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Wofford Irks Out Upset Over State 55-54

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NC State’s Trevor Lacey hit a game winner with .01 on the clock. The replay confirmed it. The only problem was that the replay was wrong. FoxSport’s clock on-screen was a frame behind. Realtime told a different story. After NC State celebrated, the refs went back to the monitor to see that the ball was on Lacey’s fingertips when the clock hit 0. Another chapter to add the the “You’ll never see that again as long as you live” type back luck that the Wolfpack has endured over the past 25 years. Now, it’s been happening less and less lately, but tonight was a simple reminder that the players have changed, the coaches rotate, but you’re still watching NC State basketball.

At this point your probably wondering why State was even in a close game with Wofford. We’ll get into that in a second. First, I think it’s important to realize that this, while still a loss, is not a loss that is going to really hurt the Pack. This Wofford team won the Southern Conference Tournament last season and returned all of their starters. This is a veteran group that is going to be right up there again and should have a pretty healthy RPI this season.

Now, let’s get into tonight game.

State’s bigs were just bad tonight. They combined for only 11 points in this one and although they finished tied on the glass with 33 boards, they were beat on the offensive glass 9-3. That was huge. State had very few second chance points and just seemed timid against the Wofford bigs. Kyle Washington couldn’t hit a shot, Beejay got his blocks and rebounds but that was it, and Freeman just was plain off tonight.

Turnovers. State only coughed it up 11 times, but that’s not very good when you only turn the other team over 4 times. Now, Wofford is a veteran team and a calling card to most veteran teams is the ability to protect the basketball, but the Wolfpack is long, strong and should have dominated Wofford on the defensive end.

– Speaking of defense. The Pack was decent at best in this game. They were pretty good on the ball, but their help side was weak and they allowed far too many easy baskets in the paint. Again, A lot of this had to do with the bigs just not showing up tonight.

– No reinforcements. I’m not sure what happened tonight, but Gottfried just did not seem to want to explore his bench when his starters weren’t getting it done. Caleb Martin, who scored a career high 17 last time out only logged 11 minutes and was never allowed to get into any sort of rhythm. We didn’t even see any of Cody Martin in this game.

Karl Hess. Who let this guy back on the floor? Hess was banned from reffing State games after throwing out Googs and Corch at a game a few years back. All of the sudden he’s back and within 5 minutes of play he gives Gottfried a technical foul for what just seemed like normal coach/ref banter after a questionable call. Quick-Whistle Karl obviously was trying to establish some sort of dominance again and put the Pack in the hole early. Those 2 free points that Wofford got ended up costing State this game.

– Now for the bright spots. Trevor Lacey was once again awesome down the stretch. He finished with 18 points and hit a huge jumper to put State in the lead after Wofford took the lead in the last minute then the would-have-been game winner. The kid has ice in his veins and you just wish he’d have taken over sooner. This kind of is reminding me of Warren last year. During the beginning of the season he tried to play as unselfishly as possible until he realized that he needed to be the offense for this team to win. Lacey is in the same situation. Sure, he has other weapons but he needs to realize that he is option A-1 and should be getting up 16-20 shots per game.

– I also thought Cat improved in this game. He still had a few moments of indecision which resulted in poor shots, but overall he played better basketball. He is trying as hard as he can to pick his spots and to run the offense and I think  you’re seeing that. Remember, he’s still only a sophomore in the beginning of his second season. I just think people, us included, thought he’d be coming in here college ready. Athletically he was ready, but he’s learning how to play PG at this level and there’s certainly been a learning curve there. His line wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either. 10 points, 3 assists and 5 boards…all with no turnovers.
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State better shake this one off because Tennessee is up next this Wed. at the PNC.

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nedmorlef
nedmorlef
8 years ago

I have issue with biased refs on the court. Especially when the bias is open and well known. Thye ‘re not hurting NCSU as much as they’re hurting the game, the league and the fans. This is as inexcusable as the loss.

Wolfer96
Wolfer96
8 years ago

I’ve said it before and my opinion remains unchanged… this is a very average team. There are some above average players (e.g. Trevor Lacey) but the team as a whole is average. We will lose more games this season than fans would like. As great of a job as Gott has done on the recruiting trail since he joined the Wolf Pack, where is falls short is evaluating key skills.  Looking at Barber for instance, he is as oft mentioned quick like a cat. However, he has limited court vision and decision making skills. Kind of the opposite of Tyler… 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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NC State Basketball

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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NC State Basketball

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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