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

Kevin Keatts met with the media after NC State’s 66-91 loss to Louisville tonight for his postgame press conference. You can read the transcript BELOW.

I’m here and I would talk about how our defenses really kept us in a lot of games. I didn’t think it was very good tonight, like defensively. We didn’t do a good job understanding scouting reports.

We knew Louisville is obviously a great shooting team, not a good shooting team. Obviously gave up 11 threes, and they were 11 for 19. We just had too many breakdowns defensively. We have been in every game because our defense has really kept us in games.

Tonight was a one off, and I hope it’s a one off. I didn’t think we did a great job on defensively. Maybe it’s the travel, maybe it’s give Louisville credit.

Maybe it’s a team that can really space you out and do a great job of shooting the basketball, but I didn’t like the way we played on that side of the basketball.

It felt like Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) came back at least on the boards, really energized. What was it like seeing him back out there?

It was good. Here’s my issue is that we get a Brandon who plays hard and gives us seven offensive rebounds, but then you look at the stat sheet, some other guys that you expect to play and help you just didn’t.

So if you could give us one label, I would say we’re very inconsistent in our play. That being said, I thought our young guys were really good. If you want one bright spot about it. Trey Parker’s getting better.

I thought Paul (McNeil) made some shots. Once again, I’m gonna always be able to pull back to this game and say we didn’t do a great job defensively. I would say the last team that we played and we didn’t play that well defensively was probably BYU. Where they really shot the basketball, they shot it early.

We had a couple careless turnovers early and really never really established ourselves.

Breon said that he really had a bad vibe after the shooter round today. He just didn’t think there was a lot of connectivity there. Did you kind of feel the same way? And how much do you think that kind of carried over?

Well, it’s tough because I’ve been in shooting rounds and didn’t get a great vibe and we win by 20. Shoot arounds are more for coaches to feel like that they’ve gotten everything in and they’ve done their job.

I didn’t know if it was the most energetic one we’ve had, but I don’t think it was the worst one we’ve had. That being said, you still have three, four hours before we play. You’ve got to lock in and be ready to go.

Like I said, I was not happy. We talked about it at halftime and we talked about it at the end of the game. I was not happy with the way we played on the defensive end.

We played extremely hard. I just thought they beat us to some toughness plays.

How do you go about keeping a roster or a locker room together that just got their ninth loss in a row this year?

Just stay consistent.

I mean, you could ask me that after the six or seven, up until tonight, you would say, ‘man, shit, how are they doing?’ And we’re gonna stay consistent and we’re going to put the guys on the floor that’s going to compete every night, and this is what it’s about.

How much did guys like Paul McNeil, Trey Parker, Breon Pass, help themselves in the case of getting more minutes?

They were great. I mean, they don’t do everything right, but they competed, and you like that part of it. It’s starting in practice for those guys. They’re starting to turn a corner.

They’re starting to get it. It takes freshmen a long time to get there, and right now, they’re starting to turn a corner.

So I was very happy with them. Trey’s minutes have been going up in every single game that we play, and I hope it continues to be that way, because I think both of those guys are the bright spot.

I thought Breon made some shots in the first half that really helped us. I think we haven’t seen the best basketball from Bryce (Heard), but I think Bryce is going to do some of the same things that the younger guys are doing.

You come off a game on Sunday where it’s down to the very final possession against a good Stanford team. How frustrating is the consistency of what you’re getting on offensive and defensive side of the board in each of these games?

It’s frustrating because the word, if you guys remember, if you go back to anything that I’ve ever said about this team, is that we need each other. You look at the game now and you say, ‘well, Trey Parker and Paul McNeil played great.’ Then you look back and say, ‘who else?’ We can throw a dart.

And I said, ‘tell me the next game you want to know.’ And I would say, Dontrez (Styles) played well, and then Marcus (Hill) played well. That’s been our major issue thus far, is that we just haven’t been able to get consistent play from anybody.

That’s the toughest part about it, because we need some of our older guys to take us to the finish line. Paul and Trey, they shouldn’t have to be put in that position to take us to the finish line, and we just haven’t gotten that yet.

Seven games left, so you still have opportunities, but you’re also running out of opportunities. How concerned are you that you won’t be able to get out of that bottom three and get to the tournament?

I’m a one game guy. I mean, I’ve always been. You can’t tell a coach who won nine games not to obviously, to lock in. We were going to have a game where we did not play well.

We’ve had a bunch of games where we were in it, we just didn’t win it. I knew Louisville could do this. I watched them, they did the same thing at SMU.

They were really good. They didn’t accidentally become 12 and 2. We have to shake this one off, and we’ve got to go back to work, and we’ve got to get better.

It’s a seven game season, but it’s a one game for the way we prepare, and that’s what we’ve got to do. Anything’s possible.

The one thing last year taught me is that anything can happen, and if we can push the right button, throw this one out. You probably say, ‘let’s throw this one out.’

You probably say, ‘throw the one out at Wake Forest.’ You look at the rest of the games, and they were all probably great games up until the last four minutes of the game. I’ve got to point out the positives and get back to it.

Not happy right now tonight, but when we go back into the gym tomorrow, I’ll point out the positive things that we’ve done through this stretch, and what happened to us is we had some games that were 50-50 games, and unfortunately, we didn’t win those games.

Do you feel like you need to preach the anything can happen to the players, just to kind of remind them? Because, I mean, Breon was honest and he said he’s personally worried about it.

We’ll talk about all of that, but anything can happen, and if you get to playing basketball at the right time, then anything can happen. We’ve got to start our right time right now. It’s a little bit different.

We’ve got to own this one. I’m going to own it as the head coach. I’m going to prepare. I’m going to be pissed off all night, and probably most of the day tomorrow.

Then when I see our guys, we’re going to prepare for Boston College. That’s how we do it. I mean, that’s what it’s about.

It’s kind of a million dollar question, like why that inconsistency is there, and I’m sure you have an answer. But why do you think that inconsistency has been there with this team?

I just think we don’t have any superstars, and that’s not a knock on our team. DJ Horne texted me today and said, ‘I’m going to be at the game. Can I come in the locker room?’ I said, ‘yeah, you can play too if you want to.’

We don’t have that one person that can just go off, and so the inconsistent play is there. Then, obviously, all the teams do a great job of scouting also, just like we do.

Up until tonight, I think our scouting and our defense has been really, really stingy. We’ve done a good job. Now, we haven’t won those games, but we’ve done a really good job.

But tonight, we played against a very…it was the wrong night for your defense not to perform, against a team that can really score and score in bunches. They’re good. They’re a very good basketball team.

Is there a reason for Dennis Parker not competing in this game at all?

Nah, it’s just a feel.

If you guys see a guy on the floor, from this point on, just know that I feel like he’s working his butt off in practice, and I’m going to play the guys that are locked in and play all the time, and that’s not a knock to Dennis. It was a feel.

Do you have a message for the fans to get them back for Saturday?

Well, we’re fighting. We didn’t have our best performance tonight.

As a fan, if you’re disappointed, how do you think the guys who work extremely hard every day? We’re busting our butt every day, and let’s not forget one thing now. We did hang a banner, two of them. That hadn’t happened in 37 and 40 years. So let’s have some respect for that part of it.

Understand that we might not be having a great season, but we’ve done some pretty good things here. So I think that’s enough for people to understand that anything is possible, and what has happened and what we’ve delivered is pretty doggone good.

So we don’t like the results, but I’m not going to quit on any situation. If there was a fan that had a business and they weren’t doing well, I’m going to still support their business. When you’re in it, be in it.

Don’t be halfway, and I’m not saying that your question will come off as me complaining about the fans, but I want you to make sure that’s never what I’ve done. All I’ve said is, here’s who we are, and here’s what I think our message should be.

I’m very grateful to everyone who has showed up every single night. I really thank them. And those who don’t show up, I understand they may have some other things to do, but I’m not a complainer about fans. I never have been, I never will be.