Kevin Keatts updates status of Dusan Mahorcic

NC State basketball coach Kevin Keatts met with the ACC media Monday afternoon, and a primary topic of conversations was the status of injured senior forward Dusan Mahorcic. Mahorcic has not played since Dec. 6 when he dislocated his patella in a win over Coppin State at Reynolds Coliseum and needed surgery. He has missed 16 games since.

Mahorcic was contributing 8.7 points and 6.6 boards before his injury.

You can read the transcript from Keatts’ media availability as well as watch the video courtesy TheWolfpacker.com’s YouTube channel.

Kevin Keatts ACC Teleconference Transcript

You were able to get Jack Clark some action against Boston College. Just watching the tape back, how do you evaluate where is he at physically right now?

Kevin Keatts: “Well, I thought he did good job in his limited amount of minutes. Obviously his conditioning was nowhere where we want it to be. We literally threw him in a couple practices last week, and I was very cautious. So I didn’t let him have many reps and didn’t know how the game was going to go, whether we’re going to put him in or not.

“But he felt he came out of the game feeling well. The crazy thing with his type of injury, a wrong movement in practice or anything else could kind of set you back a little bit, but it was really good to get him back out on the floor. You kind of forget how well he can rebound the basketball in a little bit amount of time, and I think he made a couple of three so it was refreshing to see him back out there.”

Prior to that game Jarkel Joiner had had a couple of off night shooting. Did you have a sense going in that he was going to be able to give you what he gave you against Boston College?

Kevin Keatts: “I thought he played … against two really unique defenses that can can make guards struggle at times. But I don’t worry about him or Terquavion [Smith] because I know both of those guys will kind of figure it out.

“But it was really good to see him play really good basketball. He was back to playing Jarkel Joiner basketball: driving the ball. And he’s really at his best when he’s getting after it on a defensive end, and that kind of motivates him on the offensive end.”

Is there any update at this point on Dusan Mahorcic and where things stand for him?

Kevin Keatts: “It’s not. I mean, he’s not available. And I like I’ve said before, I want … to be realistic about it. I’m not even sure if he’s going to return this year. I mean, his injury, he’s going back and forth. It was it was the same thing that he did last year at Utah, and sometimes when you injure the same body part a couple of times, it takes a little bit longer.

“So we’re hopeful, we’re grateful. But, I wouldn’t, I don’t know where that’s going to end up in.”

Has there been any thought process of looking into where things might stand for things like a medical waiver for him?

Kevin Keatts: “We haven’t and just because we want to keep everything positive that there is an opportunity that maybe he will play towards the end of the year. That’s something that obviously could be on the table if he does not, but right at this point we have not.”

What types of things your does your team need to do to be successful against Syracuse’s 2-3 zone?

Kevin Keatts: “You obviously you have to shoot the ball well. I think you have to move the ball well and do a good job and one of the things is try to get into some type of transition so you don’t have to play against a set defense the entire night.

“But as I’ve said this on this call plenty of times. They are the golden standard for the 2-3 zone. They do such a good job at it and they kind of adjust to what you’re doing, so I think you got to give different looks and put people in different places, but certainly one of the ways you can you can beat it as you got to shoot it and that’s not easy to do.”

How shocked was Terquavion when you came into locker room and told him that he had reached his 1,000-point threshold?

Kevin Keatts: “Well, I think he was shocked but I mean, as far as he’s concerned, he probably thought he had 3,000 points at that point. … Was probably low for him.

“He was happy. You know that. The great thing about him, one of the reasons that he’s back here, is because he’s such a great kid and he enjoys the process, but I want you to think about what he’s done. Not even finished his sophomore year to score 1,000 points and counting.

“Great kid but … he was excited. He was happy. And I think what was refreshing to me that his teammates were just as happy for him also.”

How did you challenge your team coach after the Virginia loss?

Kevin Keatts: “Well, I think we made shots. I mean, when you look back at the Virginia game, I thought we had some opportunities that we left on the rim. We missed a few layups. We missed some open shots, and when you’re playing against a great defensive team at home, you got to have every basket. They do such a great job of controlling tempo, that you’re not going to score a lot of points against those guys and I thought our guys bounced back.

“We just had to get focus and lock in and we were going into the BC game playing against a very good team who had just won at Virginia Tech. And so it didn’t take a lot for me to have to get them back focus because they knew obviously how good BC could be.”

You guys ended the Boston College game, I think the last four minutes, playing some zone. You played it very sparingly this year. Was just that just getting out of that game, just wanted to get a look at it. What was up with that?

Kevin Keatts: “Oh, no, we are going to 2-3 zones. Anybody that’s scouting has got to understand that we will we have that zone package and we will put will pull that out at any moment now.”

Well, I wanted to ask you because synergy has you guys in the zone this year, teams are 1 for 14 against you from field?

Kevin Keatts: “Well, that’s, and no disrespect at synergy because we did a good job, but we have not played 14 possessions. And I’m not, I understand a lot of people get paid a lot of money to make those. But we have not played 14.

“Matter of fact, I’m going to go back and have my video guys pull that. I want to see what 14 possessions they have.”

Dusan has been out before games working with Torin Dorn and doing things like that. Was there some sort of setback or is this just the process taking longer than it looked like it might have one point?

Kevin Keatts: “It’s different … . Sometimes it depends on the game. Sometimes he’ll get a workout in early in the day, and not at the game time situation.

“But … we’ve been very careful with him. It just depends on the workload, and he’s had a couple of days leading up to it. So, it’s not so much that that game’s pregame workout that you always see him in has always happened. It may be a day earlier for him.

“But it’s a challenge because he’s working really hard, as hard as anyone that I’ve ever had to try to get back from an injury. And I certainly hope it happens for him. But it’s going to be a challenge. And I don’t want the expectations to be, ‘Hey, he’s coming definitely coming back.’ Because I would say it’s probably 50/50 at this moment.”

Saturday, you get to your 20th win of the season. And after last season that represents such a dramatic turnaround in your fortunes. What did it mean to your players and maybe your program to reach that level?

Kevin Keatts: “You know … I’ve said this. These guys do all the heavy lifting as coaches, obviously, you know, we try to put people in the right spots, but I’m happy for our guys. I’m happy for our guys in general. But when you look at the guys that was on last year’s roster, I’m really excited for them. They didn’t deserve that.

“Terquavion Smith coming in as a freshman had won three state championships, and we had been pretty successful with our first losing season as a program under me. For Terquavion and Casey Morsell and EB Dowuona, Breon Pass was on that team, Greg Gantt and Ernest Ross. That meant a lot to those guys, and then for the transfer guys to come in and be such an impact.

“I was just happy to see those guys smile, because of the accomplishments that they’ve had and getting to in February 10 wins and 20 overall wins. I think that’s special for those guys. Obviously, we still have a lot of work and I don’t think anybody’s satisfied with just that, but it was rewarding for those guys.”

On the value of Casey Morsell’s steadiness that he brings to the team.

Kevin Keatts: “Man, Casey Morsell has been great. You know when I realized that Casey Morsell has been really good? And he’s such an unbelievable kid. They booed him at UVa. I couldn’t believe that they booed my guy at UVA.

“He has been really, really, really good for us. And probably my most steady player that we’ve had, consistent. He never gets too high, never gets too low. He does a tremendous job of playing off of those guards, Jarkel and Terquavion, and running the corner getting threes and been very valuable.

“I don’t talk about as much how good he’s been defensively because his offense has taken off so much. But he’s also been really good defensively too. And he’s been a great kid and an unbelievable person to have in our program.”