NC State came out hot, but couldn’t withstand the constant onslaught of the hot-handed Creighton Bluejays, as they pulled away for a 112-94 win over the Pack.

NC State came into the game without Mav Rowan (concussion), Ted Kapita (visa issue) and Omer Yurtseven (NCAA suspension). These are 3 major contributors for the Wolfpack, and not having them meant they were not only down talent, but down numbers as well.

Couple that with the fact that they were taking on what might be the hottest team in college basketball right now. Coming off a big win over #7 Wisconsin and a blowout of Washington State, Creighton is looking like a team that is going to make some big time noise in March.

With that said, let’s take a deeper look at this one…

Offensively, NC State looked the best they have all season. Terry Henderson came out red-hot, knocking down a trio of 3s and finishing with 7 on the night. His 28 points led the Pack.

Dennis Smith Jr. finally looked like the guy we all expected this season. He was aggressive on offense, finished well, and ran the team from the PG position. He finished with 21.

Overall the NC State offense looked very good for a young team playing against a team as dangerous as Creighton. They were forced to really attack with their guards when Abu got into foul trouble, and the absence of Kapita and Yurtseven meant Hicks and Anya got significant minutes. While both played decent, neither one could give the Pack the offense from the blocks that they needed. However, even without a true post presence in this one, the Wolfpack guards prodded the defense, looking for holes, and attacking when they found them. They were quick to kick it out and on this night, everyone was knocking them down. The Wolfpack shot 50% from beyond the arc, and that is without 3 pt specialist Mav Rowan.

If this is NC State’s best effort at likely their lowest point (personnel wise) then this team is going to win a bunch of games on offense alone. 94 points is going to get you a win on most nights, against most teams. It just so happened that this came against one of the best offensive teams in the country.

Our takeaway was that this team showed a ton of heart. They weren’t going to stop Creighton, so they decided they were going to have to step it up and score with them…and they almost did. This team showed want-to and passion until the final buzzer, and that is something that is going to win this team a bunch of ball games come ACC time.

Effort
I think you have to give it to these kids. They played their hearts out. They played with a short bench, against a team that was as hot as anyone in the country and they matched them blow for blow in the first half. The foul trouble issue really crept up on them and forced Gottfried to play some really strange lineups.

Defensively, I think we all saw a problem. Now, let’s remember a few things. A) NC State was without 2 of their biggest bigs. B) This is a young team who is still learning how to defend. With that said, let’s try to understand what happened for NC State to give up 112 points.

Creighton shot over 60% from the floor. A lot of those points came from open 3s and drives to the basket, but a lot came off of contested shots on well-defended possessions.

Now, as much as people like to blame poor defense on one or two guys, it’s a team effort and it’s only as good as the weakest link in the chain (and that varies possession by possession.) It’s a game of effort and focus that is taxing and stressful, but it’s what wins basketball games.

NC State needs to focus on stopping the drive. They did not do a good job of keeping the guards out of the lane and creating havoc. There was too much reaching from the NC State guards, which led to blow-bys. The bigs were too slow and too soft on the hedge on ball screens, which led to drives, which led to helpside defense, which led to late rotations, which led to easy buckets.

This team has the athletes to be absolutely smothering defensively.They are big, strong, long and quick, and if they can start focusing more on positioning and less on reaching, this could be one of the most dangerous teams in the nation.

Overall. This game was a positive for NC State. This showed them that offensively they can compete with anyone in the country. This game should also show them that they have a lot of work to do on defense. Great pressure and perfect rotations may not have even stopped Creighton on this night. They weren’t missing. But few altered shots in the paint, a few more hands in the face on 3s and the game momentum may have fallen a bit different.  However, just remember, it’s still November and this team has only faced their first realcompetitionn…and came out looking pretty darn good.

Up next is St. Joseph’s, today at 6pm on CBSSN.