Quick Hits: From NC State’s ugly loss to UNI

This was not pretty. NC State, coming off a huge win over #2 Arizona, fell to Northern Iowa 64-60 in the semifinals of the ‘Battle 4 Atlantis.” Here are some of our quick hits from the game.

• State looked mentally and physically drained from their win over Arizona.
• The offense was bad. Shot only 33.8% from the floor and 26.7% from beyond the arc. Turned the ball over 14 times.
• Forced only 11 turnovers and allowed UNI to dictate the pace of the game.
• UNI’s pack line defense flustered the Wolfpack as it closed off all driving lanes and forced them into jump shots. (NC state better learn to play against this defense if they want to beat Virginia later this season)
• Yurtseven, Abu and Freeman shot 11-19 (58%). Rest of the team shot 11-46 (24%). Why in the world NC State wasn’t ramming it down UNI’s throat is beyond me. They had a clear advantage but chose to continue settling for jump shots. This, in our opinion, is where the game was lost.

Really, there isn’t much to say here. NC State looked tired, both physically and mentally. The focus just wasn’t there in this one. They couldn’t knock down shots and couldn’t get stops when they needed to.

The story in this game was certainly the fact that the Pack refused to force feed their bigs. They were winning the battle on the blocks, but they weren’t getting touches. Had they done this, UNI would have been forced to make decisions on collapsing down to double, at which point NC State would have been able to play inside-out and get some clean looks.

This is one to wipe away and learn from. Next up is Tennessee today at 2:30pm on ESPN2.