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NC State Basketball

OUR TAKE: On NC State’s nail-biting, yet gutsy win over Notre Dame

Published

11 months ago

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NC State overcame a 10-point deficit to beat Notre Dame 66-65 last night.

Overall, I thought NC State played better, but still has room for improvement.

Let’s dive in…

Marcus Hill is becoming the go-to guy
Hill went for 15, 4 assists, and 3 boards. He was 2-5 from long range, had ZERO turnovers and has solidified himself as a guy that needs to be on the court for Kevin Keatts. He’s been on fire in ACC play and with Mike O’Connell struggling, I think it’s time to wonder if Keatts puts the ball in Hill’s hands a little more against UNC.

Jayden Taylor is on fire
Taylor did an amazing job on defense, frustrating Markus Burton and keeping him out of the lane for the most part.

Taylor finished with 14 points and brought NC State back with three late 3 pointers. He’s now shooting 55% from 3pt range over the past 5 games. He went on a burner like this to start the season last year shooting 48% over the first 9 games.

He did have 4 turnovers though. That’s gotta get cleaned up.

Give Keatts some credit on some of his coaching moves.
You’ve got to give credit where it’s due. Kevin Keatts made some smart moves in this game.

He really called off a lot of the full-court press and had his guys playing a much more compact defense against Burton. This really made ND work for their buckets, and they couldn’t count on Burton to get into space and carve up the Pack like he’s been doing other teams his entire career.

Keatts also played Ben Middlebrooks down the stretch with 4 fouls. Huntley-Hatfield’s defense has just been so bad that’s becoming borderline unplayable.


Keatts stuck with Ben and Ben delivered with great defense and the free throw that ended up winning the game at the end.

Keatts also called a timeout with 30 seconds left and did the unthinkable. After playing over 30 minutes, he pulled Mike O’Connell and he put in Breon Pass. Pass ended up driving and dishing to Middlebrooks with the shotclock winding down. Ben was fouled, hit one and that was the difference in the game.


Still a few things Keatts could fix
The rotation is still wild. Ismael Diouf was the first sub to come into the game. He played 5 minutes in the first half and was never heard from again. He finished with 2 points and 2 rebounds. Not bad at all, so why did he disappear?

Why did Dennis Parker Jr. play only 9 minutes, with 3 points, 2 rebounds and a block, finishing at +9 on the game?

Why are we still having our bigs hard hedge out in the middle of nowhere, creating a huge amount of space in the paint for drives or rolls?

Mike O’Connell finished with 32 minutes, 5 points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds. Despire playing 32 minutes and NC State winning by 1, O’Connell finished at -7.

Meanwhile, Breon Pass finished at +6, 16 minutes, 3 points 2 steals, 4 assists and 2 rebounds. It’s time Pass starts eating into MOC’s minutes. The kid is shooting  53% from long range. He’s gotta find more floor time.

Next up is UNC this Saturday at 4pm.

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