Wolfpack smoked by under-manned Notre Dame 88-58

NC State was embarrassed by Notre Dame on Wednesday night 88-58. You’d be sugar coating it if you put it any other way.

The Fighting Irish were without their best player and All-American, Bonzie Colson, for the whole night and without their senior leader (and second leading scorer) Matt Farrell, for the majority of the game. Despite that fact, NC State was dominated in every facet of the game.

Defensively they continued to struggle. They did a poor job of guarding the 3 ball, which really was their biggest job in this one. With Colson out (and then Farrell going down) all they had to do was take away the 3. They couldn’t do it. They constantly got sucked down into no-mans land, between help-side defense and staying with their man, allowing a lot of clean looks from beyond the arc. Hard to explain how it continues to happen, but it does. Notre Dame shot 11-25 for 44% from long range and most of their looks were wide open.

As a team, the Irish shot 52% from the floor. They only turned it over 12 times. But the most disappointing thing we saw was how badly they punished NC State on the boards 41-30.

Now, this is a team that on paper should have never, ever come close to out-rebounding the Pack. They were without their best rebounder (Colson) and the next best guy was averaging 6 per game (Geben). Yet they allowed Geben to double his total and outrebound NC State’s entire frontcourt. Yurtseven, Freeman and Abu combined for 11.

Offensively, NC State is lost. They were always going to struggle here, but against Notre Dame it was beyond brutal. They slowly passed is around the perimeter and settled for contested 3s. They drove wildly, without even a thought of finding the open man, en route to another bad shooting night (37% FG, 33% from 3). Honestly, it wasn’t just them missing shots, it was the type of shots they were settling for. It was a selfish, sloppy brand of basketball that was hard to stomach.

I’m not sure what was said in the final 3 minutes of the game, but finally, they began moving the basketball with a little intent. They found the high-post who quickly kicked it back out and then to the wing, and into the post. It led to an Al Freeman 3, but not much else, however, that is how this team needs to play. They aren’t going to beat anyone with 40 minutes worth of 1 on 1 drives and contested 3 pointers. They need to think the game of basketball, understand that if they want to have any success on offense they need to learn how to move the basketball, shift the defense and then attack. Right now, this team looks like one with no identity and no trust in one another,

You can’t however, put his on Keatts. At least we won’t. The guy has these kids in shape, he’s given them a system, but he doesn’t have the horses. For this system to really thrive he needs interchangeable athletes who can switch on every ball screen and guard multiple positions. He needs long, quick, athletes who can create turnovers with his press. NC State is creating zero offense off of their defense and if that doesn’t happen, the team doesn’t have much of a chance.

While we preach patience for Keatts to get his guys in, we aren’t saying we think this team should just roll over. They might not be able to beat great teams on a consistent basis in this league, but they can and should play a much smarter, much more passionate and physical brand of basketball. Losing to Notre Dame isn’t a red flag, even with Colson and Farrell out, but the brand of basketball on display is a red flag and is honestly inexcusable even this early in ACC play.