NC State basketball coach Kevin Keatts, guard Terquavion Smith preview ACC Tournament
NC State basketball starts ACC Tournament play on Wednesday against either Virginia Tech or Notre Dame. When asked Monday what he remembered about the regular season contests for the Pack against those teams, NC State star sophomore guard Terquavion Smith, after a brief pause, simply answered softy, “We won.”
The Pack may need to do that again vs. whomever is the opponent. While NC State basketball coach Kevin Keatts said that he has decided not to worry about what he cannot control, i.e., the tournament selection process, the bracketologists suggest that his squad is precariously on the right side of the bubble.
Tipoff Wednesday is scheduled to be approximately at 9:30 p.m., and the game can be seen on either ESPN2 or ESPNU.
On Jan. 7, NC State raced out to a 36-22 halftime lead in Blacksburg, Va., over the Hokies. However, Virginia Tech had a furious rally to cut the Pack’s advantage to 3 points three times in the last minute and then at 2 points with 7 seconds left before Smith made a pair of free throws to ice a 73-69 win.
Virginia Tech played that game without an injured Hunter Cattoor, who averaged 10.7 points per game during the regular season and is the Hokies’ best three-point shooter.
Virginia Tech ended the regular season with back-to-back lopsided wins to boast an 18-13 overall record and 8-12 mark in the league.
On Jan. 24 in Raleigh, Notre Dame led the Wolfpack 42-39 at halftime. NC State started the second half on a 16-4 run to build a 9-point lead, but the Irish battled back and cut the margin down to 1 at 69-68 with 5:00 left. The Wolfpack never relinquished the advantage however in an 85-82 win (Notre Dame hit a three-pointer at the buzzer).
Notre Dame finished the regular season 11-19 and 3-17 in the conference.
The winner of Wednesday evening’s contest will then play at approximately the same time Thursday against No. 3 Clemson, who earned a double bye.
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Both Keatts and Smith talked with the media Monday ahead of the ACC Tournament on a variety of subjects.
Keatts discussed how NC State fifth-year senior post player D.J. Burns Jr., got into better shape after the injury to super senior forward Dusan Mahorcic in December broke up the “perfect” platoon Keatts was able to use in the post.
On a lighter note, Smith noted that Burns was the loudest singer on the team during bus rides, while Keatts reminiscence about being an assistant coach for Hall of Famer Rick Pitino, who Keatts described as “the greatest” when it came to a conditioning program.
Both Keatts and Smith also talked about the player’s recent shooting woes and how NC State dealt with the balance of resting but not getting too complacent with an off weekend while the rest of the league was in action.
You can watch both of Keatts and Smith’s respective press conferences below, videos courtesy TheWolfpacker.com’s YouTube channel.
