QUICK HITS: From NC State’s sickening 65-62 loss to Cal

NC State was picked to win by 5.5, they lost by 3.

After shooting 42% from 3 in a loss to Virginia Tech, State shot 10% from long range (1-10) tonight in this loss to the ACC’s 16th-best team, Cal.

Jayden Taylor had 18, Hill had 13 and Middlebrooks had 11.

Dontrez Styles scored 0 points in 27 minutes and the PGs,  Mike O’Connell and Breon Pass, combined for zero assists.

Something has to change.

The fans have been screaming for a lineup change, the media outlets have released article after article breaking down the metrics of why there needs to be a lineup change. But NC State keeps rolling out the same group expecting a different result. Those results aren’t coming.

The Pack is now 9-9 and 2-5 in the ACC.

They held Andrej Stojacovic to just 10 points and still lost to Cal, who was 16th in the ACC coming into this game.

We are beating a dead horse, but how we continue to think these lineups are going to suddenly click is beyond me. We lost the rebounding battle again in order to go small. And what did that get you? Styles and Parker Jr at the 4 played 40 minutes combined for 2 points and 8 boards. Why not move these guys to the 3, let their size play, and put the 6’9 Ismael Diouf at the 4? You know, that guy who played ZERO minutes tonight after putting up 7 points in 13 minutes vs. Virginia Tech.

Look, let’s breath some life into this team. Shake things up.

Trey Parker looked great tonight. He came in and played 5 minutes in the first half,4 points and 2 rebounds. He closed out the half and made a great bucket on a spin move. He was finally getting his footing. And how did we nurture this freshman’s confidence building moment?

Bench him for the first 10 minutes of the first half. Give him a random 5 more minutes and then pull him again. It’s insane and I honestly have never seen anything like it. How can any player get comfortable in this system with this disjointed style of minute distribution?

Again, Diouf scores 7 points in 13 minutes vs VT and doesn’t touch the court tonight. He was the #1 pick in Canada’s top basketball league last year. Paul McNeill owns the state of North Carolina’s single-game scoring record with 71 points, but can’t get a minute for NC State.

How is this real?

How do you call a timeout at the end of the game, and call a dump down to Brandon Huntley-Hatfield? A guy with 3 points on the night, fresh off of a shoulder injury and only averaging 6 points per game and struggling with confidence all year long?

And yes, the microscope is certainly on Kevin Keatts. I’m sure he and his staff feel as if the entire fanbase is critiquing their every move. But the buck stops with the coach and Keatts needs to be near perfect in his coaching with this roster.

But that’s on him as well. This roster was put together by this staff, fresh off a Final Four run with unlimited earned media. There is no excuse for the redundancy and the lack of certain skill sets on this roster.

If NC State is going to be good, it’s going to have to be the coaching that gets them over the hump and right now that’s not happening. NC State is now one loss away from being pretty much statistically eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.