What NC State coach Kevin Keatts said after Wolfpack’s NCAA Tournament win — his first
The game over, the press conferences completed, another March basketball victory secured, N.C. State’s Kevin Keatts sat back in his chair in a small coaches’ room to unwind.
It was after midnight. The Wolfpack had beaten Texas Tech 80-67 in its NCAA Tournament opener, a game it waited all day Thursday to play. It was Keatts’ first NCAA win with the Pack, State’s first NCAA victory since beating Villanova, a No. 1 seed, in 2016.
“Oh, give credit to my team,” Keatts said, smiling and shaking his head. “It’s not my win, it’s their win. That’s what’s important.”
It has been a lucrative March for Keatts. The Wolfpack is the ACC Tournament champion for the first time since 1987, when Keatts was 14 years old. A few weeks removed from his job possibly being in jeopardy, he has earned a two-year contract extension and six figures in total bonus pay and raises.
Winning the ACC Tournament did that. Wolfpackers celebrated long and hard after State knocked off North Carolina in the championship game in Washington, D.C., the long wait over.
But the Wolfpack wanted more. A year ago, it bowed out quickly in the NCAA Tournament, losing to Creighton in Denver in its first game. Pack guard Terquavion Smith, soon to leave for the NBA Draft, had 32 points, but was in tears after that one and everyone else dejected in a very somber locker room.
Especially D.J. Burns.
In a matchup with Creighton 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner, the Wolfpack big man came up small, scoring two points as Kalkbrenner ignited for 31. The Pack went home, one and done.
But Burns came into Thursday’s NCAA game on another level, after being named the ACC Tournament’s Most Valuable Player, earning the Everett Case Award.
The first half was not his best, and ever-energetic Ben Middlebrooks scored 14 of his 21 points while Burns sat out with two fouls. But it was quite the show in the final 10 minutes of the game. The crowd at PPG Paints Arena loved it all as the 6-9, 300-pounder mixed nifty moves and power moves around the basket in scoring 16 points.
During Oakland’s 80-76 NCAA upset of Kentucky, the crowd was wowed by some unconscious — or so it seemed — shooting from the Golden Grizzlies’ Jack Gohlke. Late in the nightcap, it was Burns who was a turn-on for the fans.
Keatts said he knew little about Oakland other than Grizzlies’ coach Greg Kampe has “done a great job there for 40 years.” That part is true.
“I didn’t get to see the game but I do know they had a young man who made ten 3’s. I do know that,” Keatts said.
That part is true, too. The guard has the green light to shoot and Gohlke takes advantage of it, shooting the Wildcats out of the NCAA Tournament with 32 points.
But for the Pack, devising something to slow Gohlke could wait until Friday, when the scouting report for Oakland is put together. Then, again it already was Friday.
Time moves fast in March.
