Cat Barber scored 21 points and Caleb Martin added 14, but it wasn’t enough as Virginia Tech took a 73-68 OT win away from the Pack .

State started off strong, playing patient inside-out basketball and getting out to a commanding 16 point first half lead. But as the game wore on and the Seth Allen and Jalen Hudson got hot, the Wolfpack reverted to this teams #1 weakness…poor shot selection. As the Pack settled for contested 3s and long 2s, the Hokies were attacking the basket and putting pressure on the Pack.

Caleb Martin and Mav Rowen combined to go 3-17 from beyond the arc in a game where NC State led for most of the game. State also outrebounded the Hokies 50-41, but could not overcome the onslaught of Allen and Hudson down the stretch.

As far as positives go, Cat played well. He really has come on as a go-to scorer and play maker for this team. He once again got over the 20 point mark even added 7 boards. The bigs rebounded the ball well and Anya was a block machine (5 total). Although Gottfried pointed out rebounding as a area that needed improvement after this game, I am not fully in agreement. Abu and Anya did great work on the boards and State actually won the rebounding battle 50-41. Yes, at the end of the game there were a few key missed rebounds that led to the loss, but overall I thought the bigs worked  hard on the glass. Lastly, Cody Martin filled his niche with 7 points (3-4 FG) and 4 boards in limited time. I think it’s time to see more Cody. He’s not ever going to be a big time scorer, but he really is the type of do-it all player who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He shares the basketball, has a great nose for it and constantly finds himself in the right place at the right time. I know this team is dying for scorers, but they are also in need of a guy who practices patience and runs the offense with ease and efficiency.

Gottfried harped post game on a few calls he wished could have gone their way and the fact that his shooters couldn’t hit shots tonight, but when he goes back to watch the tape I think what might stand out is the decision making by his players when they got rattled. This is a young team, no one questions that, but they need to keep improving in this area. Tonight was an early step in the right direction, but then two steps in the wrong direction when the Hokies surged back in the 2nd half.

We’ve taking a bit of heat recently for being too critical of a team that came in 10-3. We’ve been doing this for a while now and we think that the fans of this site don’t just want to know if we won or if we lost (they watched the game), but they want to know why. How can this team let a 16 point lead slip away? Why did we look so good early on and what happened in the 2nd half?

Tonight you saw the points we have been trying to make all season long. This team is very talented and they have been out-athleting teams early this season, but now we’ve reached prime-time. Now every team is on the same level athletically, so intricacies of the game come into play. The small things start paying off, and being able to run faster and jump higher no longer gain you the advantage they did against teams like High Point or UNCG.

Tonight NC State came out and played Mark Gottfried basketball early on. They were patient, they were sharing the ball, dumping it down and causing VT to make decisions. Do they double down or allow Anya and Abu to go one on one on the block? Buzz Williams chose to have his guys double down. This opened up some great interior passing and a few high lows. It also opened up some great kick outs for uncontested 3s. They had the high pick and roll working and they were, allowing the ball to get into the high post. These are areas that the ball needs to go to make the defense react, and it was working to the Pack’s advantage in the first half.

In the second half it was a different story. As VT started making their run, the Pack started to panic. No longer where they working the ball inside-out. They retreated into the thing that has plagued them since day one. They started settling for forced shots. They stopped running through the offense and really let the Hokies off the hook. Too much dribbling, too much one and one at the top of the key. All of the sudden there were shot clock violations, guys taking 3s with 2 hands in their face, not even squared up. You’d have thought it was NC State team that was fighting back from a 16 point early deficit. At the end of the day, this is what really cost them.

Now, don’t lose hope. Does this mean that this team won’t figure out this issue and play like the team you saw in the first half? No way. This team is slowly improving. They are young, they are still finding their roles and learning what they can and can’t do at this level. The point we are trying to make is that we are now 14 games in. We are almost halfway through the season. This team has the talent to be a contender, they just need to focus on patience, execution and togetherness and they need to work on that until it becomes their default. When the going get’s tough this team needs to rely on each other. Cat is a great scorer, but they need more than just him if they want to make a run this season. They need to figure this out quick.#18 Louisville rolls into town in 5 days.