Wolfpack loses ‘boxing match’ with No. 9 Tar Heels but the fight continues
N.C. State’s Kevin Keatts stood in a narrow hallway outside the coaches locker room at North Carolina’s Smith Center, talking about the 79-70 loss to the No. 9 Tar Heels on Saturday but also about preparing quickly for Duke on Monday.
How quickly? On the bus ride back to Raleigh. That quickly.
Keatts was disappointed. You could see some dejection in the coach’s eyes. But also determination.
“Man, this team is fighting,” Keatts said. “If anybody is looking at this team and doesn’t think they’re fighting, then they’re crazy.
“If Carolina’s the No. 9 team and we’re playing them the way we did on their home floor, what does it say about us? I mean, we came up short against a really good team on their home floor in front of 22,000 screaming people.”
There was no doubt the Wolfpack invested a lot, emotionally and physically, into Saturday’s game. There were some shoves and hard stares and falling bodies and a near scuffle in the second half.
The game over, Keatts then went to the media room for his postgame remarks, looked up at a TV and saw Duke was taking a big early lead over Virginia. Then, it was back to the coaches’ locker room to reflect before boarding the bus back.
“The good thing about today’s kids is they have much better short-term memory that we do,” Keatts said. “I’m the one who is going to have to figure how to get my emotions right and turned around.
“These guys will be ready to play. They (ACC) didn’t do us any favors with the tough schedule, but it’s what we have. It will be ‘Senior Night’ and an opportunity for us at home and a last time for our fans to see our team at home. That’s what Monday is about.”
Keatts said his immediate plan was to watch video from the UNC game on the bus ride home, then watch Duke video once back at the Dail Basketball Center. Two days to plan for the No. 10 Blue Devils? That’s a crunch.
“And part of the crunch is you can’t do anything on the floor,” Keatts said. “There’s got to be a walk-though. A lot of conversations and talk. You’ve got to go through your scouting and hopefully you’ve done enough this year they’ve picked up stuff on film.
“But nobody can do anything (Sunday) physically. It’s a mental health day, a mental walk-though. That’s what it is.”
Keatts could not have game-planned or scripted a better first half Saturday. The Pack led 45-37, was hitting its 3s, was defending well enough, keeping the Heels’ R.J Davis in check and playing with poise. Those 22,000 were mostly quiet.
“We were all connected, all five of us on the court,” State guard D.J. Horne said. “We were moving the ball, popping, making shots.”
When Casey Morsell hit a shot early in the second half, the Pack’s lead was 47-37. Then, nothing would go in for the Wolfpack, which missed shot after shot — 15 straight in all.
The Heels tightened up on defense in the second half. Horne, who had 18 first-half points for the Pack, could not find good shots. Others forced shots. The game turned.
“I heard we went 10 minutes without a field goal and that’s hard to do,” said the Pack’s Jayden Taylor, who had a team-high 22 points. “In those 10 minutes, they got a little rhythm and that’s what hurt us a little bit.
“I thought they were more aggressive in the second half. We should have come out punching and we didn’t.”
But despite everything that went wrong for the Pack in the second half, and there was a lot, the Heels’ lead was 73-68 with 2:49 left after a pair of free throws by State’s Michael O’Connell. For the Wolfpack, there was still time but it needed defensive stops.
Then, a big call. Davis drove toward the lane and put up a jumper. State’s Taylor was there contesting and Davis missed.
But a foul was called on Taylor with 2:31 remaining.
“Maybe a little on the hand,” Taylor said of the contact. “But there was no consistency, I thought, with the whistles.”
Davis made both free throws, Horne missed a shot and Davis knocked in a jumper. It was 77-68, UNC. Soon, it was over.
“What a heck of a boxing match,” Keatts said. “We had some very competitive guys out there today and it showed.”
Some losses can be crushing, especially in rivalry games, leaving the losing players with the 1,000-yard stare. It did not come across that way Saturday for the Pack, now 17-12 overall and 9-9 in the ACC. Tough loss, yes, but not a crushing one.
The Wolfpack is at the point that its only hope for the NCAA Tournament is winning the ACC Tournament.
“This team has a lot of guts and fight,” Keatts said. “Where we might not be as talented as most, we have more fight.”
That said, Keatts was done talking. Time to get ready for Duke.
