GLENDALE, Ariz. – All the fanfare surrounding the Final Four in Phoenix is nothing new for the North Carolina State men’s basketball team.
“We got less cameras on us now,” head coach Kevin Keatts said Friday, one day ahead of the Wolfpack’s Final Four matchup against Purdue. “They film each other every day. … You got Snapchat and you got Instagram. These guys are so used to being in front of a camera.”
NC State is only the seventh double-digit seed in NCAA tournament history to reach the Final Four, and the Wolfpack’s impressive 9-0 run through the ACC Tournament and March Madness has captured the hearts of America. Although history is not on their side – no double-digit seed has ever advanced to the national championship game – Keatts said his team is far from a Cinderella story and shouldn’t be underestimated, although it has worked in their favor so far.
“With the run that we had, I thought we could be possibly an 8 or 9 seed going into the tournament,’ Keatts said. ‘You don’t win five games in five days and beat the teams that we beat and then get the 11th seed. I don’t think we are a Cinderella. I think if you ask anyone we played, they would probably say the same thing.
“We came here to have the opportunity to cut the nets down not as a Cinderella,” added Keatts.
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DJ Burns says matchup with Zach Edey ‘will be fun’
Keatts implemented a ‘business versus pleasure’ protocol for his team heading into Final Four weekend. ‘If you see somebody having too much fun,’ he joked, ‘it’s supposed to be 75% business today and 25% fun.’
One player having his fair share of fun is senior forward DJ Burns, the 6’9, 275-pound star who’s emerged as the fan favorite of March Madness. He said he doesn’t feed into the noise, however, and credited Keatts with keeping the team focused only on the goal ahead.
‘(Keatts) told us when we first got here, go enjoy but. When you get on the court, I need your focus 100%,’ Burns said. ‘He’s done a good job of reeling us back in when we need it and letting us enjoy it when we’re not. We need to be focused right now at the moment.’
Burns ‘assignment includes slowing down Purdue big man Zach Edey, who picked up his second consecutive Associated Press Player of the Year honor. Although Burns admitted that he ‘didn’t have too much prior knowledge of’ Edey before this season, Burns gave him props and said the matchup ‘will be fun.’
“The dude is huge, it’s pretty easy for him to score over defenders. I kind of like that,’ Burns said of Edey. ‘Anybody who scores in the post like I do, you’ve got to respect it.’
Kevin Keatts: ‘We’re battle-tested’
‘I don’t know that there’s another team in the country that has played with what everyone would consider pressure,’ he added. ‘We lose any game in the ACC, we don’t make the NCAA Tournament. We lose any game in the NCAA, we don’t advance to the Final Four.’
They are two wins away from the program’s first national championship since 1983. And the superstitions that got them to the Final Four are here to stay. Expect Keatts to wear the same shoes he’s worn for eight straight games and expect him to listen to Marvin Sapp’s ‘The Best in Me’ beforehand. ‘Coaches, we’re creatures of habit,’ he joked.
Burns said he’ll leave the superstitions to Keatts, but did say he’s going to listen to G Herbo pregame. When asked to drop some bars, he laughed: ‘Not right now. We’ll save that for later.’