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Pack Sizzles In Second, Beats Wake 78-65

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8 years ago

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NC State shot 71% in the second half to push past Wake Forest for the 78-65 win on Saturday night’s ACC opener.

The Pack once again came out of the gate rushing, forcing and just playing sloppy. While the reffing was certainly a factor in some of that, Gottfried’s group also just refused to run the offense early on. It wasn’t until the second half that State really kicked it into gear.

In the second half they showed patience, toughness and confidence as they lit up the scoreboard, hitting nearly every shot and moving the ball until they got clean looks. The main reason State was able to pull away however, was the play of Ralston Turner. The redshirt senior was cooking in the second half. His 21 points were a team high and helped the Pack put Wake away.

Let’s take a closer look at our game notes:

State shot the ball a lot better, Ralston was on fire
Wipe the first half from you memory. There wasn’t much good that happened in those first 20. In the second half however, State came a live. Led by an enfuego Ralston Turner and Trevor Lacey, State shot 71% and really was firing on all cylinders. They were running their offense and getting good looks. When they got to the FT line (and they did a lot with all the ticky-tack calls the refs were making) they shot the ball well. Barber, Lacey and Turner combined to go 15-17 from the stripe. A 55% shooting night is great for this team against an ACC opponent, especially when you stumble coming out of the gate.

The offense looked better
State was a lot more patient in the second half. They were using their screens, setting up their men at times and really looking to get good shots. While they were getting Turner open, I still think this team needs to really work on setting up and trying to get easy buckets on their UCLA cuts. Too often they are rushing through this cut (that’s if they even get to that part of the offense.) I think another reason the offense looked better was that Wake wasn’t just sitting back in a zone all night. They decided to play mostly straight up man and State doesn’t usually have much trouble against that.

Abu Starting to Break Out
You definitely can tell that he’s a freshmen still, but Abdul-Malik Abu had his best game of the season so far. He was physical, he played with a good motor and he was able to knock down a few open shots. Logging 16 minutes thanks to Anya’s foul troubles, Abu finished with 6 points and 5 boards. He also demanded to guard Thomas for a bit when no one else was having any luck. One Abu can wrap his head around the offense and around team defense (which he is still working on), he’s going to be a very nice piece to bring off the bench later this season.

Barber Showing Flashes
There were times tonight when you saw Barber at his best. Once on the break he had 2 defenders under the basket and could have attacked the rim, but he decided to kick out to a wide open Ralston Turner for 3. Turner stepped out, but the play was unselfish and the right one to make. Then later on, Barber drove the lane, drew help D, hung in the air and threw a wrap around pass to Anya for the dunk. It’s plays like this that show you what Barber could become if he stays the course. He has the talent and certainly the quickness, but it’s what he uses that for that will make the biggest difference in his future. Will he use it to set up teammates, to create open shots for others? Or will he use it try and score? I think that right there is a big part of his maturation. Last night I thought Barber was better. He put pressure on Wake and made some big plays. He got to the line and hit his FTs. Yes, there were still those lapses in judgement, rushed shots or strange passes that got picked off, but overall he’s minimizing those things. Remember, this kid is only a sophomore and is learning how to truely play the PG position from scratch. We State fans have high expectations of the kid, but he’s young right now. All you can ask for at this point is improvement in his style of play and hime striving to become more of a floor general. Someone who makes ZERO mistakes in the game and not 3 or 4. I think and hope we are seeing that. Barber finished with 14 points, 4 assists, 4 boards and 3 TOs. Overall, a step in the right direction for Cat.

Too many turnovers
Wake isn’t exactly some defensive dynasty out there, but the Pack still struggled to take care of the basketball. This is going to need to change going forward. Barber, Lacey and Turner combined for 9 of State’s 15 turnovers in this one and thats simply not acceptable for your guards if you’re going to have success.

Refs you s*ck
This game was just plain hard to watch, but if you’ve been around long enough you understand that this is par for the course in the ACC. The refs were whistle happy early, like usual, trying to get the game into the bonus where they can dictate flow and have a sense of game control. I’m not saying it was one-sided. They called 27 on Wake and 24 on State, I’m just saying it was plain awful and continues to ruin a very good product that is ACC basketball. Four players happened to foul out of this single game. Anya played 11 minutes and had 5 fouls. Dez Lee played 4 minutes and had 5 fouls. I’ve never seen anything like it and I hope to never again.

Still Growing, Still Improving
Look, while we do point out flaws and area for improvement in our postgame pieces, we want to make it clear that we are impressed with the young team starting out 7-1. They are one of the nation’s youngest groups and they continue to push through mentally and physically to get wins. I think you saw a good sign in that second half. The guys started to see the offense work. It got them good shots and they knocked them down. As they begin to trust in the offense more, they’ll become more efficient and harder to stop on that side of the court. This team is no where near a finished product, but when they get there (and Gott’s groups have had a tendency to peak in March), they’ll be fun to watch.

 

 

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NC State Basketball

NC State’s Ebe Dowuona Enters Transfer Portal

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5 hours ago

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March 23, 2023

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NC State Junior F/C Ebe Dowuona has entered the transfer portal, with two years of eligibility remaining.

This year, Ebe played in 30 games, averaging 1.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per game. As a Sophomore, after the injury to Manny Bates in the first game of the season, Dowuona went on to start in 27 of the 31 games he played in, averaging 4.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

I’m not shocked. I don’t blame Dowuona for wanting to find a place where he would get more playing time.

Nonetheless this is a hit to the Wolfpack’s front court. While he didn’t offer much on the offensive end, he continually altered shots on the defensive end.

Ernest Ross will be a Junior next year, and fans will likely get to see Freshman Isaiah Miranda for the first time after redshirting after arriving to Raleigh midseason. Greg Gantt will be a Redshirt Junior next season as well.

Other questions loom for the Wolfpack front court as well. Will DJ Burns and Jack Clark return for their final year of eligibility? Will Dusan Mahorcic be granted a medical waiver for an additional year of eligibility?

Time will tell.

We wish Ebe all the best!

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NC State Ranked in Top-25 in Men’s Basketball Attendance in 2022-23

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2 days ago

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March 21, 2023

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When it was all said and done, the NC State fans represented in 2022-23, ranking 20th amongst Division-1 teams in Men’s Basketball attendance. The Wolfpack ranked 4th in the ACC, behind UNC, Syracuse, and Virginia.

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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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5 days ago

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March 18, 2023

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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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5 days ago

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March 18, 2023

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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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