NC State had its fourth game in eight days either canceled or postponed when the Wolfpack’s would-have-been conference opener at Louisville that was scheduled for Wednesday night was postponed Sunday afternoon.

According to a release from the ACC, the Cardinals were not in a position to play due to COVID cases within the program in recent weeks. The previous three contests, including matchups with UConn and Michigan, were scratched due to cases of the virus within the Wolfpack’s “traveling party.”

NC State head coach Kevin Keatts said his team was prepared to play with a limited roster, however. Because the Pack had lost both of its most-competitive non-conference matchups, Keatts made it a point of emphasis to find a replacement game against a marquee opponent.

He quickly made a phone call to Saint Louis head coach Travis Ford and agreed to make the trip to Chaifetz Arena on short notice.

“We were willing to go on the road to anybody's place and play,” Keatts said. “As crazy as it seems, there's not a lot of teams that are available right now because most teams are now getting into conference play. We talked to all the Power Five, including the Big East, to see if there was some help. We spoke to the ACC to see if we can get some help from those guys."

“I just had a hunch and got on the phone with Travis. I was doing research on the internet trying to figure out who had games canceled. Travis and I talked, and they needed a game, we needed a game. There wasn't any hesitation. I said, ‘I'm coming to you.'

“There was a lot of work put into it. My assistant coaches, every assistant coach was trying to make calls, trying to figure out who needed a game. The ACC was involved.

The head coach prefaced all of that by saying, “I will guarantee you this, it probably won't be the last time either.”

Shortly after NC State signed a contract to a home-and-home series in which the Billikens will make a trip to Raleigh in the 2022-23 campaign, Villanova called to inquire about a potential meeting for its canceled game against Virginia that was set for this Saturday in Madison Square Garden. Because the Wolfpack had already agreed to terms with Saint Louis, the conversation didn’t result in a meeting with the 2018 national champions in order to honor its newly-scheduled Thursday night contest in St. Louis.

Last week’s scheduled game at Michigan for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge was officially postponed and no additional updates have been provided to this point. Keatts expressed his hope that the game could still be rescheduled, but he’s not optimistic due to the Wolverines reaching their number of non-conference games threshold when the program quickly found a replacement contest with Toledo.

“I don't have any updates,” Keatts said. “I saw that they scheduled a game. Obviously, because of the limitation on the amount of games, the game probably won't be rescheduled unless they have a cancellation when we can find a time where we can play. I'm hopeful and would love to play. I would love to play the UConn game and also the Michigan game, but there's a lot of factors on both ends that have to go into that decision.”

With multiple games impacted on a daily basis as college basketball trudges on through the challenges the pandemic has presented, multiple head coaches around the country, including Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and Jeff Capel of Pittsburgh, have expressed their concerns about the current state of the season.

In the past week, almost every Division I coach in the country has been asked to share their thoughts on whether or not the season should be paused due to how many games have been impacted in the twilight of the non-conference slate. Because Keatts had not held a press conference since the Dec. 3 win over UMass Lowell, today was his turn to answer that question.

“I think we should be playing,” Keatts said. “With our guys in particular, and most of the schools in Division I, we've got a pretty good setup. We're getting tested frequently. Our guys are doing a great job… On our end, there are some concerns. There should be some concerns. But at the end of the day, I do think that we have a safe situation for our guys to continue to play, and we want to play if we can.”

“Coach K, he got hammered about pausing,” Keatts added. “A lot of people, they hammered him about pausing because his team had lost a couple of games. I think that's ridiculous. I've been on calls with him the entire summer, and he's always talked about possibly starting the season in January or February and playing conference only. I think it was very unfair.

“He gave his opinion of what he thought should happen, especially what's going on. And I don't think he was treated right by a lot of folks because, once again, it was his opinion. The mere fact that when he said it, everybody jumped on the fact because he lost a couple home games. Well, I'm sure if he didn't coach another game, he would go down as one of the best coaches ever to coach the game, and he's won a lot of games. I think that was unfair.”

NC State will play shorthanded Thursday night but expects to have “probably nine guys” available in Saint Louis. It is still unknown which nine of the 14-man roster will be available when the Wolfpack takes on the Billikens, but that information will be released an hour prior to tipoff Thursday night.

“I don't know what type of team I have right now,” Keatts said. “We'll find out. I thought at that time we were playing really good basketball, but we hadn't taken a break. When you look at us, I don't think we’ve played a game since December 3rd. That's such a long time, so when you factor that in, you factor the amount of people that's traveling with us, you factor how rusty we'll be in the way that we like to play, I guess we'll find out a lot.

“Our guys want to play, our guys want to get out there and play basketball, so that's what I'm going to do.”

The head coach said he had six players available for his first practice since the canceled UConn game this Saturday and has had eight since Sunday. He added that he does not have a timeline as to when more players could become available following the Thursday road trip.

“Everything that we deal with, whether it's related to any type of injury or whether it's related to any COVID issue, is strictly in the hands of the medical staff, Keatts said. “We'll listen to those guys and when they tell me that folks are clear, then that's what we'll play them. Our main deal is the safety of our players and the health of our players. If they're not 110 percent based on what the medical people tell me, it has nothing to do with me as a coach, it has nothing to do with the player. If the medical people don't clear them, then we won't play them.”

Keatts admits that the situation is far from ideal and has been frustrating for himself, the coaching staff and his players. Considering the pandemic’s harsh impacts around the country, however, he considers himself fortunate to just have the opportunity to coach the game he loves.

“As a society, we've lost control,” Keatts said. “As a coach, I would love to obviously be able to know what's happening, but I have to do exactly what I've asked my guys to do. To be flexible and to be ready to make a change. My coaching staff, we've had to scratch three or four scouting reports that we've worked on for countless hours to be ready to play against a team, and then be able to switch gears and play against another team. It's tough. But who am I to complain with what we have going on in society today?”

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