NC State advance to 14-10 overall and 9-8 in ACC play after a 75-61 win over Davidson in the first round of the NIT Thursday night.

Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts answered questions from media members following the game.

Here is the full transcript from Keatts following the win:

Is this the type of game you had in mind to get the bad taste of the Syracuse loss out of your mouth?

"I want to clear something up, it wasn't so much that we decided to play because of the bad taste. I know everybody says that, 'bad taste.' Anytime you're in any tournament situation, and you lose, whether you lose the amount by the amount of points we did or a one-point game, you're upset because you're a competitor.

"We played in this tournament because it's a really nice tournament, they do a tremendous job. It was 16 teams, and it wasn't 16 team with a close to losing record. These were 16 really good teams, and they probably about 21 to pick from and some guys didn't decide to go. I thought it was important because our guys needed the experience, our younger guys. We got five young guys on our roster, three of them that are really playing a lot, which are freshmen that haven't had a chance to ever play in a postseason.

"Then I wanted DJ and and Braxton Beverly to have that opportunity. No one played postseason basketball last year. I didn't want these guys to have to go two years without having a chance to compete and play in the postseason. It's a valuable experience for us.

"I've told you guys, no matter what happened tonight or the rest of the tournament, I love my kids. They've worked hard for me, they've done more this year.. I've learned so much from these guys through the pandemic and our injuries than I've ever learned in my life of coaching. That's where if you're still learning, when a guy like me that's been around for a while, that's a positive thing."

Could you evaluate your team's play tonight?

"I thought we were great. I thought our ball pressure was good. We moved the ball. We executed the game plan probably better than we've done all year.

"We wanted to play inside-out. Our post guys were tremendous. When you look at their numbers, they're off the charts. 80 percent from DJ, 100 percent from Manny Bates, then 50 percent from Jericole.

"Our guards, who didn't have a great scoring first half, they started to play in the second half and gave us a tremendous lift. I'm proud of these guys. They did everything we've asked the last couple of days.

"If you guys could have been in our practice, you would have never known what tournament we're playing in. They've been excited, and I'm happy that we're that way."

Why was playing in the NIT important for your team?

"Most programs are going home, and we're still playing. The extra practices that we get, the extra opportunities that I get to teach these guys, there's always a teaching moment. In this situation with our young guys, I get a chance to talk to them about how to finish games, how to start games, how to play in the middle of games.

"It's refreshing to see guys playing good basketball in March.We played against a very good Davidson team. A lot of folks that I talked to thought that they should have won the Atlantic 10, they're that good. I thought we did a really good job.

"Bob does a tremendous job with his program. They've always been a very good team, and we played really good. We had to play that way in order to beat them, and I was happy with how our guys played."

Could you assess the play of DJ Funderburk tonight and what led to your team controlling the paint?

"He's been everything that you want from an older guy. I have to compliment DJ, Manny, Jericole, and basically Braxton.

"Those were the four guys I leaned on to figure out, 'What do you guys want to do?' I know what I wanted to do, but I didn't want to push that on those guys. All of those guys said, 'We want to play.' And they came out and played the way you're supposed to play basketball, that was fun.

"If you're a Wolfpack fan and you watched that game, you got to say, 'Man, that was a fun game.' It was NC State basketball. We played on both ends of the floor, and I'm excited that we're playing hard that way at the end of the year."

Davidson is a tough team to guard. What worked defensively tonight?

"They back cut you, they're tremendous passers. We tried to turn them over. When you look at it, they had 14 assists and only 10 turnovers. They make you pay for all your mistakes.

"What we talked about is being aggressive and tracing the basketball when you're guarding the basketball. I wanted to have a lot of deflections in order to be able to beat these guys because even when you break down, and you're going to break down because they backdoor cut you, they come off stagger screens, thery read what you do, but I thought our guys did a good job guarding the basketball and cleaning up some of our mistakes.

"It's as tough of a team as we played this year as far as how they cut and their ability to shoot the basketball."

How were you able to keep Kellan Grady in check?

"Guys like that, you just hope that they don't make shots. I want you to think about this.

"2000 points? Man, that's crazy. That's impressive. We did a good job. I'm glad to say it, if anybody wants to report it, he got his 2000th point against NC State because he's a really good basketball player. That's tough to do.

"He's a tremendous kid. We just wanted to be there on the catch, we wanted to make him take tough shots. We were able to keep him from making a three-point shot, which I thought was a positive thing for us. He's the type of kid that can go off 30 points against you, and our guys took on the challenge."

Why was it important for you guys to play in the NIT?

"We played 23 games coming into this game, normally it would be 31. We didn't get a chance to play about eight games, and my young guys never really had a non-conference. Even though it's been a really long year and a challenging year, it's great that we were able to play in some postseason tournaments.

"Our guys right now, they don't know the difference. They got a chance to play on ESPN, we're thankful and grateful that they covered us, and we played a really good game, so that means a lot to us."

Bob McKillop called your freshman guard "very dangerous" and complimented their defensive play. How good did it feel to see the young guards play so well defensively against a very efficient offensive team?

"I love that Bob said that, but I don't want them guys to believe that yet. They got more defense to get better at.

"I talked to Cam Hayes right after the game and said, 'I need you to continue to be a floor general.' This is a big part of why we're here, for him to grow up and learn and all that other stuff. I thought we were really good.

"We picked a really good time to be good. I'll say this to you guys, we've won six out of seven games. A lot of people would love to just judge us by the one game that we played in the tournament against Syracuse, but we've won six out of our last seven games and we've played good basketball in that stretch."

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