

If you look at it, some other guys have gotten more increased roles and being able to play. Our five position, because without having Brandon (Huntley-Hatfiled), has really struggled because Ben’s (Middlebrooks) been in a lot of foul trouble. I thought Ish (Diouf), who has played more, played more minutes on the California trip than Ben just because of the situation. So it’s kind of a situational thing.

I have in the back of my mind, who’s playing good basketball, who we think can give us kind of some kind of jolt to help us in the game and feeding off of that too.

You mentioned Brandon. Where does he stand after not making the trip this past week, leading up to a game against Louisville, his former team.

Brandon, he had two days, two training sessions per day, getting his shoulder right. I think he’s feeling in a good place. So we’re going to practice here at 2:30.

So I will have a better understanding of where he’s at. We got into games for the last couple of weeks, and he just didn’t feel great. We just had to figure out, if we took one week of aggressive treatment and rehab, could that help? I think he’s in a better place right now, but I’ll know more once I’m able to get into practice with him. But, if he feels better, he’ll be ready to go on Wednesday.

How do you guys prepare for a team like Louisville that no matter what’s been put in front of them, as far as adversity goes throughout the year with injuries and stuff like that, how do you guys prepare for a team that is resilient as Louisville?

Well, I just think you have to prepare like everyone does. I mean, they’re a good basketball team, but what makes them really good, in my opinion is that they have a lot of trust in one another and they’re playing with great confidence.

I think that’s where you see, no matter who plays, everybody in the game is playing well. They’re probably one of the most confident teams that’s in our league. A lot of times winning helps that.

I think by them winning some games early, guys are starting to play well and it’s a really good basketball team. They shoot it. They can defend you.

They can get out in transition. They do a great job of moving the basketball. They play really well together and I think that’s what really makes them special. Thank you, coach.

How do you keep the team together, and on the same page and not splinter, through a stretch like this?

We’re fighting. We have to lean back on our culture. If you look back at our games, the unfortunate thing about it is, we have not been on the winning end of most of these games, but we’re always in the game to win it. That says a lot about our players and the respect that I have for them because they’re still fighting, After taking a trip to Cal and the end of the game, it was a good game up until the end. And you would say, ‘all right, how do they respond on the road?’ In Stanford, a couple days later, we just came out and fought.

Playing hard, that’s a standard here. You have to play hard. We don’t necessarily make every shot.

We don’t make the right decision, but one of the things that you have to do in this program is play hard, and a lot of respect to our players, because they’re playing hard, even though we are not getting the results that we all want.

You have mentioned Trey a bunch on this call. At the beginning of the year, you said you’d be a guy that could help you guys. Obviously now, where’s the biggest part of his game that you’ve seen grow the most from the time he showed up over the summer until right now?

I think the home run plays. Trey, obviously since you can remember him, he’s made big plays and I think he’s understanding how to play the game.

Learning how to make the right play, learning how to make the right decision, learning whether it be on the defensive end, and really trusting his teammates. I think that’s where he’s really grown. When you look at the Stanford game, we needed some baskets for him from him, and I thought he stepped up and made some big shots for us.

Over the years, you’ve had flexibility with your lineup where you’ve played bigs. You’ve played three point guards. You’ve played 6’5″/6’6″ stretch fours. In a perfect world, moving forward, what would your roster construction look like? What would you prefer to have?

I think versatility. We’ve been very challenged this year. Obviously, you know, Mike James not playing thus far.

We recruited him kind of as a guy that we thought could replace a DJ Horne/Casey (Morsell). We’ve had at least four or five of our games where Ben or Brandon did not play in a game, but I think the biggest thing for us, is a group of guys that are versatile and can play multiple positions, because of who we have had on the floor, and everybody has kind of stick to one position and get better at that position, but, I love size. I love some guards that can create.

But I think the biggest thing of you asking me is probably versatility.

I wanted to ask you about your five position, the production you’re getting there. When you look at it, is it on them to be more productive? Do you see opportunities where maybe they’re not getting set up enough? How do you evaluate the production you’re getting there?

Well, I think one of the toughest thing is that, and I’ve said this, like we haven’t had Ben and Brandon. One’s been out of practice and the other has been out of practice. Just consistency.

Then you throw Ish in there, who I thought was a really bright spot for us on the California trip. Coming into the season, that was one of our, in my opinion, with so many new pieces, that was one of our strongest positions and our guys just got to get back to getting in practice, having some consistent play. We haven’t played great lately at the five position and that’s somewhere we got to continue to improve. One of the things is just getting them all in practice and getting on the same page, really.