It seemed as if NC State was moving on. It seemed as if St. Louis had no way to mount enough offense to come back from the 16 point deficit that they faced late in the second half. However, NC State fan’s forgot their number 1 rule. Never assume.

St. Louis came alive offensively and NC State seemed to go into shock. The Billikens started fouling NC State at the 2 minute mark in hopes that the Pack would collapse at the line. State clanked FT after FT and then failed to step up on defense. Suddenly, St. Louis was in striking distance. After a few more miscues, St. Louis finally took the lead, forced OT and then won in the extra period. A crushing blow to a Wolfpack team that played well for a majority of this ballgame. Let’s take a deeper look at how this happened:

Billikens Flustered Warren
TJ Warren wasn’t prepared for the physical play of St. Louis, but you shouldn’t blame him. They held, pushed, bumped and disallowed Warren to do what makes him special – move without the ball. While the refs were equally as bad on both sides, they allowed this game to get out of hand and gave the advantage to a team with less talent and more brute. State just wasn’t strong enough and relied to much on the refs to bail them out. Sure, they’re to blame for that, but the soft ACC reffing is also to blame. These guys are coming from a league where even grazing a post player puts them at the line.

Either way, they had Warren flustered. He took too many tough shots, was worn down and just not focused at the free throw line. But can you really blame him? The guy, on a bad night, still went for 28 points and 8 boards while shooting 50% from the field. Had Warren hit his FTs he could have finished with 36 pts and the Pack would have advanced. But even the best, most physically prepared players can only take so much. The kid was gassed. He was the one carrying the offensive and defensive load all season. This was the 5th game in 8 days, in 3 different cities. Warren just didn’t have any more to give. I applaud Warren for all he’s done. He carried this team much further than anyone thought possible and was certainly the most exciting Pack player to watch in my lifetime. Thanks TJ and good luck with your NBA future!

Too Tired and worn down
This was always a factor coming into this game. Sure, these kids are 17 and 18, but their bodies have limits. They have played 5 games in the past 8 days, traveled hundreds of miles, taken red-eye flights, watched tons of film for preparation and were still able to come out night after night and compete at the highest level. Say this is an excuse if you want to but it’s a fact of life. They may have gone above and beyond to even get here, but mentally a young team simply can’t keep going at this level. The ups and downs are exhausting. The amount of focus you need to keep to play at this level is exhausting. It just couldn’t last. This team bent and bent until they broke, but it was an exciting and unexpected run. You should be proud, not disappointed.

Lewis Shows Room for Improvement
Tyler Lewis has so many great things about his game. He’s a floor leader, he controls the pace, finds the open man and is always one step ahead of most everyone else on the court. However last night Lewis was bothered by  bigger, and much stronger defenders. This led to him making passes he wouldn’t normally make, which led to a career high 7 turnovers. We said this last year and we’re going to say it a lot this offseason, but Lewis absolutely needs to get stronger, and by get stronger I don’t mean just lift weights over the offseason. Lewis needs to completely reinvent his body. He needs to become a physical specimen over the offseason if he really wants to be a superstar in this league. Sure, he can play and be very effective in his current shape on most nights, but if NC State is going to become an elite team they’re going to need Lewis to be able to handle any opponent that comes his way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not harping on Lewis, the kid was absolutely amazing and really was one guy that turned this season around. I’m looking to the future and letting you know that if this team wants to be playing well into March there needs to be some physical changes with a lot of guys on this current roster.

Props to Gott
I see some of you on the forums calling for Gott’s head. Saying he let this team fall apart. Please spare us the time. You obviously have zero idea what it takes to play or coach basketball at this level. Instead you should be focusing on the fact that this guy is now 3 for 3 in NCAA Tournament appearances. Sure, the first two years he took great players, brought them together and made very good teams, but this year was different. Remember there were questions about whether Warren would be able to handle the load scoring? Remember when we all were ok with this year being a rebuilding year. I mean, this team had a total of 5 years of ACC experience. Vandy had 3, Warren and Lewis had 1 each. The rest of the team had never played basketball at this level (I guess you could add Turner’s 2 years at LSU). Only 3 of the players had even ever played together before. This team was supposed to finish 10th in the ACC…at best. So now you’re crying because we didn’t make the Sweet 16? Get over yourselves. This team overachieved more than we’ve any Wolfpack team in recent memory. Sure that loss was hard to watch last night, but you should stand up, clap and say thank you to a team that owed you nothing and gave everything.

Something to Build On
Last night’s game was a nice microcosm of whats to come. With Warren looking rather pedestrian for a big chunk of this game, you saw others step up. Turner, Lee and Anya all played big roles and will be huge for the future of this basketball team. With Lewis and Barber returning at the point, Turner and Lee still at the 2 and Washington, Freeman and Anya in the paint, this team has a lot of pieces. Add in huge recruits like Abu and the Martin twins and the Wolfpack is looking like a team that could be competitive again next season. We’ll break down the 2014-15 roster in the coming days.

State will go into the offseason looking to build on what they’ve started this season….Warren is likely gone, but coming in is a very smart, very athletic and skilled recruiting class. We’ll have more on all of this as the postseason progresses.