With the start of the NC State men’s basketball season just over a month away, second-year head coach Kevin Keatts addressed reporters at the team’s media day at the Dail Basketball Center Monday afternoon.
The Wolfpack starts official practice Tuesday. Here are some of the highlights from Keatts’ news conference:
On Hurricane Florence relief efforts: “As you guys know, it is very dear to me. I’m thinking about the people, after spending three years at Wilmington, and being able to talk to some of those folks, and hear some of the stories going on, it’s tough, and I really appreciate you guys and I know a lot of you guys have been on the front line for all that. We’ll continue to support that, as a basketball program and university. Our Primetime with the Pack on Oct. 19, we will make it some type of hurricane relief effort. We will donate that money towards something.”
On changes to the coaching staff: “First of all, we lost an assistant coach who did a tremendous job for us. He’s like a son to me. I was very happy for A.W. Hamilton that he was able to go on and get a job at Eastern Kentucky, the head coaching job. That being said, I went out and hired another sharp young man that I’ve known for a long time; Roy Roberson. I wanted to kind of follow the model of what we did when we hired A.W., so I wanted a guy that had some high school experience. The thing about Roy is he’s been a high school coach for a lot of years, and he’s done a tremendous job at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, Virginia, so we’re excited to have him. I think he brings a lot of experience and value to our program.”
On injuries: “I’m going to talk to you about the two studs that are hurt right now. One of the studs being [freshman] Manny Bates, the other stud being Kevin Keatts. Manny is doing better, he’ll go to the doctor on Wednesday and hopefully we get a good report. The toughest thing for Manny is obviously he sat out his senior year and now he’s going to have to do the same thing as a freshman. Hopefully he’ll get some good news, and hopefully the good news is that he’ll be able to get out of his sling a little bit and do some different things.
“As far as me, if there’s anyone in this crowd that is 40 or over, I’ve got some advice for you; don’t play pickup basketball … once you get to a certain age you shouldn’t play any type of team sport, find an individual sport. Golf would be great. I’m going to now pick up golf, I don’t know when I’m going to have time to do that but I certainly will. I’m about six months out of my surgery, sitting here on the floor where I thought I was David Thompson and I figured out quickly that I wasn’t.”
On roster turnover: “As far as our team goes, I’m excited about this bunch. When we think about our team, it’s tough because we’ve only got three guys that wore an NC State jersey last year. I don’t know if there’s anybody in the country that has 10 new guys on their roster. That being said, I’m excited about this bunch because we’ve got a lot of versatility. I’ve got a lot of guys that can play a lot of different positions.”
On combinations and play style: “You may see a lot of different combinations on the floor that you may never have seen before. There’s a chance that at times that you’ll see [sophomore] Braxton [Beverly], [junior] Markell [Johnson] and [sophomore] Blake Harris on the court at the same time. We will not play conventional basketball this year. You won’t see a 6-foot-8 power forward and 7-foot center. You’re going to see all types of different combinations. I like that about this team. Three guys that I’ve thought have done a tremendous job are those returners. They’ve all been leaders. Those guys would be [graduate] Torin Dorn, Markell and Braxton.
“Then obviously we have some guys that have sat out that I thought have done a tremendous job; [redshirt junior] C.J. Bryce, [redshirt sophomore] Devon Daniels and Blake Harris. I’m excited about the bunch. I look forward to these guys. I’m excited about our schedule. I think we’ve got a schedule that will prepare us for the ACC.”
On replacing center Omer Yurtseven: “Anytime you lose a guy who averaged 14 [points] and seven [rebounds], it’s a big loss for any type of program. Certainly his size and his ability to make shots is something we will miss. But, I do think we have three guys who I think, none of those guys will come in and average 14 points per game, but I think as a three-headed monster they all have a chance to replace him.
“We’ve got to figure out which one of those guys will merge, but I think all three of those guys bring something different to the table. Ian Steere, who is a freshman, has a long way to go but he is very physical. [Redshirt sophomore] DJ Funderburk is a talented young man, he played at junior college and he’s probably the best scorer. [Graduate] Wyatt Walker, who obviously transferred from Samford, he knows how to play the game. Once we figure those guys out, it will be exciting basketball to watch.”
On what he learned from the ACC last season: “The biggest thing is that we have the best conference in college basketball. The toughest thing about this conference is you go down your schedule, some leagues you can go down the schedule and predict a win. You can’t do that in the ACC. Every coach in the ACC can look at their schedule and think ‘man we’ve got a tough schedule.’ There are no days off. It’s tough. Every night, from the top to the bottom, you could win that game or you could lose that game.”
On player rotation: “Ideally, I like to go into every season playing 10 guys. I would like that type of rotation. Obviously, I’ve said this a long time, players determine how many guys I play. If I had my choice right now, I’d like to have 10 guys I could play in the game. Now, I only have 11 guys right now that are eligible to play.”
On Dorn returning: “I never thought, just to be fair, that there was a point where Torin wasn’t coming back. I’m very grateful that he had the opportunity to go through the NBA process and figure out where he was at, so he can work on some things this year to be able to have the chance to play in the NBA. But, I’m excited for him because if there’s anybody, besides Omer, who benefitted from our program it’s Torin Dorn.”
On the three returners: “We’re going to need those guys who have played in ACC games to be leaders. They’re going to need to be leaders on the court, leaders in the locker room. They’ve got to do a great job. They know what’s expected of them. The only other guy on my roster that has an idea of how I want things done is C.J. Bryce, because he played for me two years in Wilmington.”
On establishing his system at NC State: “I think we ran 75 percent of what I wanted to do in my system (last year). Reason being, we didn’t have the depth. When you look at this team, out of the 11 guys, I’ve got seven guys who can play the guard position. At times we might play four guards, so that’s a great rotation for us. We didn’t get the chance to utilize all our presses. I would love to press some more, and mix it up some more. Also, I know we played fast, but I want to play faster with this team.”
NC State has slightly over a month of practice before its first game. The Wolfpack opens the regular season at home on Nov. 6 against Mount St. Mary’s.
