NC State fell to 8-8 overall and 4-7 in ACC play after a 77-68 loss to Syracuse Tuesday night.

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

Here is the full transcript from Keatts following the loss:

"First of all, I want to talk about something non-basketball on-the-court tonight related. I want to thank all of you guys who sent texts and prayers for Devon [Daniels] and his surgery. Just to give you a little follow-up, I know I released a statement about it, but everything went well. Everything was exactly what he thought when he got in there, and we expect a full recovery from him.

"Keep praying for him. It's very frustrating for him. When you look at a guy, I don't know if I've been around another guy who's as passionate about getting into the gym and working out as he is. Continue with the prayers for him, and I appreciate all that you guys have done with that.

"As far as the game, the game I think speaks for itself, which is a little frustrating. We've turned the ball over 20 times, which is really not characteristic of us. I know we've had a few issues this year turning the ball over, but it wasn't a good night in that area.

"Also, I thought, two things that really beat us tonight was we gave up 14 offensive rebounds. When you look at it, typically if you pick up a stat sheet, we typically have more shot attempts than the other teams because we force guys into turnovers because of our ability off offensive rebounds. They got 15 more shots than we did. They got 60, we got 45 because of the turnovers, and also because of the offensive rebounds.

"Turnovers are bad by themselves, but the issue with it was we turned it over for touchdowns, and they were able to score and not have to play against a set defense. I thought our effort was there, our guys are playing hard. It's one of those games that is it's going to be hard to beat a good team, I don't care where you play them at, with that many turnovers and offensive rebounds. A lot of that with the rebounds, it came in the second half.

"I thought in the first half, we turned it over, I think we had 13 turnovers in the first half and then seven in the second. Just wasn't good enough, we got to get better in that area, we got to value the basketball. I wish I could point to one or two guys and say, 'Man, you got to get better with ball security.' But when you look at it, you see 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 3, 2, just not good enough for our team. Got to get better in that area. I'll take questions."

DJ Funderburk mentioned the indecisiveness on offense leading to those turnovers. What did you see with the indecisiveness as opposed to the first meeting against the Syracuse zone?

"The biggest thing is we tried to hit the same play every time instead of mixing it up. When you look at the first game, we were good. We had an interior bounce pass to Manny for a dunk. We would hit the guy and sprint to the corner, we would make a skip pass.

"When we got the ball in areas, we tried to hit the same play every time. For example, Manny catches it in the short corner in the first play of the game, he skips it, and we skipped it for one more, it's a good shot. But he tried the same play every time.

"In the zone, the zone puts you in spots where you got to be to make plays from the short corner in the middle. In this game, you almost have to invert because what happens is that your bigs become your point guards because of the fact that they give you, if you can get it to the middle, if you can get it to the show corner.

"The other big thing about it is, this is where we miss having a bigger guard. When you look out there, their size is a problem because we got two guys right around 6-foot at the guard spots right now, and that's a tough deal. You have to have those guys on the floor because those are the guys who can make shots, those are the guys who can shoot the three."

What did you think of Thomas Allen’s play tonight?

"He played well, and he needed it. He needed to see the ball go in the hole. But what I told the team is I want to get a night where Thomas is playing well, Braxton is playing well and all of our bigs are playing well.

"We just haven't been consistent enough. We're starting to get one guard playing well each game, and when I say playing well, meaning being able to shoot the basketball. But we've had several of those guys play along with their bigs, but it was good.

"It was good for him. He's been struggling, he would say that, but he hasn't been able to see the ball go in the hole, and it happened for him tonight."

At halftime, you had 13 turnovers but just trailed by one. Did you feel like that was a missed opportunity?

"I felt fortunate at the half. We were down one, and we had committed 13 turnovers. Actually, it could have been a lot worse because of the way we had turned the ball over.

"This is where you don't have an experienced senior guard, who's really a point guard playing that position and everybody has to handle the basketball. But that's not who we are. We have turned it over a little bit more this year than we have in the past because we don't have that leadership in that area, but at the end of the day we have to have better ball security.

"I don't care who you're playing, when you turn it over 20 times, you guys have covered us for the last three, four years, that's what we do. We turn people over. When you look at it, we lost the turnover battle, and that's not good for us. That's not good for the way we play."

You guys are +83 in first halves and -15 in second halves. What do you think is the problem with the second half for you guys this season? What was the difference in the second half tonight?

"I don't think it's a theme. Think about this, at the end of the game, sometimes when you got to make some plays and you got two younger guys out there who happened to make plays that haven't been in that situation, that could be it.

"I don't have one particular thing that I can say is the issue in that part of it. What I will say is I am glad that we're coming out, playing well in the first half. What we're having to do with this team is trying to figure out how to we could consistent for 30 to 35 to 36 and then add a minute or two every game where we're playing the entire game.

"I just thought we missed shots. I think the biggest difference in the second half is they got to the offensive glass. I thought we were solid. When you look at it, most of the offensive rebounds, I think we got outrebounded in the second half 22 to 12, that was a big difference right there."

You’ve had success against the zone in the past but it gave you trouble tonight. How do you approach preparing for the Syracuse zone?

"This is a weird year for us. Honestly, we've had a lot of success in the prior three years. This is the first year that we've lost against the zone, and we've played well against it. This is the best zone that we're going to face all year because they play it for 40 minutes, and they play it year-round. That's what they are.

"You got to find cracks in it. If you can find cracks in it, you can make shots, you can be successful. In our situation, this is the first time that I've never really had.

"You think about the past, we've always had a guy like Al Freeman who's 6-3, C.J. Bryce or Devon Daniels, a bigger guard to be able to see over it and also pass over it. We just don't really have that.

"You have to have a guy of size that can number one, that can see over it, but also be able to shoot against it. We don't have that guy on our roster. The closest guy is Seabron, he can see over it, but that's not the strength of his game, shooting threes right now."

You guys have had a lot of success on the boards over the past three games. You even outrebounded Syracuse tonight in the first half. What did you guys get away from that allowed Syracuse to outrebound you 22-12 in the second half?

"They simply beat us to basketballs. I can't sit up here and say all the reasons why. I mean, they just went and got it. They beat us to the basketball.

"There was one time we gave up three offensive rebounds, and I had my biggest lineup in the game. We had Jericole at the three, DJ at the four and Manny at the five. During that segment, we gave up three offensive rebounds. They beat us to the basketball, we got to get better.

"We've emphasized rebounding, and we've done a good job in the last few games rebounding. They beat us to the basketball in the second half, and that's something that we've got to address."

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