NC State falls to #3 Virginia 68-51

If there was one game that you could pinpoint on the NC State schedule that you’d look at and say “Yeah, that’s going to be a problem” it was this one at Virginia.

An inexperience NC State team going up against one of the most well-coached, physical teams in the country. It ended as many expected, with the Wolfpack falling 68-51.

Keatts explained what Virginia was going to do, they saw it on film, and then Virginia did it. The Cavaliers used their pack line defense to hold the Wolfpack to 41% from the field and only 12% from long range.

Even though both teams turned it over 15 times and NC State won the battle of the boards 27-26, it wasn’t enough. They couldn’t stop UVA from knocking down shots. Virginia shot an outstanding 56% from the floor and an even better 57% from 3 point range. Nothing else really mattered.

State had a few runs where they were getting after it in the press, but the inability to knock down shots and stop Virginia led to a lopsided loss for Keatts and company.

There isn’t really much else to say. This was Virginia executing their gameplan on their home floor. If it teaches NC State anything, it should be toughness. The Cavaliers put on a clinic on physicality that the Pack simply could not match.

NC State has a very important 3 game stretch coming up in which they will take on Wake Forest and Miami at home, before heading to Pitt. These are 3 winnable games that will be very important come March.

The Pack needs to just learn from this one and move on.