NC State got back on track by taking out St. Joseph’s 73-63 in their Paradise Jam finale.
The Pack got off to a slow start but got back on track thanks to sharp shooting from Torin Dorn, Terry Henderson, and Dennis Smith Jr. The 3 guards led the way with a combined 58 points and were outstanding beyond the arc, going 17-34.
St. Joe’s came out hot, but simply couldn’t handle the Wolfpack athletes. State was just too quick and too strong at the guard position. Once again, however, there was a glaring weakness in the paint for the Pack. Abu did have 12 points and 10 boards, and he is not to blame. The blame falls on the fact that Kapita and Yurtseven both not being able to compete. In their absence, Anya played 16 minutes, had 3 points, 2 boards, and 2 blocks. Simply put, NC State needs more out of this position if they want to be a contender. There really was no reason that St. Joe’s should have beaten the Wolfpack on the boards like they did (43-33), and no reason that teams in this tournament should have been as successful in the paint as they were. I think the added competition for the two spots in the post is going to make NC State a much better, more well-rounded ball club in the near future.
Aside from lapses on defense and poor rebounding, this was a good win for NC State. They were able to show that they could bounce back from a loss. It was close down the stretch so it challenged the guy to close out a game when a team makes a late run. It also was another game under the belt for this young team who seems to be just giving us glimpses of what they might soon become.
Along with all of those positives in this tournament was the play and emergence of Dennis Smith Jr.(who was named to the All-Tournament team) We finally are seeing him shake off the rust and start to play aggressive. We are seeing just how good he can be when he decides to take control. For instance, he’s just as dangerous a finisher, as he is a passer. This creates a major problem for teams on the break and off the ball screen. You put defenders into a choose your poison positions. See below.
With Smith coming alive, Henderson finding his stroke, and Dorn and Abu putting up steady gaudy stat lines, this Wolfpack teams looks like it’s about a month away from reaching it’s full form. And when that happens, we are in for a treat.
Next up is Loyola on Saturday at 4pm at the PNC.
I disagree with Wolfer96. We already knew that Gottfried is a horrible in-game coach. Maybe when the team gels, they can disregard him completely and dominate in spite of him.
Let me temper my opinion. It’s based on him giving me a heart attack each year with recruiting.
What I learned from this tourney is that we have lots and lots of talent but Gottfried is a horrible in-game coach. He failed to take advantage of the whistle happy refs. Instead his kids jacked up a bunch of jumpers. The avg fan could not name one guy on any of these other teams. We have the guys the press is talking about so we need to do better. Better on D and smarter on offense.
Dennis has to realize that he controls his own destiny. He can play himself into #1 pick in the NBA draft or #15. During this tourney when he keyed in on defense he was really good. At other times he wasn’t engaged and left his man wide open on the perimeter or gave his man an open lane to the basket. What takes him from #15 to #1 is that all out effort on D to match his offense.
My pick for consistent effort in this tourney would be either Markell or Torin. Markell played hard on defense for most of the tourney while Torin provided consistent scoring and did all the little things. Really like these 2 players. Torin’s defense has been a little suspect but then he is playing out of position a lot of times so I guess he gets a pass.
It’s crazy the streakiness this team has from the perimeter. Last game Torin could not miss and before that Terry was on fire. Hopefully as the season progresses we don’t have to rely on just one person getting hot from outside. Need more balanced scoring.
Only saw the 2nd half but Dennis played like he should have played all tourney. He was aggressive. He was driving to the rim. It doesn’t matter that he scores every time. The point is that with dribble penetration it causes the defenses to collapse and that opens up other guys or gets Dennis to the FT line. Can’t believe it took the last game for Gott to figure this out. We should have won it all.
What happened to the start time? I saw that it was scheduled for 7pm but when I tuned in the 2nd half was starting.