I was wrong.
I thought this matchup was a good one for NC State. I watched a lot of Creighton this year and to me, they looked like a team that NC State could roll over. Let me explain why.
I knew a few things. I knew Nembhard was a PG that could get a little out of control if sped up. I knew with a little defense and physicality, Sheierman could be made uncomfortable. I knew Kalkbrenner was a good defender but was going to sink on the pick-and-roll to protect the basket.
Joiner’s pull up just wouldn’t fall
I figured that Joiner, the pull-up king would be taking that DJ Burns screen, getting to the middle, and pulling up as Kalkbrenner sank. I figured Smith would exploit this as well. Well, turns out Joiner was off and couldn’t get his pull-up game going and Smith, well yeah Smith did exploit this pretty well.
Burns didn’t look like Burns
The other thing I’d figure would happen is that I thought DJ Burns would really frustrate Kalkbrenner. If you’ve looked at games where Kalkbrenner had to face a really good, physical back-to-the-basket big man, those bigs usually had pretty good games in the scoring column. I honestly don’t understand what happened to Burns in this one. Sure he got a few stupid early fouls, but before he even picked up a foul he looked out of it. With no double teams coming, Burns is usually calculated, slowly backing you down and hitting you with a flurry of head fakes, pump fakes or spins. If the big doesn’t bite, Burns can fade away, go with a contested hook shot, or pass out.
In this game, Burns looked sped up for some reason. The first time he got the ball he quickly backed in and threw up a hook that rattled out. Not awful, but usually you see him probe a little more. Then the next time he didn’t even look for contact, instead, he threw up a little floater that didn’t fall. While neither were awful shots, both were uncharacteristic of Burns. On top of those things, he looked absolutely gassed within minutes of coming in. My guess is that it was the altitude, but either way, it took a toll on him.
Whatever it was, it had him frustrated and he had two really bad fouls where he just shoved Kalkbrenner (he also had a phantom foul that was ridiculous). That said, it just wasn’t his night and this made NC State a lot more one-dimensional.
Casey Morsell came to play, but this NC State roster just wasn’t built to get a guy like him going, which is a shame. Jarkel Joiner was a huge reason why NC State got to where they got. His scoring ability, his speed and his toughness and leadership skill were huge. But Joiner is a scoring guard, and great basketball teams need POINT guards.
What is a point guard, and why can’t we have one?
A point guard isn’t just a guy who dribbles it down. It’s a guy who understands the games within the games. Guys who dictate pace, call plays (sets) and are essentially coaches on the floor. NC State and Kevin Keatts never had that this season, and while you can get a long way with scoring guards and good big men, you’ll never compete for anything of worth until you prioritize the skill set of a true point guard. I think that has been NC State’s problem for years, and I find it kind of insane that coach after coach falls into this idea of having a scoring guard play as a PG for more offense to get on the court.
This is no shot at Jarkel, either. The guy was one of my favorite players to watch on this team, but it just is what it is. He is a scoring guard who happens to be slotting in at PG. When you see Keatts bring in a guy whose priority is getting his guys open and dictating pace, then you can start to believe that this program may be close to arriving. Until then, sneaking into the tournament and hoping guys get hot hands is as good as it gets.
Look at Kihei Clark (Virginia’s PG). I know it’s not a great time to be talking about Clark, whose errant pass ended up losing the game for Virginia on Thursday, but look at Clark’s build.5’10, 170lbs. Look at his stats. Mid-30s shooting % from 3. Hight 70s from the FT line. The guy is nothing special when it comes to the numbers, but he’s a leader and he distributes the basketball to the right guys at the right time. Tony Bennett has started Clark for 4 years despite the fact that he’s coaching a team that is always in the running to win the ACC and won a national championship less than 5 years ago. He could replace Clark with an elite, tall, athlete at any moment. But he doesn’t. Why? Because he understands what I’m talking about. It’s a puzzle that coaches need to put together, and one piece of that puzzle is a guy like this.
I was wrong about this game. I thought things would play out differently. They didn’t. I’m not blaming anyone in particular, but the makeup of this team vs. the makeup of teams that play deep into March are different. Maybe this is step one to getting there. We’ll have to see how the roster shapes up next season.
Noon game today. I have no idea what to expect other than our team putting out full effort. As was said, if we hit a decent number of 3s and are respectable on the boards, we’ll probably have a shot.
I was at the game and noticed T not playing help defense. Mahorcic apparently also noticed and chewed his butt out while running back down court, then turned and gave him some more. I was thrilled, we have been defense optional for so long, it’s about time a player or coach demanded someone play defense. This team has a ton of potential, but only if they play as a team and on both sides of the ball.I like the new assistant coaches and new teammates, but the leader of the team has to lead.
Nice!
These upperclassmen holding the younger players accountable could make a world of difference. Never under estimate the power of peer pressure.
Your handle got me thinking. I have been a Pack fan for 53 years now. Definitely seen the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Anyway, I don’t think we have the horses to run and gun with Kansas, mainly because I still worry about rebounding…..
I know I have been consuming massive quantities of alcohol here in Key West, but Gantt wasn’t in the box score at all. did I miss something? Or did I kill those brain cells?
I believe Gantt still isn’t back to 100% game shape yet.
All of us saw it and PI just confirmed the defensive flaws and offensive difficulty with the zone. Of course the coaches saw it,too. Let’s hope this new staff is better at fixing things, and quickly.
Really appreciate this generally positive take. This is where PI shines. Great analysis on T Smith’s defense. I noticed it as well, but hadn’t realized that so many of those defensive lapses were caused by him. I’m really surprised DJ hasn’t played better than he has. Based on what we are seeing in the games, the decision to start Dusan (which initially I was surprised about) was an easy call for the coaches. They both like to play physical so we’re probably going to need all of those 10 fouls. We need to see that POY start showing up in… Read more »
Glad we scheduled a zone team to give us some good game film to work with.
Now we have to focus and ratchet up intensity. We can be the feisty underdog this time.
Good point. Let’s see how these guys respond as the (God I hope they’re feisty) underdog.