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

Head Coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for his postgame press conference after NC State’s 70-72 loss at Miami this afternoon. The Transcript is below.

I thought it was a really good game. There’s so many games that we have played that come down to the stretch and I thought Miami made one more play than us and I thought we did a good job on that last defensive possession being walled up, and obviously we didn’t block out, and gave up that easy shot, so I’ll give Miami credit for fighting.

I thought in the second half our defense wasn’t as good as it was in the first and I thought they got comfortable.

Obviously (Matthew) Cleveland was Cleveland. He played great. 32 points, he was really good.

Just how meaningful was it for Dontrez (Styles) to have a game like that again with the stretch he had down the stretch?

It’s tough, because Dontrez is playing well, but when I look at it, a lot of our starters didn’t play well on the offensive end, so we needed a little more, but he’s been playing really good basketball.

You can make the argument that he’s been our most consistent guy down the stretch.

Do you think Miami at the end just had extra motivation, because it’s the last game under this coach and all the stuff that’s going on this season…maybe they had an extra little emotional push?

I think we all had the motivation, I just think they made one more play than we did and the question would be the other way around if we won on the tip. Did we have more motivation? I thought both groups obviously wanted to win the game.

What were you expecting from them on that last play? Did you figure that Cleveland was going to take it?

Oh 100%. We knew he deserved to get the ball. We knew it was going to come to him. We did a good job on him, we just didn’t help side.

Our help side didn’t do a good job getting the rebound. He made a great play and we forced him to a miss, and we gave up an offensive rebound.

Miami finished in the Final Four two years ago, y’all went to the Final Four last season. It’s the new landscape of college now. How do you think about this season knowing where you were last season? Especially when you’re trying to move forward.

Well I think what it tells you is that it can go either way, and I think basketball now is a year-to-year thing, because there’s so many new faces and guys are transferring. Obviously if you get the right amount of NIL and Revenue Sharing, things can change. For example, Louisville is probably the best example of the other end of it. Obviously we’re an example, and Miami…I’m not sure about their NIL situation, but a lot of injuries and everything else. So I think it’s nothing to panic about, because if you get the right situation, and you get the right Revenue Sharing now, I think the season’s going to be different from year-to-year.

Paul McNeil had a solid game. How big of a bright spot is he for the future of this program?

Paul’s a good player. He’s going to be good. He’s making shots and as he learns how to play on both ends of the floor, I think he’ll be a really good basketball player.

Trey Parker not available?

Yeah, Trey was dealing with some family issues.