Keatts: 'I Don’t Think We Played The Way We Should Have'

Here is what coach Kevin Keatts said Saturday after NC State's 81-70 loss at Clemson

CLEMSON, S.C. -- The new year got off to a disappointing start for the NC State basketball team with an 81-70 loss at Clemson, a team that came into the game having lost its first three ACC games.

The Wolfpack was without leading scorer and rebounder C.J. Bryce in the game, but that was only a small part of what went wrong at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Coach Kevin Keatts addressed some of the problems in his postgame comments. 

Here is what he had to say:

"Give Clemson a lot of credit. I thought they did a great job, especially in the first half. We went into the game knowing that 45 percent of their offense comes from behind the 3-point line. We got extended and did a poor job of defending the 3-point line, especially in the first half, giving up eight 3-pointers.

"(We) didn’t play great. I thought our guys defensively, we didn’t communicate enough. We didn’t have enough ball pressure and when that happens, you get a loss on the road. Lesson learned for us. We’ve got to get better in certain areas and we will. We’ll grow from this. 

Keatts was asked if he thought his team came out ready to play. He said preparedness wasn't the problem in a disastrous first half in which the Wolfpack fell behind by as many as 14 points ...

"I thought we blew some assignments. I didn't think we over-communicated. We talked about the last two or three days, making sure that we guarded the 3-point line. We got extended. We had no ball pressure. They were throwing direct passes and they were shooting rhythm threes. I thought we were ready to play, I just don’t think we played the way that we should have in the first half."

"That being said, towards the end of the half we did a great job and though we didn’t play well, we closed the gap at halftime. We even came out the first two or three minutes of the second half and made plays. The thing that really was troublesome is when we cut the lead and we had an opportunity right around the 12-minute mark, I thought we turned the ball over and took some bad shots at that time."

Keatts addressed the play of point guard Markell Johnson, who had 11 points and seven assists, but turned the ball over six times, went 1 of 6 from 3-point range and 0 for 3 from the free throw line ...

"I think I’ve just got to continue to watch film with him. I have to have him be the quarterback on the floor when things are not going well, or when things are going well and we need a basket. The basket may not have to come from him. I think at times, Markell thinks that we need to have him make the basket. I just need him to play like a senior running the show. That being said, it’s a lot of pressure on him right now. He’s the only pure point guard on the roster. He’s playing a lot of minutes. He will be fine, but we’ve got to get him better. I’m more concerned about his free throw shooting than anything."

About that free throw shooting ...

"We haven’t talked about it a lot. I’m having him shoot free throws after practice when he’s a little bit fatigued, so it’s more game like. He’s just missing them."

"What happens is you work so hard to get it down to one and then you go for knockout punches. We knew we were playing a team on their home floor that hasn’t had an ACC win. I knew coming out that they were going to play extremely well and play hard. That being said, they played so great that we cut the lead and we panicked a little bit, butit worked against us because we took some questionable shots at those times."

Keatts was asked what kind of impact not having Bryce in the lineup had on the Wolfpack ...

"He wasn’t going to play today. We evaluated him and obviously didn’t feel like he was ready to play today. It hurts our team. Not only because he’s our leading scorer and leading rebounder, but because we lose another guard. 

"When you look at our roster, I’m starting all three guards that we have on our roster that can play. Now it forces us to play guys like D.J. (Funderburk_ more at the four and he’s still got to learn the defensive schemes there. And then Jericole Hellems has to play the three. So it really questions are depth a little bit. It hurts our depth."

And what did Keatts tell his players after the game?

"I told them we have to be better. I told them we have to be better and I asked for better leadership from guys like Markell and Braxton Beverly. I asked for those two guys to be leaders on the court. When we’re down I want them to be leaders. When we cut the lead I want them to be leaders. 

"I told them we have to lock in a little bit better, because we’re switching a lot of screens and I’ve got different guys switching screens now. Right now, those guys are not communicating well enough to be able to do that, so we’ve got to be better.

"It’s one game. This is a marathon. We’ve got 17 more of these. I don’t react to anything. Anybody in this league can beat you at any point, especially at home. We ran into a hot Clemson team that shot the ball well and did some good things. We’ll bounce back and we’ll work on the things that we need to, and we’ll get ready for, I think, Notre Dame (on Wednesday)."