Kevin Keatts: 'Very disappointed in our first half'
Very disappointed in that first half and uh you know
obviously without taking away from what Carolina did I thought
Carolina played really well on their home floor
Um we got beat to a lot of 50/50 basketballs
uh when you look at the first half we gave
up 7 3s in the first half
We turned the ball over um 9 times in the
first half and so what we did we dug such
a a huge hole
It was hard to come back
I thought our guys um you know the guys that
we played in the second half I thought they fought
um you know obviously but when you
You know you give up 54 points and you dig
yourself with such a big hole it's really hard to
come back especially on somebody's floor um gotta build on
it
You can't you know it's hard to it's hard to
win a game when a team plays so well in
the first half and then we're battling back and obviously
um you know I thought our guys you know if
if you wanna look at some bright spots I thought
Paul McNeill came in and played well
I thought both Jayden and um Don Trez did a
great job you know we scored 47 points in the
And have and fought um but we were so deeply
behind that it took a long time to even try
to get back in it so questions
It did seem like um there was a lot of
good shots that were you know they were good looks
They just ran aloud to get that kind of uh
shot some of the confidence as well as the stretch
Yeah it's you guys are following us all
It's a little frustrating
We're getting good shots
I mean and people that follow us will say man
man you guys get good shots um
Unfortunately for us some nights they don't go in and
when they don't it's so much pressure on our defense
and um you know when we started tonight um for
the first time in a long time when we started
missing shots uh I think it really affected us on
the defensive end and
Unfortunately I I'm not gonna take away from Carolina because
I thought they played really well in the first half
um but a lot of that is we just we
were not ourselves you know you you guys know this
we we take care of the basketball in this program
and and we had 9 at the half and obviously
finished with 10
You said after Virginia Tech that you weren't embarrassed by
the loss you know how how do you feel after
you know specifically that first half I didn't I didn't
think you know I don't use words embarrassment
I you know they played better than us they made
more shots than us they got more rebounds than us
um you know we fought they won the game the
game was probably won in the first half um
I thought our guys really really battled in the second
half but we had such a deep hole that we
had to climb out of it
Um are we proud of the way we played in
the first half Absolutely not
We're not embarrassed
We're we're not proud about how we played and obviously
we wish we could have played better but we didn't
your guys's defense was calling a calling card for most
of the year
The last 3 games you guys are probably 90 points
and 2 of them you know what has changed kind
of teams kind of
Yeah yeah I think you know when you look at
it you know and give give credit I think one
of them being is who we played um I you
know I thought you know um Louisville can really score
the basketball um I think you know one of the
things that in those common themes in those games is
we've given up threes and transition baskets and that's what
we have been really good at early if you take
away those teams don't really score a lot on our
um you know base um half court defense
Yeah I I think our transition and our um um
you know giving up 3s is the reason why they
scoring the 90 points
Well I played here quite a few times
It was the atmosphere
Give him a still game
Opening it up
Not really No I just I think they play well
Atmosphere is only as good as the team plays and
I think when they played well obviously it was you
know obviously everybody got involved but I mean obviously it's
hard for me to say the atmosphere is better when
the top bowl you know because the weather wasn't field
but I think the energy in the building was good
because of the way they played in the first half
I'm glad they feel that way because I do
I mean that's you know we this is in our
program we have shared responsibility um you know it's not
you you're never going to see me walk into a
press conference and blame it on their players if anything
I'll take the blame myself
But I I'm glad that they feel that way because
obviously then that means we gotta go back to work
and figure it out
Obviously when you look at it you know we got
5 regular season games and you have to take one
at a time and obviously Saturday but you know I
don't want guys to you know after a game feel
great uh even if it's a 2 point game you
know we we we know it's a you know some
things that we could do better the things we're gonna
get better and we'll get better we'll work on it
Yeah
I I I it's a 1 1000 things um maybe
not 1000 but I mean if you look at it
um you know we just we don't this team doesn't
have any superstars
Uh we got really good players and I love my
players um but in fairness there's no you know Jack
Ejo and to Quon Smith and DJ Horn and DJ
Burns
What I mean by that is guys that can go
on an average 1718 points a game
We have a bunch of really good
Players which I knew from the start and I love
them
I think they're all really good people and they're they're
fighting their butts off um the disconnect is um when
we don't play together with this particular group because we
don't have that one or two guys that can take
a game over and so when we're not on the
same page and we don't play good basketball together then
we really struggle um you know hence when we start
playing together we're a really good basketball team
uh does NIO have something to do with Absolutely I
mean
I mean that's all you gotta do is take a
look at the top 5 teams in the league and
You know somehow find their numbers and it'll tell you
a story um but I'm not going to make excuses
about that because obviously you know our program is we
fight hard we compete um but the biggest difference is
these this group this version of NC State uh we
have to be we have to play together to be
really good yeah
I don't know where you were before this season but
now that you're you're playing through it do you favor
putting all 18 teams in the ACC tournament or you
like that there's a fight to to even get in
It's not my call
I mean I I don't know
I don't know what's behind whether how many goals in
any of that other stuff
I just I don't know you know I I I
guess the easy answer is I could say yes and
and here's why I could say yes because I'm I
also believe that there should be more than 68 teams
in the NCAA tournament and so the answer is yes
but that's not my call
put pressure on the team at some point to to
try to get it
No you know because I I've always felt that with
my guys it's a moment thing um you know you
can't move on unless you win the game that's in
front of you and you had to just continue to
to to you know prepare for the next team and
whatever happens happens um you know you look at our
situation you know we didn't
You know the 10 see nobody expected that either and
so you know just keep playing and and and and
see what the numbers look like at that time but
I don't think uh when you're losing it's hard to
put added pressure on the team is losing you know
it's not like it's gonna motivate them all that we
gotta stay in the moment locked in and understand we
got the next opportunity in front of us
Are you worried that you've lost medal from last year's
tournament at all Momentum in which way when you say
that which part because I it's a several different ways
um am I am I concerned that we were on
the top of the mountain and um you know where
where we at I don't think so as a program
because we play hard but we also you know you
you think about this part of it is uh the
the landscape has changed around us
And what I mean by that if you went to
the Final Four you won the ACC you could get
any player not any player but most of the players
you wanted because of that
But when you add the NIL part to it none
of that matters because you can flip a team just
like that part of it and so uh the disappointment
is hey we didn't have NIL like it was like
it is now hell we might have different set of
group of guys because of the fact that they're coming
just because they want an education they wanna
A chance to play at NC State
They wanna you know play in our style but now
it's not about that it's what what can you provide
you know financially and and I get it trust me
I'm not this is not a rant to say I'm
against NIL because I am but that has to match
your winning in order for you to get there
Thanks