NC State head coach Kevin Keatts
(On how he thought they played):
“I thought our guys found a way, especially our bench. It was good to utilize our bench in the first half when we had both Jarkel (Joiner) and Terquavion (Smith) with two fouls. I thought Breon (Pass) and LJ (Thomas) came in and did a good job. I thought we found a way to win when we did not play our best basketball. At times, our guys didn’t score the ball like we thought we should and our defense suffered a bit. When you look around college basketball there are so many upsets right now and I told our guys we have to lock in and focus. Every team is coming to play well. We did some good stuff and had some good individual performances. We look at Dusan (Mahorcic) at nine points and 14 rebounds and it was good for Jack Clark to play well, he was at 21 and 9. I am excited about it and to move on to the next game.
(On if he thought last year’s team would have lost this game):
“I am not sure, possibly. You should have heard our huddles because we have older guys and they were talking to each other, getting on each other, and praising each other. Possibly because of the youth of our team last year, this team understood when we need a stop or a basket. When it got down to the difference being five points, they were like, ‘oh my goodness we need a play now.’ I don’t know that we would have had that last year.”
(On Elon’s zone and getting the ball to Jack Clark):
“We haven’t seen zone all year long and I told the coaching staff that they were going to play zone and they did not believe me. I said they were going to play 2-3 zone and when they went zone everyone’s eyes got big like we have to shoot them out of this. We made a couple and then after that we missed some. When we got in a timeout, we talked about getting the ball in the middle of the zone. We need to flatten it out a little bit and that’s when we made some plays.”
(On the player’s coaching each other):
“The great thing about this group is that before I get on them, they are coaching each other and I think that is what is going to help us down the stretch because they are able to talk through things. That is a good positive and that is what comes with having some veteran guys that have played college basketball and have seen those plays before.“
(On how prepared he thinks his team is for the Bahamas):
“I think we are as prepared as any other team is going to the Bahamas. It’s a young season and everybody that is going to be in the Bahamas has probably played four or five games. Everybody that is going to the Bahamas has had highs and lows in the first four or five games. I think we are prepared as anyone else.”
(On Dusan’s missed free throw for the chance at double-double):
“I don't think he knew that but you can't miss that free throw to get your double-double. You have to have that. That's got to go in.”
(On main talking points and things he addressed to the team):
“We talked about, ‘hey man, be happy.’ It's a win. There is no disappointment in their locker room. The other team has scholarship players and I thought Elon came in and did a good job of running their offense. Taking last-second shots. If they missed, get another opportunity. I thought they were solid defensively. We didn't have the explosion offensively that we had against FIU and I think that affected our guys a little bit.”
(On the number of three-point attempts):
“This is a three-point shooting team. We are probably going to average around 30 of them a game. We typically get 70 to 75 shots a game because we force tempo and steals and everything else. I think the last game was 76, I think this game was 69. So probably 30 of them are going to come from behind the three-point line.”
(On his team’s defense):
“I am very happy with it once we locked in. I thought in the first half we had too many breakdowns. They ran a simple pin-in screen from the five and I have no idea what we did with it. We ran through it. We shot the gap and we talked about it at half-time. Then they came out in the second half and did the same thing. It is the greatest play in the world. Just the five-set a screen then they come out and shoot. But when we needed to, our guys sat down and guarded. We did a good job at it. We have got to clean up a couple of things. Out of all the games, I didn't think we were sharp defensively as we have been in the first three.”
(On Terquavion Smith’s defense):
“You know what he is doing, he is listening. It started in the summer through what he learned from the NBA teams, through what he learned through the combine, and through the things that we talked about. And he has become a much better listener than when he was a freshman. A lot of it goes to Jarkel Joiner, I think T was 19 years old at one play on the court and I heard Jarkel say, “relax T.” I think that is because we’ve got some older guys that can help him through that stuff. Last year, he wasn't the oldest guy but he was the most explosive guy, but nobody would coach him on the floor because nobody was older, there was no respect factor. Now I think he has that.”
