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Full Recap: Purdue Holds off Pack 66-61

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Purdue used 16 pts from Vince Ewards and a combined 28pts from their pair of 7 footers to take down the Wolfpack 66-61 on Tuesday night. For State it was a tough to watch performance that wasn’t at all pretty, but they fought hard, kept it very close and almost pulled out a win. Let’s take a look at some of our game notes:

Dominated on the Boards
Let’s start with the rebounding. I’m not sure what you expected, but with Purdue running fresh 7 footers out there all night long it wasn’t very promising for the Pack. Anya and company did what they could, but the big, strong Purdue front line was too big and too strong for State. The rebounding differential was 37-31 Purdue, with the Boilermakers owning the offensive glass 16-9. The Wolfpack front line wont’ see many more talented 7 footers this season, so they can be thankful for that because they did not fare well against these guys.

Kyle Washington Steps Up
Really the only guy that played like ‘losing was not an option’ the entire night was Kyle Washington. The sophomore big was everywhere, fighting the Purdue front line for ever y rebound and every loose ball. He finished with 17 points and 9 boards and was really the only thing State had going offensively most of the night (aside from spurts of Lacey). Now, very few of Kyle’s shots were easy, or uncontested, but that really brings up a bigger problem for this team. Washington did what he had to do, but if this team is going to count on a shooting performance like that every night from this kid, they’ll likely be asking too much.

Poor, Poor Offensive Flow
The 66-61 loss will be used as a learning tool and should be looked at as a good, close road game for a young team, but if you want to be blunt about it—the offensive was awful. It was sloppy, it was disorganized and it was just downright hard to watch. I know for a fact that this team works hard on their zone offense because they know they’re going to have to use it a ton, but it didn’t look that way on Tuesday night. State worked so hard for every point they put up and if it weren’t for Kyle Washington and Trevor Lacey hitting some very tough shots, this game would have been a lot more lopsided.

You can sugar coat things here and there, and we do that often, but it’s another season and we’re seeing another team that is just seemingly clueless against a zone. The blame here falls on the guards. Plain and simple, the Wolfpack guards need to get back to basics and understand how to attack a 2-3. There is way too much slow rotation around the perimeter. Guards need to be very quick and very decisive against a 2-3. The idea is to get the zone moving and shifting, making defenders turn their heads and lose their men. You do this with very quick, crisp rotations, with misdirection, pass fakes and STRONG dribble drives into the gaps. The idea of driving into these gaps is rarely ever to score and every point guard should have been taught this at a very young age. The idea is to shift the zone, to make the defense make decision and then having the wherewithal to react to that decision. Rewatch the tape from last night and you’ll see tentative drives with guards missing the quick window to beat the zone on the shift. This leads to picked up dribbles and making dangerous passes to get out of trouble. There is too much thinking going on and not enough reacting. But part of that is because this team needs to reconstruct some of their instincts against the zone. Hoisting up a 3 on the swing, or driving full speed into the middle of a zone for a floater is exactly what the defense is asking you to do. Playing inside-out, driving to the middle, making the zone collapse and kicking it to the open man is how you beat this defense and until the guys buy into that we’ll continue to see much of the same.

As I rewatched the tape last night I noticed something that I feel I point out every season. State’s shooters are impatient and are not using their screens. Turner and Lacey rarely got a clean look last night. Why is that? Well, against a zone it really should be impossible to cover 2 dead-eye 3 point shooters, but Purdue was able to because State’s rotation against the zone was slow and methodical (see the paragraph above). Just back and forth without ball fakes or skip passes. Against the man defense however, they also struggled. They were setting screen for Lacey and Turner, but these guys were trying to use speed to get open and that’s a losing battle every time. Teams are just going to put quicker and smaller guys on Lacey and Ralston and completely take them out of their games if they don’t fix this. Getting open takes deception as well. Changing speeds, waiting for your screen then setting it up. Watch State on offense and you’ll see a team that is very rushed. They rarely walk down their man to set him up for a down screen. They rarely go off that screen shoulder to shoulder. And they rarely read the defender. If you go shoulder to shoulder off of a screen (and I mean brushing shoulders) you make the defender have to decide. Will he follow you or will he go under/around the screen. If he follows, then you have the opportunity to curl, keeping the defender on your back and initiating help defense. If he goes around or under the screen then you rework your angle and fade off of that screen when he gets directly on the back side of the screener. This creates the space you need for an open look. I know Purdue was really pushing and pulling and not allowing these guys to get where they wanted to go, but getting beat physically really should never be an excuse. Sure, this team is young, but these are basics that this team needs to understand if they are going to compete in this league. These are the small things, the minute details that are the difference between and easy bucket and a contested jumper.

Lacey With Another Big Performance, Cat still Figuring Things Out
Another good shooting night for a guy who looks to be an elite scorer thus far. Lacey dropped 15 points on 6-10 shooting (mostly all tough shots), dished out 3 assists and had a steal, all while committing 0 turnovers. This guy is a  star and as the season goes on I think State will continue to learn how to use him. So far it seems like he’s not very productive when you put him off the ball and ask him to hunt his shot as a ‘catch and shoot’ type guy. Lacey has been the best with the ball in his hands, making things happen. He’s a very good passer and a very savvy player with great court awareness. As he continues to show this type of play he’ll start to eat into the minutes of Cat Barber. Lacey is proving to be the leader of this team and the guy State wants with the ball in his hands. Barber is still struggling mightily to pick up the role of floor general. He is not forcing things as much, but he still is working on vocal leadership and needs to have more feel for situations and game management. I honestly think the key for Cat is get his shot to fall. If he can’t knock down the 3 or hit that 18 footer with complete confidence then he becomes a true liability, especially against the zone, prompting Gottfried to go with Lacey, Caleb Martin and Turner up top. If Barber could knock that down short jumper regularly then he becomes a whole new weapon. Defensively teams won’t be able to play off of him as much, allowing his quickness to once again become a factor on the offensive end.

Defense, Physicality Takes a Step Back
Early on, we said this team was going to need to step up defensively. Early on, they did. They were in passing lanes, they were getting steals, they were harassing ball handlers. Unfortunately, that seems to have worn off. Right now State is one of the worst teams in the nation at creating turnovers. A lot of that has to do with lack of pressure up to. Purdue pressured State full court for most of the game. They made Cat Barber’s job hard. They made him work to get into the offense and they made point to point passes difficult by having a hand in the passing lane. State on the other hand allowed point to point passes, did not see ball and man when they were defending off the ball and constantly miscommunicated/lost their men and allowed wide open looks. The only guys that was constantly in the passing lane last night were the Martin twins. These two guys work hard, understand angles and are able to jump passing lanes by anticipating ball movement. Part of the problem last night was the dominance of the Purdue bigs. These guys were killing our bigs and State was forced to double. By doing that they had to leave their men on occasion. That hurt them all night long.

Physically, State looked like boys and Purdue like men. The Pack was straight up punished by Purdue’s physicality. Washington and at times Lacey were the only two guys that were (within the rules) playing very hungry, very physical basketball. I know Anya and Freeman were also playing physical down low, they were still reacting to Purdue’s contact instead of initiating the contact themselves. State is young and they can learn form this game, but being knocked out of your offense and off your game because of the oppositions physicality is the worst type of insult. Gottfried talked this past week in practice about mental toughness, playing through, and having a confidence and swagger about themselves. Well, the guys need to take this to heart and start carving out a reputation for being physical, not backing down, looking up to nobody. When that happens, we will finally see this team reach their potential.

Yes, there were positives
While we really focused on areas for improvement, State did show some good things last night. They did show fight, they did show some grit and they never went away. That is big for a young team on the road. Purdue made an early run. State answered. Then they made a late run that could have nailed the coffin shut, but it didn’t. Lacey and Washington made big shot after big shot and kept this team in the game.

They also shot the ball pretty well. I didn’t think they got many good looks, but they were able to make some pretty tough shots last night. This team can score, now if they can just work on getting some better looks they could be down right dangerous. Purdue has held all of their opponents aside from Kansas State to under 37% shooting. Last night State shot 45%. Now, free throws down the stretch were another story, but overall State scored the ball well despite very tough, hard working defense in their face for 40 minutes.

I also think that for most of the game State handled the intense pressure pretty well. The crowd was going nuts, they had some some questionable calls go against them (one HORRIBLY bad…and I mean, I’ve never seen this called in all my years watching college basketball. The ref had to be watching and waiting to make that call) and they still fought through and made it a game. For a young team, I think that can be counted as a step in the right direction.

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smfrank42
smfrank42
8 years ago

PackInsider Staff I understand what you are talking about with the cuts around screens. We just go fast without misdirection or correct timing. It seemed like Purdue was cutting to the spot before we were like they knew where we would be.  However, my comment about the offense wasn’t directed at anything Got is doing. I love the coaching staff and our offense.  It’s more related to the early phases of the offense. The first pass is either to the wing or high post. Neither of these passes involve a screen. Just a V-cut or a hedge/post. Our best offensive… Read more »

PackInsider Staff
8 years ago

Pack78 We talked about this a lot in our preseason articles. With Lacey and Barber locked into the 2 guard positions and Caleb Martin coming on strong Dez Lee is going to have to really fight for minutes. As we said earlier, either he becomes a go-to defensive stopper or he plays sparingly his senior year.

Pack78
Pack78
8 years ago

What’s up with Des Lee?  What better time to use a Sr than the 1st road game?  What kind of doghouse is he in that he doesn’t get any chance Gott?  Something fishy going on….

Wolfer96
Wolfer96
8 years ago

smfrank42 The spacing comes when you go inside out. You dump it down to the post to someone who demands a double team and that leaves someone open.

Our problem is that we do not have a true inside presence so less likely to draw a double team and even when a double team is drawn we don’t have anyone that passes really well out of the post. Prime example was last night when Anya got the ball in the post and then tried to pass out and turned it over.

PackInsider Staff
8 years ago

Gottfried has spent a good deal of time preaching on setting up screens and using them appropriately. You saw Wood really take off when he finally took this to heart. This is certainly a player issue with this team but at some point, yes, it does become a coaching issue.
Meanwhile, when was the last time we saw this team complete a proper UCLA cut? 2-3 years ago?

smfrank42
smfrank42
8 years ago

There are two other things that are concerning: 1) On offense, too much our our time was spent closely guarded. Rarely was anyone catching the ball in space. This often led to resetting the offense or 1-1. We need better screens & screen actions and more physicality on the cuts. We also need the ball handler to be ready to pass.  but I also wonder, because we’ve seen this with Gottfried’s offense since he came here. Maybe alternatives for this defensive approach would help. 2) I hate seeing these soft And 1’s. If a big dude has your beat, just… Read more »

Wolfer96
Wolfer96
8 years ago

I didn’t expect too much coming into this season based on the loss of TJ Warren so I wasn’t too surprised by the loss last night. I’ve watched every game this season and the things I’ve noticed are: 1. Our bigs have weak hands. They lose balls that they have firmly in both hands time and time again. Inexcusable. 2. We have no Post game. Our offense is based on passing around perimeter and jacking up shots or driving and not passing. With the exception of Lacey who is always trying to find someone but the person he passes to… Read more »

Edwards20
Edwards20
8 years ago

Good post Lou. Tough game to watch last night, as the Pack just seemed so out of place on offense. Its tough matching up to the size and strength that we faced last night, but I believe State did a “ok” job. I honestly had more trust in our two hardest playing bigs thus far, Lennard and Anya. It seemed like Anya was just to hesitant within his role with the offense last night. We all know how much potential and upside he can bring to this team on the defensive side of the ball, but I think it is… Read more »

NC State Basketball

Wolferetti: Feed me my crow. NC State lost to Creighton and I’m here to break it down (and admit I was wrong)

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I was wrong.

I thought this matchup was a good one for NC State. I watched a lot of Creighton this year and to me, they looked like a team that NC State could roll over. Let me explain why.

I knew a few things. I knew Nembhard was a PG that could get a little out of control if sped up. I knew with a little defense and physicality, Sheierman could be made uncomfortable. I knew Kalkbrenner was a good defender but was going to sink on the pick-and-roll to protect the basket.

Joiner’s pull up just wouldn’t fall

I figured that Joiner, the pull-up king would be taking that DJ Burns screen, getting to the middle, and pulling up as Kalkbrenner sank. I figured Smith would exploit this as well. Well, turns out Joiner was off and couldn’t get his pull-up game going and Smith, well yeah Smith did exploit this pretty well.

Burns didn’t look like Burns

The other thing I’d figure would happen is that I thought DJ Burns would really frustrate Kalkbrenner. If you’ve looked at games where Kalkbrenner had to face a really good, physical back-to-the-basket big man, those bigs usually had pretty good games in the scoring column.  I honestly don’t understand what happened to Burns in this one. Sure he got a few stupid early fouls, but before he even picked up a foul he looked out of it. With no double teams coming, Burns is usually calculated, slowly backing you down and hitting you with a flurry of head fakes, pump fakes or spins. If the big doesn’t bite, Burns can fade away, go with a contested hook shot, or pass out.

In this game, Burns looked sped up for some reason. The first time he got the ball he quickly backed in and threw up a hook that rattled out. Not awful, but usually you see him probe a little more. Then the next time he didn’t even look for contact, instead, he threw up a little floater that didn’t fall. While neither were awful shots, both were uncharacteristic of Burns. On top of those things, he looked absolutely gassed within minutes of coming in. My guess is that it was the altitude, but either way, it took a toll on him.

Whatever it was, it had him frustrated and he had two really bad fouls where he just shoved Kalkbrenner (he also had a phantom foul that was ridiculous). That said, it just wasn’t his night and this made NC State a lot more one-dimensional.

Casey Morsell came to play, but this NC State roster just wasn’t built to get a guy like him going, which is a shame. Jarkel Joiner was a huge reason why NC State got to where they got. His scoring ability, his speed and his toughness and leadership skill were huge. But Joiner is a scoring guard, and great basketball teams need POINT guards.

What is a point guard, and why can’t we have one?

A point guard isn’t just a guy who dribbles it down. It’s a guy who understands the games within the games. Guys who dictate pace, call plays (sets) and are essentially coaches on the floor. NC State and Kevin Keatts never had that this season, and while you can get a long way with scoring guards and good big men, you’ll never compete for anything of worth until you prioritize the skill set of a true point guard. I think that has been NC State’s problem for years, and I find it kind of insane that coach after coach falls into this idea of having a scoring guard play as a PG for more offense to get on the court.

This is no shot at Jarkel, either. The guy was one of my favorite players to watch on this team, but it just is what it is. He is a scoring guard who happens to be slotting in at PG. When you see Keatts bring in a guy whose priority is getting his guys open and dictating pace, then you can start to believe that this program may be close to arriving. Until then, sneaking into the tournament and hoping guys get hot hands is as good as it gets.

Look at Kihei Clark (Virginia’s PG). I know it’s not a great time to be talking about Clark, whose errant pass ended up losing the game for Virginia on Thursday, but look at Clark’s build.5’10, 170lbs. Look at his stats. Mid-30s shooting % from 3. Hight 70s from the FT line. The guy is nothing special when it comes to the numbers, but he’s a leader and he distributes the basketball to the right guys at the right time. Tony Bennett has started Clark for 4 years despite the fact that he’s coaching a team that is always in the running to win the ACC and won a national championship less than 5 years ago.  He could replace Clark with an elite, tall, athlete at any moment. But he doesn’t. Why? Because he understands what I’m talking about. It’s a puzzle that coaches need to put together, and one piece of that puzzle is a guy like this.

I was wrong about this game. I thought things would play out differently. They didn’t. I’m not blaming anyone in particular, but the makeup of this team vs. the makeup of teams that play deep into March are different. Maybe this is step one to getting there. We’ll have to see how the roster shapes up next season.

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VIDEO: NC State falls to Creighton 72-63 in first round of NCAA Tournament | Extended Highlights & Box Score

NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

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NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

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VIDEO: Smith, Joiner and Keatts talk in postgame press conference

Terquavion Smith, Jarkel Joiner and Kevin Keatts meet with the media after 72-63 loss to Creighton in the NCAA Tournament.

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Terquavion Smith, Jarkel Joiner and Kevin Keatts meet with the media after 72-63 loss to Creighton in the NCAA Tournament.

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Wolferetti: 3 reasons why NC State is going to win today

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God bless these guys over here at PI. I submitted this article to them this morning and got this back.

“Joey, this is a good piece, but are you sure you want to come out and say that NC State is going to win? Why not just do a ‘keys to the game.’ or something? Hedge your bets. Why are you always wanting to put your reputation on the line?”

To that I say, “Nah, I’m good. I want my reputation on the line. What fun is this if I’m not callin’ it like I see it?”

Look, they’ve been worried about me stating outlandish opinions before. Like when I said after game #1, after I first laid eye on this team, that it was going to be a team that will flirt with or get into the Top 25? I got hammered for that, but was I right? And today I’m back on my prediction tip, telling you that NC State will survive and advance. And here are my 3 reasons why.

1. Creighton hasn’t fared well against teams with great Turnover Margins.

If Creighton has a glaring weakness, it’s turnover margin.

NC State’s turnover margin ranks 16th in the NCAA. Creighton’s is a miserable 291st. This means Creighton turns the ball over a lot and doesn’t create many turnovers. Meanwhile, NC State is the exact opposite. They create a lot of turnovers and really protect the basketball. This statistic right here is going to play a major role. The Creighton guards, especially Nembhard, can get sped up, and when they do, they can get sloppy and out of control. Meanwhile, Joiner and Smith flourish at top speed.

Let’s look at the one team that Creighton lost to every time they played them (and played them multiple times). That team is Marquette.

What do Marquette and NC State have in common? Well, they are both Top 20 in the nation in Turnover Margin. Marquette ranks #3 in the NCAA while the Pack is 16th. Creighton turned it over 18 times in their first meeting at Marquette. The second time these two teams met, Creighton turned it over 15 times.

The other teams they faced in the Top 50 of Turnover Margin in the nation?

#39 Arizona State
#10 Texas

That’s it. And guess what, Creighton lost every single one of those games. They have yet to beat a team in the Top 50 in Turnover Margin.

Reminder. NC State ranks 16th.

2. Large, back-to-the-basket bigs have fared well against Creighton

6’9, 245lb, Adama Sanogo from UConn dropped 17 against them in a win.

6’9, 215lb, Oso Ighodaro from Marquette dropped 16 on them in their first meeting, and then 18 in their second.

6’7, 220lb, Bryce Hopkins from Providence scored 20 on them in both meetings. One of which was a win.

All of these guys are big, strong, back-to-the-basket bigs and all of them bullied their way to huge games again Creighton.

In all 3 instances, Creighton refused to double-team on most possessions and the big men ate. So how will they deal with a big that is bigger than any of these guys?

DJ Burns is 6’9, 275lbs and he’s going to be a focal point for NC State in this game. If Creighton opts to play Burns straight up, history says they are going to have a long night and Burn is going to have a big game.

3. Creighton hasn’t seen guards like Joiner and Smith

Sure Creighton has quick guards. Nembhard, the 6’0 PG rarely gets a matchup where he doesn’t have a quickness advantage. Today, against Joiner, he won’t have one. There is so much talk about Creighton’s guards bottling up their opponents, but watch them play and you’ll see that they simply haven’t had to face guys like Joiner or Smith. Creighton will allow the floor to be spread and will not fight against playing this game at a fast pace, and those are the types of games we’ve seen the NC State guards feast.

Creighton is a very good team. They have some very good pieces, but I just think they’ve found themselves in a matchup that isn’t very good for them despite being data-darlings. I could be wrong, but to me, this looks like a game where people are reading off statistics and making assumptions without watching film. Without looking at each team’s Achilles heel. And without really breaking down the matchups.

I think this is a really good matchup for the Pack and I think I’ll be back talking to you in about 24 hours looking at who the guys will play on Sunday.

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