WOLFERETTI: NC State just took an unprecedented beatdown from #24 Louisville, how do they recover from this?

The case of the Mondays doesn’t hit so hard when you have a Wolfpack game looming that evening.

But wow, was last night a huge letdown or what? An absolute punch to the gut that the Wolfpack didn’t seem ready for.

Basketball is interesting because there are so many games within the game. For instance, what is the mindset of the players coming into a game? Are they feeling invincible after a big stretch of wins? Or are they unsatiated and starving for more?

Part of that mindset is on the coach.

What tone do you approach the game with? What is the message heading into the game? How do you keep a team riding high, grounded, and in kill mode?

Wade misread it all tonight and he was the first to tell you…

That’s on me as the coach. I mean, look, I didn’t have us prepared. I didn’t have us as ready as I thought we were, and that’s on me. It’s not on those guys. You know, those guys for the most part try to do what we ask them to do, and I didn’t have a very good plan, and I didn’t have a very good pulse of our group tonight.

If you’re wondering what this means, in my opinion, nothing.

Coaches aren’t perfect, and sometimes, just like a player, they have an off night.

Tonight, Wade had an off night, and Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey was ‘on.’ He hit all the right buttons.

I think context is important here before you jump to any judgment.

NC State is coming off a 6-game winning streak, which saw them upset #18 Clemson on the road, beat Wake on the road, and upend a very good SMU team on the road.

They were riding high.

Meanwhile, Louisville was in desperation mode. They were 7-4 in the conference coming in, and with a loss, would have fallen to 7-5, dropping them to 8th in the ACC.

Now, I think it’s worth remembering that this Louisville team was picked preseason to be a TOP-10 team in the country. Heck, some national analysts believed this team was going to be better than Duke.

Mikel Brown Jr., the kid who just torched us for 45 points. He was on the Wooden Award Watch-List this season, which is the award for the best player in the nation. Obviously, he was listed as one of the frontrunners for freshman of the year. He was seen coming into the season as one of the best shooters in his class. He was the #8 player in the class and the #1 PG.

Yet, Brown entered this NC State game shooting under 30% from 3pt range, and only recently began to find his stroke.

Add all of that to the fact that Pat Kelsey had been having ‘football practices’ with his team to attempt to toughen them up. According to ESPN, they were practicing with no fouls being called, forcing his guys to play through contact if they wanted to score.

That worked.

NC State was shellshocked from the opening tip.

Louisville was so physical with the guards, and the cutters, and … well, everyone. They weren’t giving an inch, and NC State simply wasn’t up to the challenge of matching that. That led to the Pack shying away from contact and settling for contested jumper after contested jumper.

This was on the players, and this was on Wade, and it’s probably good that they get a real big, obvious smack in the face to wake them up before this final stretch.

I’d expect a very physical showing at home vs. Miami on Saturday.

If we don’t see one, then I think it’d be ok to worry at that point.

But let’s be honest about this team

This team is overachieving. I think it’s clear that Wade believes he had a few misses in the portal with this group. He explained that in his radio show a couple of weeks ago.

Here is what he said…

“I mean, you wanna keep as many as you can that are good players that fit what you do. You don’t want to let the good ones run out. But I mean, at the same time, you have a budget, you can’t overpay for some guys. I suspect we’ll keep a couple off this team.It won’t be a third of the roster, I wouldn’t think.”

“We have a very clear vision of what we need to do moving forward. And, we know what fits and what we need to do, but, a lot of it is also just timing. And you got the draft process, you got a lot of different factors that you need to balance. And so, we did a solid job this year, but, you know, we were scrambling a little bit and we had a good plan, but we have much more time this time around, and our hit rate will go way up.”

By the time Wade was announced, he assembled his entire staff, and they were able to get to work, teams were already way down the line with their targets. And while I think this staff really believed they had great pieces, I don’t think the overall fit was exactly what they wanted.

So, I think what I’m trying to say here is that this team isn’t perfect.This isn’t a team that’s going to be able to be on cruise control at any point this season.

It’s going to be a slog. It’s taken the staff being very hands-on and very involved to get this team to where they are. And I think right now, as fans, it’s important to recognize this context.

But it’s ok. And let me let you in on a secret…

It’s ok to ride high highs and low lows if you can handle it.

You don’t have to be some boring fan who is scared to get hyped up when you do something great because you’re worried about this type of letdown.

It happens.

So, let that crap go. Stop being so self-conscious. You’re a fan of a basketball team that you have no control over. These types of losses happen to everyone.

Gonzaga, the #12 team in the country, lost to Michigan by 40 earlier this season. It’s part of the game sometimes.

Look, NC State just got whooped by a team that experts believe to have Top-10 talent, on their home court. It was painful and ugly, and it was hard to watch. But it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

The real test is how they respond, and all you can ask is for your coach to be fully aware of that as he prepares you for the next test.

These are the moments why you pay a top-tier coach. The management of 18-21-year-olds who have just been embarrassed on national TV. What is the message to them that motivates them and puts them back on track? Hit the right tone, and you’re back rolling. Miss the mark, and it can snowball.

Lucky for us, Wade seems to be well aware of his task at hand…

“We’re still an NCAA tournament team. Won a lot of games. We’ve got to find a way to be better on Saturday against Miami. It’s not like the season ends tonight. You know, it’s one loss. I mean, it’s an embarrassing loss. It’s a terrible loss. You know, it’s poor. But it’s one loss. It’s not like you get three losses for tonight. We probably should, but you don’t.” said Wade in the post game presser.

“We can find a way to move forward, and I think we’ll be judged on how we respond and how we move forward from here. Our team’s been good with that all year, and hopefully we’ll continue to do that.”

So let’s just settle down, flush this one, and get back behind these guys for the stretch run.