Kevin Keatts recaps D.J. Burns' dominant performance and more

NC State men’s basketball head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media during his weekly ACC teleconference Zoom call Monday morning. He recapped the win over Wake Forest, which featured a great afternoon for D.J. Burns, looked towards the matchup with Florida State and shared an injury update on Dusan Mahorcic and Jack Clark.

Check out the full video on TheWolfpacker.com’s YouTube channel and read the full transcript from the interview below.

The full Kevin Keatts press conference transcript

Coach, there’s a saying— if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. The fact of the matter is, in the second half, D.J. Burns was just unstoppable, 10 of 15 from the field, 23 points in the second half. Just speak on his emergence in your program and just how dominant he’s been, just the next-play mentality, never give up, playing both sides of the floor. What has he meant to the NC State basketball program?

Kevin Keatts: “First of all, he’s a dinosaur when it comes to today’s center. And what I mean by that is, very rarely do you have guys today who don’t mind playing with their back to the basket. Most of the centers, even in our league outside of a couple of teams, most of these guys are face-up guys or pick and pop three guys, which there’s nothing wrong with that.

“But he gives us the ability, or he gives us something that we probably haven’t had in a long time and many people in college basketball, the ability to score with your back to the basket, where you can throw the ball inside and then he’s a trusted passer. He really finds people. What a tremendous game he had at Wake. He’s had some really good games for us in an NC State uniform, but that’s probably his best one so far.”

Kevin, first of all, hope you’re having a good morning. Wanted to check with you on this coming up Wednesday’s game. Obviously, you guys face off with a Florida State team that has been playing better basketball recently. Is it kind of a similar scenario to last week where you went on the road to Georgia Tech and you said afterwards, play the team, not the record, right?

Kevin Keatts: “Oh, 100%. . . They’re good. If anybody in this league were to look at the record and say we’re playing against a team that’s 7-15, I think that’s a huge mistake. All you’ve got to do is look at the Clemson game this past weekend and them going on the road and winning at Pitt.

“They’re really good, and it’s unfortunate because, obviously, they’re going to get heavily penalized for what happened in November, December with a lot of injuries and then obviously not having one of their better players for 16 games. But this team is as talented as any team that we’re going to play in this league, and they can beat anybody on any given night. Sitting here watching them yesterday and today, they’re really good, talented and, obviously, you guys know that [FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton] has done a great job for a lot of years.”

I’m interested in your take [on D.J. Burns]. How do you view him? Do you feel him as a scorer or a playmaker?

Kevin Keatts: “Well, he was a playmaker on Saturday. I think he’s really just an unselfish player that has gotten better in a lot of areas. One of the things for D.J. here is trying to get in the best shape that he could to be able to play. We talked about him scoring, but nobody’s talked about he played 33 minutes and was very effective in that game.

“I think he’s both. I think his [about] ability to score the basketball with a soft touch. I was telling the staff this morning, we don’t run Princeton offense, but it’s almost like we had to run the offense through him with all of the foul trouble that we had. He won’t have a lot assists, but he’s got the one that he does have, or the two that he does have were very, very effective. He passes the ball, he can score the basketball and very rarely do you see that with someone his size.”

Dusan and Jack have generally been lumped together from a health standpoint, just coming back. Is one maybe a little further along than the other at this point?

Kevin Keatts: “I don’t know. They both have injuries that are so nagging. Dusan’s injury was very similar to what he had last year, and so, anytime you injure the same body part a couple times, it takes a little longer, and then Jack’s dealing with the groin. Both of those guys, at any moment, could be ready and then, obviously, it just takes five minutes or a different cut a certain way, and that can set them back.

“I don’t have a timetable for either one of those guys. You’re going to hear rumors or, someone told me, ‘Man, Jack’s playing against Wake Forest.’ I was like, ‘Well, that’s not true because I’m the head coach, I would know that.’ You’re going to hear that all the way until he plays a game or Dusan plays a game.”

I have a two-parter as well. It’s about transfers. First, what leads you when you’re constructing a team to sort of say, ‘Okay, I want to add graduate transfers to this group?’ And then, what are the non-basketball skill set, in terms of intangibles, do you look for from grad transfers?

Kevin Keatts: “I think transfers are good because it’s almost, we hate to say free agency, but you have the ability now to go out and find guys who completely fit your system. When you’re recruiting a high school guy, you’re hoping and wishing that it translates to this level. With the transfer portal, you’re able to see them play against other Division I teams, Power Five teams and do they fit in the way that you play? And what can they contribute coming right away?

“The intangibles [are] you want guys who have a winning mentality. I’ll give you an example. Getting Jarkel Joiner, and I have three other guys who I can use as examples also, but we really hit a home run with this kid because he’s a great person. He’s very focused, he’s good on and off the court, he’s great for your locker room. As much research as you can find out, and you’re not going to get as much as you would like, just to find out what type of person they are and who you’re bringing into your program, always goes a long ways.”

Is it hard to get them to sort of quickly get that standard you’ve established? An example like with Joiner, he spent four years at Ole Miss. Is this something new, or is he quick to the game?

Kevin Keatts: “Our system fits the way Jarkel wanted to play, and I think it was a perfect storm for him, when we lost Dereon Seabron, with his ability to come in and know that he had the opportunity to start right away in a system where he could play free and be able to take a lot of shots and kind of get up and down. If I had to say, a point guard he reminds me, you throw back a couple years ago when we had Markell Johnson, who could really get after you defensively but had a lot of freedom, and he’s kind of fit that role from a basketball standpoint.”

Apologies for 30 seconds of technical difficulties that led to losing the next 30 seconds of the interview.

Saturday, after the game, I can’t remember if it was Jarkel or D.J. was asked about what were some of the factors that led them to think that NC State was a good fit for them, and he said, ‘The guys that are around me, these other guys that I’m playing with.’ How much do your players factor into when you’re recruiting a transfer?

Kevin Keatts: “I think it’s huge. You think about this team, we knew we had [Terquavion Smith] back, we knew we had [Ernest Ross], we had [Greg Gantt], we had [Breon Pass] and [Casey Morsell] and [Ebenezer Dowuona]. When we bring guys on campus, we want those guys to be able to interact with these guys also, and then transfers are smart. They go out and they do their homework and, if you get one guy, it leads to another and understanding how this guy plays, but I think it’s important. Obviously after being here, I think it’s so much more important that these guys have a relationship off the court because I think it leads to playing well on the court.

“With this group, I think one of the things that helped us is we were able to take a trip to Bahamas, and they didn’t know each other, but being able to get together, hang out, have some fun, play some basketball, and I think that brought them together. So I think that, when you go out there and you get transfers, I think it’s important that they feel comfortable because you essentially are bringing in maybe five or six guys who are the independent contractors, and you’ve got to get them all on the same page.”

Kevin, D.J. took 26 shots on Saturday. That’s 10 more than he’s ever taken in a game this season. Even as recently as two weeks ago, could you have envisioned him getting 26 up in a game?

Kevin Keatts: “I’ve got every post guy’s AAU coach calling me right now. ‘Hey, Kevin Keatts, so you know this for the record, anybody that says he’s a he’s a guard’s coach, I want everybody to understand that my post guy took 26 shots in a game. I can always say that, just remember that part of it now.’

“He was amazing. It’s funny, because in today’s time, and I told somebody earlier, that throwing the ball in and a guy gets 26 attempts and never takes a three and never gets in transition. Man, that means a lot. So, he’s tired the next day, he was tired yesterday, he’s probably gonna act like he’s tired today and I’m going to tell him if you’re tired today, on Wednesday, you only get five attempts.”