Keatts: 'Great Sending Seniors Away With a Win'
You could tell is was a special occasion by the red blazer NC State coach Kevin Keatts wore to Friday's regular season finale against Wake Forest.
And it was a big one, not only in the context of the Wolfpack's NCAA tournament chances, which are still strong following its 84-64 victory against the Deacons but also because it marked the final home game in the careers of seniors Markell Johnson and C.J. Bryce, along with graduate transfers Danny Dixon and Pat Andree.
Unlike last year's disappointment against Georgia Tech, this Senior Night turned out to be a happy celebration thanks to some strong performances by the upperclassmen, along with a little help from their younger teammates.
Here's what Keatts said about the win at his postgame press conference:
"It’s a great night. And it’s a great night because we won, but it’s a great night to be able to send our seniors away with a win. I’m very proud of those guys.
"When you think of CJ Bryce, he’s been with me for five years and rarely in college basketball do you have a chance to get a kid to stay around you for five years, I don’t even know how he did it, to be around me five years anyway. But I’m proud of his journey. He started off at UNCW with me and I knew when I signed him he was a high major guy. Then obviously, I had the opportunity to take this job here and when he decided to leave I knew I didn't want to play against him. So we got involved with him and I’m glad he decided to come to NC State and he’s done a great job with us for a couple of years.
“Markell Johnson, everybody knows he’s had his ups and downs. But what I will say about him is he didn’t take bad advice. A lot of young men, especially some of the guys we’ve had here in the program in the past, have decided to jump to the NBA when they weren’t ready. Markell is a guy who took the positive feedback and the negative feedback and decided to come back to NC State. He’ll had two years under his belt where he’s probably going to lead the league in assists. His game has matured. He’s still getting better in areas, but I'm proud of him.
“Those two fifth year guys, Danny and Pat, they could’ve gone anywhere in the country and they trusted in us as we try to continue to build this program. That says a lot about those guys. We’ve had a lot of success with those fifth year guys and I’m proud of those guys because both of those guys represent our program the right way as a culture, as basketball and as students.
“That being said, great game. I thought we did a tremendous job tonight. One of my concerns coming into the game was keeping Wake Forest off the free throw line. They are a team that takes 25 free throws a game and when you look at the stat sheet, we did a great job only giving them seven free throws. I thought our guys played well.
"It was really good to see the ball go in the hole for Braxton Beverly. We needed it, he needed it. I think our team understands what kind of player he can be. Markell Johnson was really good with another double-double and I thought D.J. Funderburk played great for us. Danny (Dixon) and those guys that came off the bench did a tremendous job for us tonight.”
According to Keatts, the combination of Senior Night and a slight injury were the reasons why redshirt freshman center Manny Bates didn't play against the Deacons:
“Manny has got a little knee bruise. I wanted him to go through warmups today just to kind of see how he felt. At the end of the day, he probably could’ve played. But I wanted to hold him out. It was Senior night, so I knew I was starting Danny. I knew Danny was going to be in the rotation, so I wanted to be cautious with (Bates) because we need him more with the (ACC) tournament coming up. He should be fine."
Keatts then pointed out the irony of Bates' injury, considering his aggressiveness in attempting to blocked shots has led to some injuries to teammates this season:
"What’s the crazy thing is that he hurt himself to get hurt. I don’t even think anyone bumped into him.”
Speaking of injuries, it appears that Braxton Beverly's back is feeling better. Keatts commented on the junior guard's 16-point performance, which included four three-pointers before halftime:
“He’s just beat up. If someone gave me the power to tell Braxton Beverly to not play basketball for three weeks, I would do it. But I know Braxton Beverly. As soon as I get away from him, he’s going to sneak somewhere and play basketball just because he loves the game.
"That kid is a weapon for us, and he’s a guy who can score. We need him to make those types of shots. We missed some of that, but his ability to make shots makes us a better team. Hopefully he can continue that and play well. I’ve done a bad job in that area. I need to limit him at practice. But it’s tough when he’s sitting over there and he wants to get in everytime. But I have to do a better job in that area.”
Now that the regular season is over, Keatts was asked if he plans to talk to his team about taking things one game at a time at the ACC tournament, or stress the importance of strengthening the Wolfpack's NCAA tournament resume:
“I think we can accomplish both by getting a win, obviously by winning the ACC tournament. As you win, I think that improves your resume. I think we have a chance. I would never only talk about the NCAA and having that chance because I think it puts too much pressure on it. Our goal is to win every game and have a chance to win the tournament. So we’ll talk about winning the tournament next game and by doing so it helps your resume for the NCAA Tournament.”
Keatts was happy with the way his team sustained its effort for 40 minutes, something the Wolfpack hasn't always been able to do, suggesting that it's the product of a (nearly) full, healthy bench:
“I think a lot of that has to do with that we have depth. Most of those games, we were playing seven guys and we wore down. We did what we used to do to teams. We wore down because we just didn’t have much depth. I was going for guys for a long amount of time. Even if you look at tonight. it’s crazy. We still don’t have everyone with Manny out. With that being said, we still had enough guys to play and play how we wanted to finish the game.”
Keatts had high praise for Danny Dixon, not only because of his play on Friday:
“Danny didn’t accidentally get here as a fifth year. I know a lot of times, people who look at fifth years, because they play at a lower division one school, and say they can’t help you. But he’s played a lot of basketball and in some respects he’s a better player at our level than at some of those lower division ones because they usually have those 6-6 post guys.
"He’s had some good practices the last couple days. I texted him on my way here and his way here and told him 'just be confident, you’re a good basketball player.' And I think he played well.”
Keatts finished up by making a detailed case for why he thinks his Wolfpack should be included in the ACC tournament's field of 68 this year:
“For our resume for the NCAA, we've answered some of the questions or the concerns that the committee had last year. Some people would argue that it was our strength of schedule non-conference and I get it. It was bad. But now we finished in the top 100 non-conference. Some people would argue that we didn’t have enough quality Quad 1 wins. But right now we’re sitting at Quad 1 wins and I think today this was another Quad 2 win.
“That being said, I like where our team’s at. I am never going to be able to sit in the committee room tomake those decisions. But I will say this, if you take the resumes and stick them up together and you say NC State has a win against Wisconsin who has a chance to win the regular season in the Big Ten. You say they went to Syracuse and won, we have won at Virginia, who turned out to be a great win and then we beat No. 6 Duke at home. Those are pretty good wins. And I don’t think all Quad 1s are created equal.
"Nothing against any other conference, but I would love to have some Quad 1 wins playing against some lesser teams than playing a Duke, a Wisconsin, a Virginia and a Syracuse. It just doesn’t happen. We went on the road to a mid-major opponent and won at (UNC) Greensboro, which nobody does. Arkansas-Little Rock, for those who don’t know, they won their conference so that turned out to be a great win.
“I just gave a great speech about why we should be in the tournament! I don’t know what the NET is. I did learly one thing and that is the NET is not the only one tool that they use. I hope they go back to the eye test, because if you look at us, the times we’ve played on national television, we look pretty good.”
