NC State Wolfpack basketball head coach Kevin Keatts met with the media for about 25 minutes on Friday morning to update the progress of his squad.

You can read a full transcript of that press conference below, as well as view the video from the Zoom meeting.

"We have finished our 11th practice the other day. We were off yesterday, and then we will get back in here today and tomorrow for our 12th and 13th, but it’s coming quick.

"It’s weird, even though we probably would have started on Nov. 3, I think we needed the time. Because obviously, we didn't have a chance to have these guys to be able to practice the entire summer, where I could get eight weeks from, especially these young guards that I have.

"But I like our team. We're working hard. I will tell you right now that our defense is a little further along than our offense, because we spend more time, especially when I've got some young guys trying to pick up concepts and making sure those guys understand what defenses schemes to get us in.

"Some guys have really stood out to me, one being Manny Bates. He's been more reliable, where you can throw the ball inside and he's able to score. So believe it or not, he'll be more than just a defensive player. I don't want to lose what he's got on the defensive end, but he's, he's coming along.

"Guys like Devon [Daniels], who's a veteran guard, has had some really good days in the gym, and Braxton [Beverly] and Thomas [Allen] have had some shootouts in practice, which you'd like to see.

"So excited about where we at. We have a long ways to go. We have a short amount of time to get there, especially with these guys that I got to bring along pretty quick. So I'll open it up to questions from you guys."

Can you shed any insight into the schedule? Or some of the early matchups? I know it's probably a matter of getting the contracts finalized. But can you shed any light on that?

"I can talk about the challenge. We do know that we're going to play Michigan in the challenge. Don't ask me about Michigan, I have no idea. I know Juwan does a great job there. But obviously, we just, I literally found out yesterday that was going to be our opponent. I was hoping that we could be at home. But I knew we wasn't because we were at home last year.

"Other than that, if you ask me the next time we have this in about a week and a half, I'll probably give you a little bit more detail. Reason why won't go into all of our schedule, which some of these games I do know that we're possibly playing, is because some of them are with contracts. And we're waiting on contracts.

"And what I don't want to do is similar to what happened in Orlando. Because of COVID and testing, some of the things that some of those games that were going to be scheduled are certainly not happening now.

"I will tell you that scheduling has been a major challenge, even when you think you have the games done. Certainly it's not done. When you look at, obviously, you know that we're going to run our own MTE. So we're going to attempt to play 27 games this year, but it's gonna be a major challenge to get there."

Is it kind of frustrating being just deep into practice in the season right around the corner that you can't finalize a schedule? Or is it more important as time you just kind of focus on you guys?

"I'm past the frustration stage. It's been a challenge. When we came out and we switch the date of when we're going to start the season, I knew it would be a challenge. One of the biggest challenges, I think, was that in order to play 27 games, you had to have an MTE. You were going to have to create one or go to one.

"Then all that has made it tough, not frustrated in the fact that I can only control what I can control. We're really, I'm really concentrating on my team. I think the schedule'll get figured out. We may not have a schedule to the day before we play our first game, but I'm hoping that that doesn't happen.

"I'm in a good place in the scheduling. I've already realized that it's going to be tough and it may change. I feel really good that we have 27 games scheduled even though we don't know our ACC schedule. I just don't want to go out get out in front of and release them until I know we have all contracts back and then I don't want to have to backpedal out of the situation.

You mentioned earlier about Manny's progression so far this offseason, but one of the big issues for him last year was really getting going offensively. How much have you seen him improve on the offensive end of the floor of the season?

"I think he's really improved offensively because he's a lot more confident in that area, and he's got a lot more bulk on it. He's worked extremely hard in the offseason putting on good weight.

"The other thing that really hurt him last year when you look at him, he was always in foul trouble. I went back and actually as a coach, I was amazed that he only played around 20 minutes a game, and I went back to my assistant coaches like, 'What, why is this kid only playing 20?'

"He was in foul trouble most of the time. And so what we're doing is to, believe it or not, I'm concentrating on our guards more to do a better job of keeping guys in front so he doesn't have to block as many shots. And he doesn't have to be put in that situation.

"But offensively we've been able to throw the ball inside to him. He's going over both shoulders. He is starting to rebound the basketball a lot better than he did last year. A lot of that is confidence because I think he's more confident in the shoulder than he was coming into the season last year."

When it comes to the rest of that center spot, who else are you looking at? Who else has stuck out to you so far, because we know most of the guys behind them are true freshmen unless DJ Funderburk fits into that pot as well.

"I'm happy at that spot. We probably have more depth than we've had in the past.

"Certainly, you'll see DJ plays some center and also at the power forward position. But I really like Ebe Duwouona and Jaylon Gibson. They're going to be really, really good players at NC State. I'm going to have to ask them to be a little bit more patient. Because as we develop those guys, both of those guys really bring something unique to the table.

What have you seen from Cam Hayes in these practices? And is he a guy that could be an option or even early in the season at that starting point guard spot?

"He is smart. He's quick. He makes the right play. But it's going to take him some time.

"Two freshmen that I have in him and Shakeel Moore, those guys are very talented freshmen, they can do a lot for us a little bit different than what Markell [Johnson] brought to the table.

"Obviously, Markell is a guy who could break you down, get to the rim, and also was a great assist guy. I think these guys bring a little bit more on a defensive end. Cam Hayes is more of a pull-up guy. And Shakeel Moore is just tough. When you talk about toughness, he's a guy that can sit down and pick you up 94 feet, really aggressive. ...

"Cam's going to be talented, it's going to be one of those things that, and within these next 20 practices or so or actually 18 practices, they've got to grow up really, really fast. And as you guys know, being in this league and covering this league for a long time, in order to play as a freshman, that's tough, and so I've got to put them in the situation.

"The unfortunate thing about guys like Cam and Shakeel is that we don't have an

Is it fair to say this team has a chance to be the most versatile team you've had in Raleigh? What do you see when you look at the mix and match possibilities on this roster?

"I thought I had it last year. And then we had some injuries.

"I know when anytime I say that, that's going to go viral, and everybody, 'Then this is his deepest, most versatile team.' And it is, to date.

"But understand that you know barring some injuries, or we're facing a pandemic and COVID, that depth which we will need obviously could be questioned at any time, just depends on who or if any of those guys miss part of the season.

"That being said, I do have several guys on the roster that can play multiple positions. I like what we're at. I like that we have guys like veterans like Thomas Allen and Braxton that if the freshmen struggle early at the point guard position, I feel comfortable moving those guys there or possibly starting those guys at that position.

"When you look at the fact that Jericole [Hellems] has put a lot of work in to be able to play some small forward this year. That's a plus for us. And then obviously being able to go with a bigger lineup having DJ Funderburk at the four so I love our size.

"I love our versatility. I love I love our length, and we're quick. We're a fast team. We just have to put it together because we got a good bunch of veteran guys. But then as every coach will point out to you, we're really young, with about six freshmen that hadn't played before.

Earlier this offseason, the ACC head coaches voted to wear polo shirts on the sideline and you immediately came to mind as one of the best dressed coaches in the ACC. I'm curious to hear your feelings about leaving the blazer at home this year?

"Well, nobody said that the blazer wasn't coming out. So let's make sure that we're clear on that. That's a recommendation. That's what we're told that we can wear. But I will say this, in a recommendation, I've looked at over, there's nowhere to say we can't wear the red blazer, or I just got to wear the best polo I got.

"I got to have the best polo and got to find me a red polo and look good about doing it. But it makes sense. We don't know how many fans that we're going to have at any of these games, I completely understand it.

"When you look at what the NBA did, when you look at a lot of the early season MTEs, they're typically going to wear polos. And so I think that's going to be what we do early on.

"Obviously, if it's more fans that's able to attend the game, then that may change, but the red blazer, you're probably going to see it at some point. I may just, I may have to scale it down, I might have to go, which I don't know if I can do this, I may have to go red blazer and some type of T-shirt. That's not my style, but it may be something that I have to do.

Are you gonna have to step the shoe game up if you're just wearing polos to stick out?

"Well, if you didn't have a great shoe game, you would have to step it up. But I've already got a nice shoe game.

"Listen, I'm going to look good on the sideline. I just hope my team plays as well as I look."

So much of the conversation with football was the uncertainty of practicing and practicing and not knowing whether you'd actually have a season. Have you had to manage any of that with with basketball as well? Or is it always felt like there were going to be games play?

"That's a really great question. I have no idea how this thing's going to work.

"Even with football, when you look at football, the blessing that they had is that they all had bye weeks. They had some weeks that if they cancel a game, and certainly they will be able to make it up or push another game or add a game.

"Unfortunately, when you get into our basketball season, when you took away and we moved the season back 15 days, we don't have any bye days or bye weeks. Only thing that can happen to us is the they move the NCAA Tournament back. And there's been some talks about that, but that certainly hasn't happened to this point.

"If you take 14 to 21 days out of when our schedule is released, there's a chance that we can miss four or five games and not have a chance to make them up. And I think that's why the NCAA came out and say, in order to qualify for the tournament, you had to play 13 games.

"We're going to continue to do the best that we can with our guys making sure they understand how important it is to wear their mask, wash their hands, stay away from large groups. But unfortunately, certain situations may arise where is some time that we may have to miss some opportunities to play games because of COVID. And so it's a challenge.

"On every ACC call that we have, we talked about how we're going to do it. Ours is so much different because we're an indoor sport, and then when you when you fall back on time, the next couple of days, it starts getting a little dark around 5:30, 6 o'clock, everybody's going to come inside. And so that's a little different than we used to.

You kind of spearheaded the whole voting initiative at NC State, that was a cause of yours. We're close to zero hour now, what have you seen since you started that versus now getting close to that?

"I think it's important that all of us exercise our right to vote. And I've always said this to my guys, even had a conversation with them the other day, is that I don't care who you vote for. But don't complain, if you're not going to go out and vote.

"You have the ability to vote. When I was your age, I didn't vote, because I didn't know about it. I wasn't educated enough about it to be able to vote.

"I've seen a huge turnout on our campus. When you look at some of our other sports teams, I think they're getting out and vote. As of yesterday or two days ago, because we were off yesterday, we'd had everybody on our team and our staff had voted besides two or three guys.

"I was going to wait until November the third and take the entire team to vote, but that wasn't the ideal situation with class time and tutoring and everything else. And also I was trying to keep them away from large crowds. They wouldn't have a chance to be around large crowds and all that other stuff.

"But I think it's great, I think, what we're doing on college campuses and not just NC State, but everywhere. We have a lot of coaches other than me promoting vote. I think it's important that our young people have a voice in what happens in the future.

From inside Intel from the folks at Gentlemen's Closet that you are already preparing for the casual look, and you're gonna look pretty darn good. So I hope I didn't give away any secrets or whatever. But I think you've got it under control.

"Before you go into further, they're going to be disappointed in you that you call them. Gentlemen's Closet, it's Gentlemen's Corner."

You talked about your depth and versatility in a perfect world. If everything goes according to plan how deep is this? Do you plan on having your rotation once things get going?

"If everything was perfect, I think we could go two deep at every position. I feel like that we could actually really play 10 guys that I feel comfortable with.

"Obviously, a couple of those guys will be young freshmen on the back end of that, but I like the fact that I feel like if we can play two at every position, and then you can switch a guy like DJ and Jericole to play a little bit more small forward and power forward.

"It's a good roster. We don't have the sophomore and junior strength that we normally would have. We've got really some guys who have played in college, and then we have some guys who have we got six guys and six freshmen, because I'm always talking about [Dereon] Seabron. We have six guys who have never played in the college game.

You've been one of the leaders in points per game in the ACC since you've been here. Does that jump up?

"I want our team to run more this year. Even though we're one of the teams I've had led this league and one or two, top two or three teams in the league in scoring, I don't think we've done a great job of defensive rebounding the basketball. When we don't defensive rebound, we don't have a chance to get out in transition as much.

"On the flip side, we've done a very good offensive rebounding team. So we've got a lot of our missed shots back and been able to score.

"That's why we've been pretty good in transition. Our presses have created some turnovers. That's why we've been able to score.

"I don't think that we have ran enough. I don't think that we've got out and got a lot of transitions. And in order to do that, we've got to do a good job at number one running guys in and out of the game that are fresh, and doing a better job of defensive rebounding.

How have you addressed mental health with some of your players? For the freshmen and maybe some of the transfers, obviously, they expected a very different college experience overall. I'm sure this is a very trying time when you talk about 18-19 year olds, how have you tried to address that with your guys?

"The biggest thing for those guys just knowing that we're here as a staff, and we're able to talk and communicate with those guys, and we have guys on campus who are more professional in those areas if they need to talk to someone.

"But it's tough, because you think about a guy who's a senior in Devon and Braxton and DJ, and you not knowing exactly how your season's going to go. You're hoping and praying that you get a chance to play 27 games, but there's a chance you may not.

"We're constantly talking to these guys about staying positive, obviously accepting what we can accept and controlling what we can control. But I think as a head coach it's so important even more now this year than it's been in the past, and I've always been a guy who was a great communicator with my players, that we talk to them more and more just because these guys these young men have a lot of things going on and a lot of challenges that's in front of them.

This question has nothing to do with basketball. In the spirit of the weekend, what's your go-to Halloween costume?

"I haven't done a costume in so long, I don't know. I'm sitting here and I'm trying to help my sons, and I listen to my 12 year old kid and I was talking to my wife, I feel so bad for every kid that won't have a normal Trick or Treat.

"Come on guys, think about this, man. When you were growing up, you look forward to being able to go around and get candy and you knew which houses had the best candy and everything else. And so I'm trying to figure out how I can give him some type of experience of having a Halloween to a 12 year-old, even though I probably when I was his age probably trick or treating till I was about 16.

"Well, we're gonna try to cut him off after 12, but I'm looking for and I'll take any ideas from you guys. How can you help these kids have as normal as we can be Halloween and Trick or Treat?

'But I don't have a costume. I know I went off on a different direction for you. Man, I'm a dress up as you, man. Is that okay? You give me permission to do that?

Listen, if I had a red blazer, I would dress up as you but I don't know if I can pull it off. I'm not cool enough.

"Well, they say I'm not wearing a blazer. So I have one that you can wear for Halloween if you want to just you just text me after we get off this call. You got to dry clean it for me, know this, I just want you to know that.

One of the issues with the football season has been a contact tracing after positive test. How difficult is that going to be in basketball where one test may take out such a large chunk of your team? How do you try to work around that? Is it possible to work around that?

"There's no working around it. It's a challenge, and I think what we're finding out, and we're finding out stuff more and more, that is not so much what happens on a court. I think it's what these guys are doing when they're at home at night, if they're playing PlayStation.

"This is the first time that I will prefer for my guys to play Xbox and all that stuff online. I don't want those guys to huddle up as much. Even when they're traveling to get something to eat at night, I would rather them go by themselves to order food.

"It's a tough deal. Contact tracing is a major problem. In our practice situation we're trying as much as we can to social distance as we can. We're trying not to have these guys around each other for more than 15 minutes at six feet. But it's a challenge doing all of that other stuff.

"I'm trying not to huddle as much as I normally would do just to bring him in and talk, but to answer your question, I don't know. I don't know what we don't know. ...

"Guys enjoy have a safe weekend. And everybody stay safe and enjoy your family and take care of your family. It's important."

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