Pack on the Run: Can they keep it up vs. Jacksonville?

NC State vs. Jacksonville
7pm | PNC Arena | ESPN3

2 games into the season and its pretty evident that the Wolfpack are much more suited in the open court than the half-court. Our fast break offense has been fluid and efficient, with Cat spearheading the attack. He has made it a point of emphasis to race the ball up the court in order to keep pressure on opposing defenses. A trademark of Coach Gottfried’s teams is in their ability to score quickly. A simple teaching point that Coach Gottfried likes to instill into his player’s mind is to push the ball, whether off of a make or a miss.

I have been pretty impressed with our ability to score in the open court off of turnovers as well as makes. Teams will not be able to celebrate a made shot, as the Pack have looked to push the ball up the court and establish a quick offense to get a good look early in the clock. It is imperative that the Pack score early in the shot clock, as all too often our offense has ended with a contested jump shot as the shot clock creeps inside 10 seconds.

An area of improvement that the Pack can make to be even more efficient in the break is to hit the big men as they cross screen. A key action occurs in Gottfried’s fast break offense, and that is as the ball rotates from one wing to the other, our big men cross screen for each other. Cross screens in the break can be a nightmare to defend against as it creates mismatches, and causes confusion. However timing is vital. All to often this season our big men have been a fraction of a second late, which has made entry-passes difficult and tested our guards patients. We must improve upon this. We will improve on this. Once the timing works out, we will be even more deadly in the break.

This will also help Kyle, BeeJay, Lennar, and Abu gain confidence early. One reason I think our big men have struggled to score this season is because we are not executing our offense adequately enough for them to catch the ball in the sweet spots. In my opinion we are catching the ball too far off the elbow, and the block. This causes the help side defense to have more time to recover, which is why we have seen our big men get in-trouble as they make their post moves.

How can we fix these problems? It takes time and I know the coaches are working diligently with our guys to clean up some timing issues as well as build chemistry. In order for our guys to get the ball in the correct spots they must work hard off the ball. Everything in basketball is predicated on movement and angles! A technique that Coach Gottfried teaches our players is to beat your opponent with your feet. You must get you feet ahead of your defender to beat him to your spot. Once BeeJay prefects this skill he will be an absolute terror underneath. Can you imagine trying to stop him if he catches the ball inside the paint with his defender pinned on his back? The only way is to foul him or give up the easy flush.

Thus far I have liked what I have seen from our team. All of our guys are giving maximum effort and are bringing the energy on the defensive end. Another trait that I like is in their ability to be coached. Players have been responsive to criticism from the coaches and have had positive body language. This fact tells me that the guys have bought in! As we clean up some of the little details this team will undoubtedly exceed expectations and look to push their consecutive trips to the NCAA to 4.

We’ll see tonight if the Pack can continue to run over Jacksonville.