Sweet 16 Coverage: State’s Keys Against Louisville

As we mentioned earlier, this isn’t the same Louisville team that NC State faced, and beat over a month ago. That Louisville team was peaking. Harrell was being looked at as one of the best bigs in the ACC and Chris Jones was one of their leading scorers. Fast forward to today and while Harrell might not be the offensive beast we once thought, and Chris Jones has been dismissed from the team, this group is creating a much more balanced attack. Let’s take a look at the keys for NC State surviving and advancing against the Cardinals…

Make it tough on Rozier and Snider
Sophomore guard Terry Rozier has been putting up some big numbers as of late. With the dismissal of Chris Jones, Rozier has taken the team on his back and took the role of team leader. He went off for 25 against Northern Iowa last round and scored 20 in the Cardinals loss to UNC just 3 games ago. In State’s win on Feb. 14th, Rozier was shut down with only 7 points. State had him in foul trouble a lot of the game before fouling out, but it was their physical defense and lane presence that really bothered him.

In their first meeting it was Chris Jones who was a handful for the Pack (20pts), but in his place is another talented guard. This time it’s Quentin Snider. Since Jones was kicked off the team Snider has slowly but surely been coming into his own. He’s combined for 26 points over his 2 tournament games and has shot the ball well (10-21). He’s a 6’2 freshman that’s pretty thin so physicality from Lacey might really bother him.

These two guys really control the pace and the flow for Louisville so bottling them up will be the difference for State.

Limit Turnovers
Louisville is going to try to turn State over. No doubt about it. They’ve forced 24 turnovers over the past two tournament games and will look to keep that train rolling. For the Pack, playing at their pace and handling the pressure from the Cardinals scrappy guards will be big. State turned it over 8 times against Louisville in their first matchup. That’s a pretty good number against this team, but they could even improve a bit on that.

As of late you’d have to say that handling pressure has been a plus for this team. With the emergence of Cat Barber, State all of the sudden has a very reliable backcourt who can make teams pay for pressing.
The Barber, Turner and Lacey Show
Pitino can’t stop talking about Anthony Barber. He recruited him, decided to let him get away and then was ravaged by him (21 points, 4 assits) in State’s win in mid February. Now in all of the pregame articles you’re seeing quotes from him talking about how important it is to stop Barber. They’ll be keying on him, helping off on him and really overcommitting on ball screens with him. That means someone is going to be getting less attention. That someone will likely be Ralston Turner or Trevor Lacey. Lacey’s confidence is riding high after a huge game against Villanova and Ralston Turner is still looking for a big breakout game in the tournament. This one is likely to be it. Pitino might game plan to slow down Barber, but he better have an answer for the other two scoring threats if he wants to play on Sunday.

Stay Physical with Harrell and the Bigs
State did a great job of making it hard on Harrell in their first matchup. He managed only 7 points, 5 of which came in the 2nd half. He’s still a beast, but most of his damage is done against teams that done have true physical bigs. State has a ton of them and will likely key on taking away position from Harrell. If he gets going, watch out, but if Gottfried game plans properly, State should be able to limit his looks like they did last time out.

This team is physical. It’s a Pitino team. So they’re going to want to win the battle of the boards. That starts with Harrell but doesn’t end there. Physicality, boxing out and being aggressive on the glass is another big time key. Abu, Freeman and Anya will likely see most of minutes in this matchup and will need to make sure the Cardinals know they aren’t getting anything easy. State dominated them 45-37 on the boards last time out and it was a huge reason why State was able to pull off that upset.