Full transcript: Kevin Keatts' Monday press conference

NC State men's basketball coach Kevin Keatts answered questions from media members Monday ahead of the Wolfpack's scheduled season opener against Charleston Southern on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 8 p.m.

The Pack will take a one-day break for the Thanksgiving holiday before facing North Florida on Friday to conclude the Mako Medical Wolfpack Invitational in Reynolds Coliseum.

Here is a full transcript of what Keatts said from Monday:

We're excited about Wednesday and praying that we get to Wednesday. I think one of the toughest things is every time you get on the internet, you see that there's another program that has to pause because of COVID-19. That's a tough thing for us. We want to play the game on Wednesday, we want to play our game on Friday. It's been a long time since we had a chance to play a basketball game, obviously since March 11. Our guys are excited about the opportunity and hope it happens. We're happy that we are getting the chance to play a season. We don't know how many games we're going to get, but we're going to try to enjoy every game that we play. I like where our teams at. We obviously have a couple more days to prepare for our first game. I keep saying this, we're excited about our opportunity.

Locally we've already had one college, ECU, they pulled out of an MTE. They were going to travel, it wasn't going to be home. For you, what do you tell your players now that we're in the game week when, like you said, we've seen teams already pull out, have games canceled? We haven't even started the schedule yet. How do you keep them focused and prepared?

"It's tough. I've watched the news, the last couple days more than I have in a long time. I've gotten away from it because at first, it was so negative. Now I'm watching it because I know everything is spiking around the country, even in North Carolina.

"We're talking about continuing to do the right stuff, social distance, wear your face gear, your mask and everything else. Obviously, try to stay away from people as much as they can and wash your hands. It's tough because I don't think anybody knows how to not catch COVID-19.

"We know that there are ways to help prevent it, or where it doesn't spread as much, but every day I worry about my guys because once they leave me for practice, I just pray that they're doing the right stuff. We preach that to them, but certainly, you don't know if it'll happen.

There was a report this morning on ESPN saying that there was a conversation had among all the black coaches in college basketball saying they're going to do something to honor John Thompson during their first game, maybe wear a towel over their shoulder. Were you a part of the conversation and will you do something to honor Coach Thompson on Wednesday?

"We will. I think it's a great thing, it's something that we all wanted to do.

"Coach Thompson was huge in our business and our profession, not just as an African American coach but just a coach in general. The way he helped young men and changed a lot of lives and then, by the way, a good father, a good teacher and certainly the impact that he's had on college basketball.

"On Wednesday, we will definitely do something to honor him."

Have you decided on a starting lineup and if so are you at liberty to let us know?

"I would definitely be at liberty to let you know, but I have not decided on a starting lineup.

"Several people have asked me what we're going to do about starting lineups, and I don't know. I know people think when I say that, they think I'm just hiding something.

"I literally won't make a lineup until after I see how we go through a walkthrough. If somebody is not locked in and focus, I've had guys who I thought were going to be starters, and they weren't focused in the walkthrough and didn't know what was going on, blew a couple of assignments and I've changed it. It's going to lead up until game time.

"Right now, in two days, I've got eight guys that I feel comfortable that could start this game and I don't know which eight it will be right now."

Is that a good thing to kind of keep the guys on their toes and keep them focused heading into a game?

"I think it's a good thing because I don't want anyone to settle in and for the next couple of days and not prepare. These two days leading up to the game are just as important as the days we've had before, maybe even more important because you really have to lock in up until the last couple of days, it's really been more about us.

"Now we have a chance to focus in on Charleston Southern, so I won't let you relax around here. You have to earn it and you have to earn it every day. I'm not going to just reward someone who does it one day and doesn't do it for the entire week leading up to it.

"I will say this, the guys that I'm going to start, I feel good about when it happens. Like I told you, it's eight that has the possibility to do that. I'll leave it up to you guys after we hang up, I'll let you guys say, "He said eight, now pick your five." That'll be a pretty good exercise for all of us."

With everything with the virus, you guys have been through a lot in terms of wondering what was going to happen, if a season was going to happen and what your schedule is going to look like. How good is it going to feel to be able to kind of put away all of that outside stuff for a couple of hours and just be able to go out there and play basketball?

"This is why we do what we do and excited to get the opportunity to play. Basketball is basketball. If you give basketball players a ball and somewhere to play, we can find some excitement in it.

"So our guys are extremely blessed and honored to have the chance to be able to play on Wednesday.

"I know I keep saying I hope so, I hope so, and I do because it's tough right now. As you know, it's been a challenge every day when you get on Twitter and some coach or some team has shut down.

" But I'm happy for my guys that we're right there, but we're not there yet. We got to get there, we got a couple of days because anything can change and things change in a split second when it comes to this virus. We're grateful.

"I know our guys are excited about it. Our freshmen are dying to play, our upperclassmen who haven't had the opportunity to play since March, they can't wait to get back on the court."

What's the look and feel of these games? How different do you anticipate it will be and how is that going to affect your team without fans in Reynolds and all of that?

"I think you were sitting in my staff meeting this morning. It is different. It's awkward, strange. We're figuring out even up to the day social distancing and how do you stay six feet away from someone.

"As coaches, we're going to wear a mask on the sideline and the players, when they come off, they're going to wear a mask. But how did you do film? How do you do halftime? How do you do pregame? It's different.

"What we'll miss is we're one of the teams that have a great fan base. They're the best in the country whether we're playing in Reynolds or in PNC. We thrive off of getting a steal and a dunk, or a three-point shot, and just getting that eruption from the crowd.

"That energy that you normally would get, that's not going to happen. It's not going to happen anywhere, even arenas that can have some fans, it won't be the same. We have to figure out how to create our own excitement.

"I've been talking about that with our guys. It's almost like the game atmosphere will be like a scrimmage or a practice every day. You got to figure out how to come together and be loud. Our guys have to bring great energy for each other."

Who has impressed you over these last few days or last few weeks in practice as far as work ethic, standing out, that sort of thing?

"The work ethic is a tough one for me to answer to single out anyone because right now on this roster we have 14 guys. Of those guys, I would say 11 of those guys are gym rats, they live in the gym. So I don't want to get on the work ethic and then kind of knock a couple guys out who have been working really hard.

"The guys who've stood out, I would say probably in the last two weeks has been more of our veterans. Our young guys have had moments where I thought they've done a really good job.

"Manny has been consistent, DJ has been consistent, Devon has been consistent. Then you can throw in a Jericole and you can throw in a Braxton.

"Our young guys have had moments where they were really good, but because they're young guys, that keeps them from being consistent and that's not their fault. They just haven't been able to go through college practices for this long and know how to be consistent every day.

"So I would say more than individuals, it's been more of a group. Our group of veterans has been the most consistent guys."

What have you seen out of Charleston Southern?

"They're good and they're returning three starters, possibly four.

"Flemming is as good as advertised. Six-four, can really score, has done a tremendous job of working on his three point game, an awesome defender.

"A lot of those guys, when you look over the past couple years, they've had a lot of guys who've transferred out of their league. One of them went to Carolina last year. Those guys are good players. When they become seniors, they can play in any league in the country.

"He's got a great supporting cast with a couple more upperclassmen and then some freshmen. A Freshman of the Year last year that can play. They're talented and Barkley does a good job with his team.

"You're going to see them get up and down, take a lot of threes. You'll see some different offense, sometimes they run Princeton, sometimes they can dribble-drive you, but they play with a lot of confidence. They believe that they can win, so it's a very good basketball, well-coached team."

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