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VIDEO: Kevin Keatt’s Press Conference After NC State Beat BC 89-80 (BULLETED)

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Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts spoke with the media in his postgame press conference after NC State beat Boston College 89-80 on Wednesday night. The video is BELOW, and a bulleted breakdown is UNDERNEATH.

  • The game actually ended the way I told our guys it would. What another great ACC game.
    • I told our guys that going into every game from this point on, we have a small margin for error and every game could possibly come down to the last second.
    • Surely, I didn’t expect overtime.
  • I thought we played great to finish the second half and started the half well.
    • During the middle, we hit a spurt where we didn’t score the ball.
    • Then Ky Bowman got going, and before you knew it, we were down.
    • Give our guys credit– we fought our way through. I am proud that we took care of it at home. This was a good win for us. We get to live another day and move on.
    • I thought our guys finished the game and I was excited about the way that we finished.
    • I thought we took a big step forward.
  • In the overtime period, we wanted our guys to come out aggressive.
    • We actually switched what we were running. I know to the naked eye it looks like they are running a 3-2 zone.
    • But every time we swung it, they would switch to man-to-man principles.
    • Instead of running our zone stuff, we went to our man-to-man stuff.
    • We were able to find CJ Bryce going backdoor.
  • I thought Devon Daniels was tremendous, especially in the overtime period.
    • He almost won the game at the end of regulation.
    • He did a great job on the defensive end.
    • He is understanding how he can help his team.
    • When you look at his five steals, you have to talk about that.
    • He also scored the basketball for us.
  • I am getting these guys to play for NC State.
    • When you have so many guys come from different programs, it takes a while for guys to understand their role.
    • I know that’s crazy since we only have four more regular season games.
  • That’s the first time I have been excited to hear an official say that he is part of the court. That was good. I was glad that it happened.
  • Torin Dorn wasn’t playing great, but he had five offensive rebounds.
  • CJ Bryce made some great plays down the stretch.
  • Markell Johnson was able to sacrifice some minutes to allow some other guys to come in and play.
  • We talked about it. Steffon Mitchell for the last two years.
    • I don’t know why, but he kills us on the offensive glass.
    • I think we focused in at timeouts about how to find a body to block him out, and you certainly have to have some guys on him.
    • We did that at the end of the game.
  • I thought they beat us on the offensive end early on.
    • I think at halftime they had 11 offensive rebounds, and we were able to hold them to four (2nd half).
    • I thought our guys came back and competed on the offensive glass.
  • It’s our conditioning (on being prepared for OT).
    • We start in the summer, and I don’t think our guys were fatigued.
    • I thought we had a run in us and we just played.
  • We’re third or fourth in the conference in scoring, and our transition offense hasn’t kicked in.
    • If you look at tonight, we had 24 fast breakpoints.
    • If you go back to a lot of our games, we haven’t gotten out and transitioned much.
    • Reason being, I don’t think we’ve done a great job defensive rebounding.
    • Offensively, we’re one of the best in the country as far as offensive rebounding.
    • Because of our size we haven’t rebounded well defensively, because instead of hitting people, we just try and out-jump people.
    • Basically, we couldn’t get rebounds and they got offensive rebounds.
  • The last 4 or 5 games, other than Duke, if you go back and look, we’ve won the free throw battle. Tonight, I went into this game saying we had to win the free throw battle.
    • Two things I’ve focused on is trying to win the rebound battle and trying to win the free throw battle. I thought we did both.

Matthew is Publisher and Co-Owner of Pack Insider. He is also the Lead Pastor of The Point Church in Cary, NC.

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NC State Basketball

The Roster for the NC State Men’s Basketball Team is all but Set Heading into 2024-25

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NC State does have 1 scholarship available, and could still add a player out of the Transfer Portal. With that being said, the roster for the Men’s Basketball team is pretty much set for the 2024-25 season.

Non-graduates had to enter the Transfer Portal by April 30th, and Graduates had to enter by May 1st. Jayden Taylor and Michael O’Connell both made public announcements that they were returning, but the closure of entrance to the Portal means that Breon Pass, Ben Middlebrooks, Dennis Parker Jr. and MJ Rice are all set to return next season.

In a world where the Transfer Portal has all but become free agency in College Basketball, with some players switching schools on an annual basis, it’s encouraging that Kevin Keatts not only recruited a Top-10 Transfer Class, but also recruited a majority of the eligible players to stay. Three players that could transfer entered the Portal (I’m not counting Mohamed Diarra in these numbers, who opted to go pro), while 6 opted to continue running with the Wolfpack.

As a result, below is a breakdown of the roster for the NC State Men’s Basketball team heading into 2024-25, realizing the Wolfpack could still add one player (this team is deep).

1 year of Eligibility 

Guard Michael O’Connell
Guard Marcus Hill
Guard Breon Pass
Guard/Forward Jayden Taylor
Forward/Guard Dontrez Styles
Forward Ben Middlebrooks
Center Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

2 Years of Eligibility

Guard/Forward MJ Rice
Guard Mike James
Guard Jordan Snell (Walk-On)
Guard KJ Keatts (Walk-On)

3 Years of Eligibility 

Guard/Forward Dennis Parker Jr.

4 Years of Eligibility 

Guard Paul McNeil
Guard Trey Parker

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NC State Basketball

NC State’s Men’s Basketball 2024 Transfer Class Ranks in the Top-10 Nationally

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NC State’s Men’s Basketball team has picked up 4 players from the Transfer Portal this offseason, and the class ranks 10th nationally according to ON3, and 15th nationally according to 247Sports.

ON3

247Sports

NC State’s 2024 4-Man Transfer Class

Center Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Louisville)

Guard/Forward Dontez Styles (Georgetown)

Guard Mike James (Louisville)

Guard Marcus Hill (Bowling Green)

NC State still has a chance to move up in the rankings. East Carolina Power Forward Ezra Ausar just wrapped up an Official Visit to NC State, and things are looking good for the Wolfpack. ON3 ranks Ausar as the #67 overall player in the Portal, and the #15 Power Forward.

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NC State Basketball

WATCH: Andy Katz’s Offseason Convo with NC State’s Kevin Keatts

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Andy Katz is beginning to make his rounds for his Offseason Convo series, and he took the time to meet with NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts.

In their conversation, Keatts talked about what this run has meant to Raleigh and the Wolfpack fans, how it has helped sell the program the way it deserves to be in recruiting, and even how it helped and hurt in the world of the Transfer Portal.

Check out the conversation below:

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NC State Basketball

Guard Mike O’Connell Announces He Will Play His Final Year of Eligibility at NC State

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Guard Michael O’Connell announced today that he will be playing his final year of eligibility at NC State next season.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Michael O’Connell (@michaeloc_12)

Today was the final day graduate players could enter the Portal.

This past season, O’Connell averaged 5.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the Wolfpack, starting 22 of the 41 games he played in.

O’Connell took over as NC State’s starting Point Guard on January 30th in a win against Miami.

He only scored in double figures in 9 of his 41 games this season, but 6 of those came in postseason play (5 in the ACC Tournament). O’Connell took things to another level in the ACC Tournament, playing aggressive on the offensive end, looking for his shot, and attacking the rim.

NC State played it’s best basketball of the season when O’Connell was running the show. He ranked 3rd in the ACC in Assist/Turnover Ratio (2.5).

Heading into next season, with a lineup filled with new faces, having the calming presence of a veteran leader like O’Connell is reassuring.

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