State Slips Past USF, 68-65

The good news is that NC State finally got some early season adversity to practice through against USF. The bad news is that it nearly ended with a loss. The Pack had the game in check for the majority of the time, but never really were able to pull away. Some intense late game pressure from the Bulls really exposed some areas for improvement for the Pack, especially in the ball handling and FT shooting department.

Trevor Lacey led scoring with 21 point and 7 boards while Kyle Washington stepped up in the 2nd half after coming off the bench to score 8 points. Lennard Freeman didn’t have the best game but he did end up with 10 boards, making it 3 straight games with double digit boards.

Here are a few thoughts from the game:

Poor Against the Zone
It’s early so you don’t want to be too hard on the guys, but for such a good shooting group, these guys struggle against the zone. They need to be quicker with their rotations and more sure of their interior passing. This means the guards need to trust that the bigs are going to seal and come to the ball when they do weave it in there. All too often the Pack is throwing it around the perimeter and settling for a poor contested 3. The times they got it inside and played inside-out they were able to find some success. Lacey did a good job of penetrating the zone and then looking to kick for open 3s. Why do you want to get the ball inside the zone? We’ll for one, that is where the biggest gaps are, but as soon as you do that you get swarmed. That’s actually the point. Getting the defense to turn their heads, move, and lose the guys drifting on the perimeter equals wide open looks from 3. After you hit a few 3s you will get the zone extended and begin to do your damage in the middle.

Playing to Not Lose
Nonchalant play is not going to cut it this season. This team needs to get strong and learn to go for the jugular when they get leads. They don’t have a Warren to bail them out this season and they definitely need every win they can get in a very competitive ACC schedule. It was a bit troubling to see them making mistake after mistake down the stretch and allowing USF back in the game. Missed FTs, turnovers and poor body language were all to blame…but the season is young and so is this team. Hopefully this is a learning moment for the guys and they’ll come back ready to nail up the coffin next time.

NC State will play twice around the Thanksgiving holiday. The Pack gets Richmond on Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. Boise State comes to the PNC Friday, Dec. 28 at 7 p.m.