As interesting as Kevin Keatts curious choice of words to describe his team earlier this week was his team’s immediate response to them. A day after Keatts said N.C. State was “not as talented as most teams in the ACC” the Wolfpack played like it in a listless 30-point loss to a Notre Dame team missing its two best players.
There’s nothing particularly earthshaking about Keatts’ description – he spent the summer scraping together enough grad transfers and late recruits just to field a team in the wake of the coaching change, let alone compete – but it seemed to countermand what he has been trying to do this season, which is field a team that may not be able to shoot very well but hustles and is fit and plays defense, none of which has a whole heck of a lot to do with talent.