NC State
Keatts: Obviously shots are not falling
NC State's Kevin Keatts on 79-70 loss to UNC
What a, what a heck of a boxing match. Um, you know, you had some very competitive guys out there today and, um, it showed, you know, I, I thought, um, we got the best of them in the first half and obviously they did a really good job in the second half of getting the best of us. Uh, we did some good things, you know. Um, I thought we really shared the basketball, uh, defensively in the first half. I thought we were really, really locked in and made things really tough for RJ who as you go guys know, is probably one of the toughest guys to guard in our league. Um, good game for us. Um, I thought there was a segment of about two minutes where we kinda, kinda got away from us a little bit. Um, you know, we had a couple of things didn't go our way and we didn't respond well on both ends of the floor and, uh, obviously they got away, but it's a good team on their home floor. And, um, you know, we did some good things. We just got to try to figure out how to build on it and move on to our next game, which as you guys know, is a quick turnaround. Like we might be the only team in America that's ever played, uh Carolina on Saturday and Duke on Monday, uh without it being a tournament situation. So, questions. Well, I just think, I think our shots weren't falling and, and, you know, in college basketball, you know, guys can tend to get a little frustrated when your shots are not falling and, and obviously I think it hurt us defensively, you know, when you look at it and, and this is not a complaint. So I don't want anybody to print it. You know, when you look at the difference of the game, you know, getting to the free throw line 27 times and that's 16, it makes a big difference because it slows the game down. You're able to get some shots to go in without having to score with your offense. I mean, I mean, in your head where you're wondering what's going on out there, especially some of those were tip ins and labs and things that you would expect to be. Yeah. And you know, the, the, the, the good thing about it, Luke is they wasn't setting the world on fire when we were missing also, they were missing some shots too, but that's a long stretch, uh, where we just didn't have anything and it completely, uh DJ burns not being on the floor kind of doesn't give us the ability to score the ball inside. And also he's one of our better passers also. And so, you know, uh, mo both mo and being a more pick and pop guy pick and roll, uh, do so we didn't have anybody to play through and then it was able to, you know, obviously the lock on to our guards. I thought they did a good job in the second half with their ball screen coverage, staying with DJ Horn a little bit more. Uh, Jaden Taylor's had three really fantastic games. Uh, but we did have that stretch which, which I thought really bothered us a little bit. You've had, you've had stretches this season where you played as well as you did in the first half today. You've also had some stretches like the second half. What do you think is the biggest reason for the inconsistency that you guys have had trying to put together 40 minutes? I think the other teams have a little to do with it. Um, you know, they play good defense and, um, you know, just as well as we are, we will defend at times. I think sometimes teams take away your strengths. Uh, some of it is on us, uh, obviously, shots are not falling and, um, the guys that we need to make shots, uh, we don't, you know, that our shot maker, we don't have a lot of those guys, even though we got a bunch of guys on our team, but we got two or three guys that really have to be, get going. And if they struggle a little bit doing those segments, we struggle it. Feel like your guys try to run a little bit with North Carolina as far as in transition and maybe run out of gas at certain points and stretch. I don't, um, you know, you look at the fast break. I, I was mad at halftime because they had six when they finished with six. And so I don't think it had anything to do with us running in transition or them running in transition. I, I just thought that, um RJ made some, um, really good plays and honestly, the MVP of their team for the night was cao I mean, he got in, he got in the lane, he made great plays, uh, you know, 15 points and seven assists. I thought he really did a good job of controlling the game. The poise in the first half was impressive. Just turn over in the shots you want. Could you tell if the guys were a little rattled, you know, in the second half, but that poise was kind of slipping away. I didn't think we ever got rattled. I just thought we stopped missing shots. I thought we got shots. I thought we did some good things. I thought we moved the ball a little bit. I just think we didn't make shots but I didn't, I didn't see anybody that I thought got rattled. 7368. Tough call. Uh, J and good congestion. Yeah, you're talking about the one with RJ Davis at the top? Yeah, that was more a case. And I think it fouled him out of the game. It was a tough call. II, I will not comment on it until I go, look at it, but I don't know if it's a foul but they called it a foul. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I was just keep fighting. I mean, like we got a bunch of people that's clogged up right now. I mean, you, you know, we, we go on the road to Florida State and it's a really good basketball team play great at home. They go on the road to uh Georgia Tech today and lose. I haven't seen any other school, I mean, any other scores, but it is, this is probably in my opinion and my seven years in this league the most balance that I've seen in the league and, and it's crazy because on any given night, anybody can beat you and the teams who may have four or five wins, their four or five wins happen to be against the top half of the league. And it's so much parody. So, you know, we, we have to focus on, you know, obviously our next opponent, which is Duke. I'm, I'm doing a little live scout where I'm talking to you guys right here. Um, but also, you know, we got our focus has to be Duke and then obviously, or, um, you know, our last game on the road against Pitt and then you got to prepare yourself for the AC C tournament because it is completely tight. It's a tight race and it's a lot, even though you think, you know, every, every team is going to have about two games left after this and these two games could go anyway. They really could. I used to, you know, 34 years ago, you could look at a team that was struggling and say, you know what, this is a guaranteed win for that school going into that. There's none of them like you don't know. The only time I realized what the scores are and look at it, I get to my phone and I realized, man, one lost that didn't supposed to win or that we say that. And so I think our focus Corey is, um, you know, we gotta have short term memory. I mean, that's all, I mean, you know, I hope this game, I need Virginia to come back and this game to go into triple overtime. Um, you know, I mean, that's, I mean, and, and obviously look like they're playing great, their sales.