Keatts: 'We’re a Dangerous Team When Guys Are Playing That Way'
NC State basketball coach Kevin Keatts was pleased with both the result and the effort that produced it following the Wolfpack's key 83-72 road win at Miami on Wednesday.
Here's what Keatts had to say about the victory in a postgame interview with Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes on the Wolfpack Sports Network ...
"I know everybody that can hear my voice is gonna be excited that we scored 83 points, but you know, I thought our guys did a good job. When you look at it, we made nine threes, got free throw line 17 times which I thought was good, even though Miami got there 28 times.
"I thought guys played well. Devon Daniels towards the end of the first half was really good and you can’t argue with what Markell Johnson and C.J. Bryce did. Both of those guys with a double-double. C.J. with 11 rebounds and then Markell tied a season-high with 12 (assists). I thought we got great play from everyone who played. Danny Dixon came in and did a good job. Braxton Beverly made some really good shots for us that he needed to see the ball go in and we also needed it. It's a great team win on the road and as I say, road wins are golden."
Keatts was asked what he liked best about the way his team finished out the game:
"I thought our composure. I pulled Markell Johnson over and said, 'Look, you have to take control of the game.' They did a good job of switching one through five, which kind of threw us off a little bit and I thought we settled a little bit. We took some questionable shots and during that stretch we had some bad turnovers. That being said, I was happy the way we finished the game."
Keatts said that this might have been Manny Bates' best game at State:
"Manny Bates played a tremendous game. Four blocks, 10 points, seven rebounds -- four offensively. He had some big plays for us."
Keatts praised Johnson for his work in attacking Miami's zone defense and his ability to get others involved in the offense:
"I thought he did a good job of finding people. We decided to put C.J. Bryce in the middle of the zone and he made some plays and made some shots. We moved it around. Miami, similar to us because they have a short bench, they've been forced to play 2-3 zone and haven’t become great at it, so we knew we could get some good looks in there."
Keatts said it helped his team immensely to be able to use its defense to create transition opportunities that led to 13 fastbreak points:
"Scoring is down all across the country. It's not just us. But it was really good as a coach to sit over there and see the ball go through the hole, to see us get out in transition. I thought our energy level, because we were able to get in our presses, we forced the tempo a little bit and that was good for us."
State played most of the game without two starters, which Keatts said, made the win all the more satisfying:
"Both teams were limping. We were without Jericole Hellems, then DJ Funderburk couldn’t finish the game. We were down to six or seven guys we could put in the game, maybe six actually. It was a great game, I'm excited. I'm excited for our guys. We’re going to get ice cream. We haven’t had ice cream since Charlottesville and we’re going to stop and get ice cream."
Keatts was asked how much different is his team when it's as balanced as it was in this game?
"We’re a good basketball team when we've got everyone playing together. All four of those guards, I though they all came up huge. It was good to see Braxton Beverly get 14 points and make four out of seven threes. He’s another guy who hadn’t made threes. We’re a dangerous team when guys are playing that way. "
Keatts said that except for Miami's 16-2 run in the second half, he loved his team's ball movement:
"I thought we did a good job. Contribute some of that to Miami’s defense. When they started switching, we started standing around and then everyone wanted to drive the big ... and it didn’t work. So we had a timeout and went to our dribble-weave series and drive in the lane.
"I thought Markell Johnson was really good getting in the paint. He made some tough shots in the paint, at the rim. I thought he did a great job of going in the paint and spraying out to people for easy shots. It was a good night for us."
