Keatts: 'We Can Obviously Survive and Advance'

Here's what NC State coach Kevin Keatts said at his postgame press conference following Wednesday's ACC tournament win against Pittsburgh

Jeremy Brevard/USAToday sports

GREENSBORO -- NC State coach Kevin Keatts couldn't have drawn things up any better than they turned out in Wednesday's ACC tournament opener against Pittsburgh.

His Wolfpack started strong, defended with intensity, made some shots against the Panthers' zone defense and -- save for a five-minute stretch late in the first half -- put together a consistent effort to pull away for a 73-58 victory at Greensboro Coliseum.

It was a win that helped State reach the 20-win mark for the third straight season under Keatts and advance to Thursday's quarterfinal against Duke, with a chance to solidify its NCAA tournament chances.

Here's what Keatts had to say about the victory during his postgame press conference:

"Let's give Pitt a lot of credit. I think what Jeff is doing there in his second year is really good. Obviously it's tough as we've seen in our program to continue to build a culture and a program. That being said, I thought our guys in the second half, we won the game because we completely defended better than we did in the first. We started off well and then at the end of the half, certainly because we stopped making shots, we stopped defending.

"Some of the keys to our game and our success today was we were able to get out in transition. We were able to make some shots. We were able to get some player and ball movement against the zone, and certainly that helped us get a win.

"These guys here and the guys in the locker room did a tremendous job. It's always tough playing your first game, even though you're playing against a team that played the day before and they may be a little bit tired, but obviously that first game is always tough in the tournament, and I thought our guys did a tremendous job and we can obviously survive and advance."

Keatts said he was expecting Pittsburgh to try and disrupt his his team's rhythm by switching to a zone defense and he was happy with the way his team adjusted:

"You know, it's crazy because I told our guys that I figured that if we played Wake or Pitt, there's an opportunity for us to play against the zone, and the reason being is because in a tournament situation, when you play the day before, you don't have time to really go over people's sets. You don't want to go on the floor because you don't want to take people's legs.

"So our anticipation is that we're going to see some zone from everybody that we play as we continue to advance. But it was good to see it. I thought in the first half we were non-aggressive towards when they went to the zone, and we talked about at halftime continuing to drive and ball screening, and we got shots, and then we talked about offensive rebounding and I thought we did a good job.

"So it was good to see it. I have no idea what they're going to play tomorrow. I anticipate that we're going to see some zone and some man-to-man."

Looking ahead to Thursday's quarterfinal against Duke, Keatts was what he thought his team could to improve his team's transition defense against the Blue Devils -- who scored 25 fastbreak points in the last meeting between the teams on March 2:

"I think one of the things that hurt us when they went to the zone, we didn't make shots. Like we got wide-open shots. When I went back and watched the tape, we didn't make shots. That being said, because we didn't make shots is where this team has to get better and grow because sometimes -- and we're not the only ones around the country, when you don't score, typically your defense struggles. 

We gave them run-outs, we gave them offensive rebounds, we didn't rely on our defense. When we keep people in the half court, we're very productive on the defensive end. But I didn't like it, you're right. We gave up 25 points in transition. We have to be way better. They're one of the better transition teams in the country.

Finally, Keatts was asked what his team did to limit Pitt star Justin Champagnie to just nine points after he went off for 31 against Wake Forest a day earlier:

"He's a good player. He played a great game yesterday, and we just concentrated on defending the way we did. I sit there and watched him, I was proud -- I did tell our guys that he had 31 yesterday and played great. But I thought we did a really good job not just on him but most of their guards, forcing them into tough shots. Even the shots they made were tough shots.