NC State coach Kevin Keatts following the 72-52 loss at Ole Miss on the Wolfpack radio network Tuesday:
Keatts on the loss:
“Well, we played as individuals. It is completely on me. I have to do a way better job. We got so many new people. I thought everybody, instead of sharing the ball, moving the ball, getting some open shots, and driving and kicking, like we worked on the last couple of days, we didn’t do a good job with that.
“We didn’t score tonight. A lot of times, when you have teams and because we are so new, and have so many new faces, when you don’t score the ball, it kind of hurts our defense a little bit. Our energy was poor and that is completely on me. We’ll fix it and get better because of it.”
How was Ole Miss center Jamarion Sharp a factor at 7-foot-5 and the others in frustrating D.J. Burns?
“I thought he affected the game because of his size. Obviously, he is a great shot-blocker but it’s tough to score over. We just did not get a lot of player ball movement. I thought the ball stuck. I thought it was ‘your turn, my turn.’ We have to do better than that.
“I know his team is learning how to play together. It is early in our season, but we have to get a lot better than that. We will completely get better. We are going to work on that. We are going to own it. We are going to accept it. We are going to battle and work our [butt] off.”
How tough is it on a night where you only get four points off seven turnovers?
“It is tough. You know what, it forced us to play a little different and we had to play some zone. Obviously, our offense wasn’t going and we couldn’t get into our pressure as much when you score 52 points.
“Our defense is predicated off of making turnovers and everything else. When you don’t score the ball, it is hard getting into your defense and create turnovers. We didn’t have it offensively tonight.”
After going 3 of 25 on three-pointers, were there too many three-point attempts?
“No, I just didn’t think we drove and created good three-point shots. I thought we got some good looks. We made 21 field goals and assisted on 10 of them. We should have had more opportunities.
“Ole Miss does a good job of selling out to protect the paint. We just passed the ball around the perimeter and jacked up threes instead of really driving and kicking and we didn’t do a good job.
“Once again, for whatever reason, we weren’t flowing tonight.”
What kind of positive were Ben Middlebrooks and L.J. Thomas off the bench?
“I thought both of those guys, and if you went with the bright spots from tonight’s game, you should say both Ben and L.J. We don’t get anything from D.J. Burns as far as scoring, and we don’t Casey’s [Morsell] scoring, or JT [Jayden] Taylor nor DJ Horne had a good scoring night. We are going to struggle as a team because those guys have established themselves as scoring in our offense. We couldn’t put it in a hole tonight.”
Keatts on the loss:
“Well, we played as individuals. It is completely on me. I have to do a way better job. We got so many new people. I thought everybody, instead of sharing the ball, moving the ball, getting some open shots, and driving and kicking, like we worked on the last couple of days, we didn’t do a good job with that.
“We didn’t score tonight. A lot of times, when you have teams and because we are so new, and have so many new faces, when you don’t score the ball, it kind of hurts our defense a little bit. Our energy was poor and that is completely on me. We’ll fix it and get better because of it.”
How was Ole Miss center Jamarion Sharp a factor at 7-foot-5 and the others in frustrating D.J. Burns?
“I thought he affected the game because of his size. Obviously, he is a great shot-blocker but it’s tough to score over. We just did not get a lot of player ball movement. I thought the ball stuck. I thought it was ‘your turn, my turn.’ We have to do better than that.
“I know his team is learning how to play together. It is early in our season, but we have to get a lot better than that. We will completely get better. We are going to work on that. We are going to own it. We are going to accept it. We are going to battle and work our [butt] off.”
How tough is it on a night where you only get four points off seven turnovers?
“It is tough. You know what, it forced us to play a little different and we had to play some zone. Obviously, our offense wasn’t going and we couldn’t get into our pressure as much when you score 52 points.
“Our defense is predicated off of making turnovers and everything else. When you don’t score the ball, it is hard getting into your defense and create turnovers. We didn’t have it offensively tonight.”
After going 3 of 25 on three-pointers, were there too many three-point attempts?
“No, I just didn’t think we drove and created good three-point shots. I thought we got some good looks. We made 21 field goals and assisted on 10 of them. We should have had more opportunities.
“Ole Miss does a good job of selling out to protect the paint. We just passed the ball around the perimeter and jacked up threes instead of really driving and kicking and we didn’t do a good job.
“Once again, for whatever reason, we weren’t flowing tonight.”
What kind of positive were Ben Middlebrooks and L.J. Thomas off the bench?
“I thought both of those guys, and if you went with the bright spots from tonight’s game, you should say both Ben and L.J. We don’t get anything from D.J. Burns as far as scoring, and we don’t Casey’s [Morsell] scoring, or JT [Jayden] Taylor nor DJ Horne had a good scoring night. We are going to struggle as a team because those guys have established themselves as scoring in our offense. We couldn’t put it in a hole tonight.”
