I’ll admit it, I was nervous about this game. I thought after a couple tough road wins and a meeting with #25 FSU coming up this weekend, this team might overlook BC a bit. I also thought that this BC team was dangerous and if they got hot early, the Pack would be in trouble. Robinson and Bowman are one of the ACC’s most dangerous backcourts and Robinson is coming off one of the more amazing scoring streaks I’ve seen in this league. He was averaging nearly 33 points in his team’s previous 4 games, shooting 65% from the floor and 48% from 3pt range. When NC State went scoreless for 5 minutes and had already committed 6 turnovers, I thought I was witnessing my worst fear. I’m glad I was wrong.
Keatts has proven it at this point. This team will compete regardless of opponent or circumstance. As he said in his postgame presser, he can’t remember one game where he didn’t think they gave great effort. Sure, this was a home game, but this team is also winning on the road which is something NC State teams of the past had struggled with. All of this bodes well for successful March basketball.
Braxton Beverly has found his shot. Not sure if you’re aware or not, but the freshman PG is 14-23 (61%) over the last 5 games. He came to NC State known as an elite shooter and after some early struggles, he is getting into a rhythm. He and Markell Johnson are proving to compliment each other really well.
Sam Hunt has been on fire. Hunt was struggling with his shot in ACC play, but he found it against Syracuse and since then he’s gone 10 for his last 13 (77%) from long range (he went 4-4 in this one). I can’t explain just how huge this is for the Pack. This gives them more depth and gives them another weapon from 3pt range. Hunt is the kind of guy whose skill-set is really amplified by a guy like Markell Johnson who does a great job of driving, drawing and dishing.
He didn’t have a huge game in the box score, but Malik Abu is coming along. He has played a lot harder and a lot more physical over the past 2 games, and he’s slowly working his way into more minutes for this team. He’s been a lot more aggressive to the rim and his defense has been much better as of late. They will need Abu clicking on all cylinders if they want to make noise in March.
State was beaten on the glass pretty badly. There really is no reason that BC should beat you on the glass. There is REALLY no reason they should beat you on the offensive glass. The Pack came in with a big advantage on the offensive boards and BC handed it to them 20-4.
Too many turnovers. 16 giveaways isn’t going to sit well with Kevin Keatts, especially when Markell Johnson had 7 of those and Dorn had 5. I do think Markell came out a little overconfident in this game, and it led to a lot of lazy passes early on.
Boston College ended up taking 76 shot to NC State’s 52. That’s crazy, but that goes to show you what happens when you allow offensive boards and turn the ball over. NC State is usually the team doing these things to get more possession, but in this one, they had to take their own medicine. They’re just lucky they defended pretty well and BC was just struggling to knock down shots.
Next up is #25 FSU on Sunday night. Another home game and another chance to bolster the resume. A win here and NC State is in. I don’t care what numbers you want to look at, RPI, BPI, whatever. Another Top 25 win, the 20th win and 10th win in the ACC WILL be good enough to dance.