Kevin Keatts’ Weekly Press Conference Before Pitt: TRANSCRIPT

Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for his weekly press conference today before NC State hosts Pitt on Wednesday night. The transcript is below.

What does what does Breon Pass mean to this team? Obviously he’s the only one that stayed all four years. Senior night on Wednesday night. 

A guy who has been around, and you know in in today’s world when everybody transfers at any given moment to have a young man who has started here. Been a part of some NCAA’s. Been a part of an ACC championship and the Final Four.

It just impressive. He stuck around, has been a part of it, worked hard every day, had a positive attitude and just means a lot. You won’t be able to see that very often.

You may get one guy every two or three years. It’ll happen, but it’s probably not going to happen very often.

He’s only one of eight players in the ACC that’s done that. What does that just say about the current state of college basketball where guys will move on after a couple of years if they’re not playing?

I think if it’s eight now, you’ll probably get five next year and then four later. It tells you that it’s kind of like, you know, What have you done for me lately? It’s sad, but the coming to a school and graduating from that exact school doesn’t mean as much as it used to, especially if you feel like your basketball opportunity is not where it needs to be.

Been a rough stretch for Pitt this year. They got off to a good start and hit a wall a little bit. What’s your read on on this Pitt team? 

They’ve had some ups and downs pretty much like every team does throughout the season, but those guards are good and they do a good job of controlling the game and getting everybody involved. Still a really good basketball team. They got size and score the ball inside and out.

They can drive the basketball. They’re really good defensively. We’ve got to do a really good job of trying to control those guards, because they’re as good as there are in the in the league when they’re playing really good basketball.

We’ve started to see more GM’s in college football, college basketball programs, getting GM scouting departments. Have you guys had any thought or any discussions about that for your program? Is that just something maybe in the off season?

Yeah, that’ll that’ll be something that we will discuss in the off season. We haven’t. We’re paying attention.

We do understand kind of how this thing is shifting a little bit, but it’s not something that we’ve talked about. We’re definitely going to do. Haven’t ruled anything out, but it’s something that I’m watching to see if that is something that will help our program.

Obviously the revenue sharing potentially could be something here for programs moving forward. What do you see potentially with its impact? Obviously you know NIL is involved, but if revenue sharing is a factor as well.

Here at NC State we need revenue sharing. One of our biggest challenges is…I get the question all the time. Why didn’t we capitalize? NIL has been tough here at NC State.

I think it will get better once we get to revenue sharing, and it’s more in house and we can dictate where the money goes. So I’m actually excited about that part of it because I think it will give us a better chance to compete.

The last two seasons, I guess you could say that’s probably the best success you’ve had at NC State and your rotations then tended to be a lot tighter. I know, for example, at Oakland, you went when Diarra fouled out, you put in Taylor at the 4 and he hit the big shot to beat Oakland. This year it’s been 11-12 players. I know a lot of times you get to 10 minutes in the game, you’ve already played 11 players. What’s the variance? Why is there a difference now? Why is it harder to tighten up that rotation now?

A lot of that is based on the season that we’ve had and it’s been a tough season. When you look at our group, there’s not a lot of difference between the number three guy and probably our number nine or 10 guy.

Obviously we have struggled really with consistency. One game, one guy will play well, Paul McNeil will come in the game and play really good basketball. We haven’t been able to have consistency. What we’re looking at is, ‘all right, who can give us some injection in certain games?’ That’s kind of why we’re playing so many guys at this time.

You’ve obviously coached some of the best players that have come through this league. You’ve coached against some great players. I’m wondering about Cooper Flagg. Was there a moment in your matchup against him where he did something that just sort of exemplified the talent that’s made him a national player of the year contender?

I think you’ve covered that game.

We played pretty good on the road and I think we were up four at halftime and then it became the Cooper Flagg show. They did a good job of getting them in isolations where you really couldn’t help. He kind of took over the game.

That’s one of the things that makes him special, his ability to take over the game, his ability to make shots when he needs to. He’s become a really good passer as of late. Kind of an inside-out threat, because if you put a smaller guy on him, he can take them down low and post them.

Bigger guys really struggle with him on the perimeter. I think his ability to take over the game, especially I speak for our game, he played great down the stretch for them.

You’ve obviously made some great runs in the postseason. When you hear people this year say ‘the ACC is having a down year,’ how do you respond to that?

Well, I don’t like it at all. If you look at us, we’re projected in the last ones that I read that get three teams in there. I just don’t think people take into consideration the conference season anymore.

It’s almost like you can stop playing after November and December because everybody has their mind made up about who you are. It’s really tough, because sometimes transfers…look at our situation last year…you may not come together until really late in the season. You’re probably playing your best basketball as you move forward.

I think right now, especially early, we have been just so heavy based on what happens in November and December, but on the flip side is when we do get in the tournament, we perform a lot better than most conferences.

With how things have gone down the stretch, what are you telling the guys going into this final week of play?

We want to finish strong. You’ve covered us the entire year and our guys are fighting. We’ve been on the short end of a lot of games and we have two good opportunities here.

We got a really good Pitt team coming here on Wednesday, and we want our guys to try to finish strong. It hasn’t been the season that everybody dreamed of, especially us in the program, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t keep fighting and keep playing. Obviously getting these guys to rally behind one another.

Marcus Hill is such a unique player in terms of his driving ability. It’s clear that he would be an asset next year if he wants to come back. Have you had any conversations with him about Senior day or what his future holds and the whole Junior College ruling?

We haven’t. Obviously when we get back, from Georgia Tech, we took off yesterday.

We’ll start preparing the next couple of days for Pitt. We haven’t had the conversation with any guy about returning or not returning. Those will be conversations that we will have as the season comes to a close.

I’m excited for Marcus that he will get the opportunity. I’m glad that they didn’t count the JUCO years against anybody. Marcus has had a good year for us, and that’ll be a conversation that we’ll have with him and his family.

I wonder, you talked about next year and that conversation, but how much have you started to think about changes that you guys need to make or what needs to be done to get you guys back to where you were the last two years?

It’s going to change because our situation will change. If there’s anybody disappointed about where we are, it’s me as a coach, but I want you to think about this.

There were no expectations on the team that won the ACC five games in five days and went to the Final Four. As a matter of fact, we can make an argument that that team may have had the lowest NIL budget of any team that’s ever made the Final Four. But, we did what we had to do.

I just don’t think we ever really capitalized on it, because we did it with such a low budget that we capitalized on, obviously, what it took to compete in today’s era. Well, where it would change is, I think, the commitment that we’re going to get from the athletic department and revenue sharing. It’s going to help a place like NC State more than most places.

We’re grateful for what we have and what we were able to collect from the collective, but we were behind from the start, and certainly, I think things can change. We’ve proven that if we have the right pieces and we have the right recruiting tool that we can be competitive and kind of beat everybody, and that’s what the expectation is for next year.

I know you probably talked about this a lot last year, but what’s the secret? I want to get your fresh thoughts this year. What’s the secret to coming from the second half of a conference and all the way to the Final Four?

Hey, man, I can’t. I can’t give that secret. We want that opportunity.

No, you know what? The one thing I will say is your bunch has to be connected. If your bunch can be connected, then anything’s possible, but I can’t share everything, because then I will be asking for some revenue sharing if I gave that up.