NC State Coach: Duke a Better Team Than Last Year's Individuals
NC State Markell Johnson is one of the top point guards in the ACC when he’s dialed in. There are times when he seems to have off nights, however, where things just don’t seem to click. Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts hopes his point guard will come ready to play for his matchup Wednesday against Duke’s Tre Jones.
“I know I would if I’m a player,” Keatts said. “If I got the opportunity. Tre Jones is a really good point guard, one of the better point guards in the country, certainly in our league. He makes them go. He’s a very good player. I hope our guys will step up for the challenge.”
State is 1-1 against Duke under Keatts, beating the Blue Devils two years ago in Raleigh.
“We’ve only played them twice,” Keatts said. “We played them here and over there. We played well. We were able to make some shots. It was my first year here, and we were coming off of losing at Clemson and Notre Dame. It was our first ACC game here of mine. We just played well, made some shots, got out in transition and we were able to get some easy baskets . I think the same thing—they’re good. When you look at last year’s team, they had a really good team, but it was full of superstars. They’ve still got really good players, guys that are obviously going to be able to play in the NBA in the near future. That being said, this particular team, I think it’s a better overall team than the individual guys they had last year. That makes it tough, because they’re starting to play well together.”
