OUR TAKE: On NC State’s 72-61 loss to BYU

Let me go ahead and get all this out of the way…

It’s still early in the season and NC State has almost an entirely new roster that needs time to gel. While the losses to BYU and Purdue were frustrating, they aren’t going to hurt you in the long run. NC State still has opportunities against high-end OOC opponents such as Texas and #1 Kansas.

It’s also true that Kevin Keatts just took NC State to the Final Four and won an ACC Tournament title, so he deserves a little time to rebuild before the fanbase jumps on him too hard.

Ok. Those things are all true, but what does that all mean? The fanbase can’t critique or voice their concerns? Look, all winning programs have a “What have you done for me lately?” attitude about them. That’s uncomfortable for some, but that’s just the nature of the beast. If you want to be a winner, you have to live in a world where your standards are always higher than others.

The performance yesterday vs. BYU deserves critique and to his credit, Keatts acknowledged that in his post game press conference last night, after his team fell to BYU 72-61 (but this was a 20pt game for most of the second half).

“We’ve got to grow. I’ve got to get this team connected,” said Keatts. “It starts with me. If there’s anybody to blame, it starts with me and ends with me.”

NC State has a lot of issues right now and while they aren’t playing connected basketball as Keatts pointed out, it’s a culmination of tons of individual mental breakdowns on both sides of the basketball.

How to deal with the lack of 3pt shooting? 

First off, NC State doesn’t have a perimeter shooter they can trust. This was always going to be an issue, but it’s even worse than we thought. Jayden Taylor is a fine spot-up shooter, but his percentage off the dribble is poor. Mike O’Connell can knock down a 3 here and there, but he has to be pretty open to get off a clean 3. Marcus Hill put a wide-open 3-pointer off about 1-foot to the left of the rim, all backboard. That really leaves Tre Parker, Breon Pass and Paul McNeil as the Pack’s best perimeter options.

Pass is shooting it well, but it’s unlikely that would translate if he started increasing volume (which would mean increasing contended attempts). Parker and McNeil are both freshmen and are having big issues transitioning to playing team defense.

Right now Keatts is choosing defense and experience over inexperienced but talented scorers. You can argue either way, but I think this was the right move early on. Let Marcus Hill, Jayden Taylor and Dontrez Styles get a chance to show what they can do and see if the experienced talent can step up and win you games.

So far, not so good.

But the truth is, it’s still early and while these two losses stink, they aren’t losses that will keep you out of the tournament. That said, NC State looks lost, disconnected on D, without a true scorer, and honestly, a little soft.

Well, I think a few things are clear. You’ll get Mike James back, giving you a guy who can get you a little rim pressure and a pretty good shooter (he shot 36% from 3 as a freshman and 34% last year). Aside from O’Connell and Pass, he’d be the best percentage shooter on the team with 5 or more made 3s. So he’ll help.

But NC State needs more than James to fix their problems. They need to get Parker more comfortable as a scorer and they need to get McNeil in a the mix at some level. Both guys have a skillset that NC State is missing right now, but both are raw and come with a learning curve.

NC State getting nothing from the 4 spot

Then you have the 4 spot for NC State which was exposed during the past week. Dontrez Styles is experienced, but is undersized. The trade-off with that is his ability to shoot and spread the floor and take his man off the dribble. Neither of these things are happening. Styles shot 3-12 from the floor over the past two games, was 0-7 from 3pt range and only secured 3 rebounds. He also had 8 fouls total in the two games.

This is a big issue for the Pack. They were murdered on the offensive glass in both games, but when they go big with Middlebrooks and Hatfield, they become too slow and too stagnant on offense. So what is the answer.

I think right now you have to start looking at getting Ismael Diof more minutes. He’s 6’9 and he’s aggressive on the glass. Can he help you on the boards? Can he give you anything close to what Mo Diarra gave you last year? That’s what Keatts needs to find out fast.

The NC State defense needs an overhaul

Then you have the defense, which has always been my biggest critique of Keatts’ teams.

Casey Morsell, who graduated last year, was on the ACC Network Telecast earlier this season explaining how NC State’s Final Four run came after they relaxed the full-court pressure and started using all that length, speed and athleticism in the halfcourt. This conserved energy, and made their half-court defense very hard to score on (and that was with DJ Burns in the middle fully unable to guard the pick and roll).

The hope was that a lesson was learned from that run last year, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case. The defense is constantly out of position, constantly trying to play catchup and basically hoping the offense makes a mistake. This works against lesser opponents but is picked apart by better teams who are willing to make the extra pass. I love defensive intensity, but it needs to be coupled with discipline and strategy. To me, this is the biggest, and easiest adjustment NC State can make.

I’m sure some will argue that this is the hallmark Keatts system, but the one sustained streak of greatness came when he took his players and he put them into a more conservative, slower-paced system that valued possessions and hunted contested shots instead of tips and turnovers.

Next up is another big matchup with Texas on December 4th, where they’ll face start 6’6 freshman , Tre Johnson who is averaging 21ppg and shooting over 40% from 3pt range.