NC State UNC breakdown
February 19, 2009 by admin
Filed under NC State Basketball Blog
NC State falls to UNC 89-80 on Wednesday night in Chapel Hill at the Dean Dome. This marks an outstanding 17-1 record for Roy Williams against the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack and Javi came out swinging in the first half, playing solid defense and hitting key shots on offense. The Wolfpack were down 39-36 at half time. Then came the second half, a classic UNC moment and a blow out to say the least, shooting at about 65% and having 1 turnover UNC plowed through the Wolfpack scoring 50 points. NC State battled back about midway through the second half and cut the lead down to 6, but UNC just kept coming at the Wolfpack and extended its lead to 19. The Wolfpack were able to battle back with a few 3 pointers and bring it to 9 before the game ended. NC State dropped to 4-7 in the ACC.
Random NC State-UNC Game Stats
Free Throw % - NCSU(42%), UNC(87%)
3-pointer % - NCSU(55%), UNC(33%)
Points of turnovers - NCSU(9), UNC(28)
Second Chance Points - NCSU(4), UNC(16)
Whats going wrong?
- The Officials at the UNC game, Jamie Luckie, Ed Corbett, Mike Eades. I hope to never see them again, horrible job.
- Ferg and T-bone(Johnny Thomas) haven’t seen a minute in the past few ACC games, I think this should see a bit of rotation from the help they have given earlier this season.
- Trouble stopping the play makers, once again knowing that Hansborough and Lawson were going to run the show, they still did and scored 44 on us combined. Lowe has to be able to control the play makers.
- Make free throws, no reason we should be under 70% from the line. Shooting 40% from the line is completely unacceptable and goes directly back to coaching and practice.
Whats going right?
- Javi is stepping up huge for us, posing such a threat as to stop the full court press. His scoring is becoming more confident but still needs to watch his turnovers, had 5 against UNC.
- Tracy Smith is playing great, using his size and agility he went 7-12 from the floor and had 6 rebounds.
- Scoring, in the past 4 ACC games the Wolfpack have put up 80+ points, this is largely due to the recent heavy contributions from Smith, Javi, Williams, and Fells.
Whats next?
NC State will take on Virginia, in what I am calling a MUST WIN game. The game will take place in the RBC Center on Saturday at 1 pm. Virigina has just come off of two key wins against Clemson and VA Tech. They are sitting just below NC State in the ACC Standings at 3-8.
NC State Fans, keep up with the latest Wolfpack Journal blog, subscribe to our RSS feed.
Pack_Attack 3000 on Thu, 19th Feb 2009 8:30 am
“They are who we thought they were.” We played hard and are showing drast improvements, which I really like. I was hoping we would make it hard for them, and we did. Javi is definitely showing up and T. Smith showed he is not scared to go up against anybody. UNX is playing better each game (which sux for anybody not a fan) and looked to play one of their best games yet. 2nd half - 50 points and NO TURNOVERS? Wow. A good way to look at, they had their A game (again), we had our B+ game, and we were within 10 points even after some questionable calls in Chapel Hill. Just food for thought.
The Good:
We played hard and our point guard play is really starting to step up. Our young guns (Javi and Williams) are showing good bball IQ and even better aggressiveness, which is awesome. Combine that with a hopeful J. Thomas and we have ourselves a solid block to build around. T. Smith, again, is playing much better. Our defense was adequate at best, but what can you expect when going into shit-town against arguable the best team in the land.
The Bad:
Some people have complained that we have to double down on T.H. and slow their speed. My response: Ellington, Green, Lawson. Whoever doubles down leaves their opposing man open, hense my three enemies stated above, all shoot over 50% from behind the arc. There in lies your answer, and Sids gameplan, he HAS to give Big Ben a chance to shut him down, which he has had trouble with the past couple times. Turnovers still get us. Costner fell asleep after being benched for far too long - surprised? T. Smith is much improved, but if teams figure out he cant shoot free throws, he will not be half as effective as he could be. Unfortunately, UNX has weapons at the 1-5, including maybe 6,7,and 8. Which are more talented than us at the 1-5..6..7..8, and also had some help from the refs. (Yes I said it, and if you disagree you’re bitch-blue glasses need to get smacked off.) We lost to a more talented better coached team - suprised?
The Outlook:
5 games left, all winable, which should tell us a lot about this team. I think we can solidify ourselves as an NIT solid team as of now. Barring any (unfortunately plausible) collapse, the Pack should be sitting at a good seed going into the post-season. Now, being the optimistic I am, I am looking at the ACC (with the strong out-of-conference play by everyone) to get 6-8 teams in the big dance. It is hopeful that we win at least 4 of our last 5 games putting us at 8-8 going into the ACC tourney and 18-11 total. Those OOC games we squandered really cost us, just one more win and I feel a lot more confident, but as we sit now, we would really have to make some noise in the ACC tourney to even get a snif as a bubble team. Nonetheless, lets talk hopeful hypotheticals - win 4 of the last 5, sitting at 18-11, make a run to the championship game to get us at 21-11, that would surely put us ahead of Miami, VT, and Maryland to maybe squeeze a bid. Here’s to hoping Sid can conjure up some Cardiac magic for Big Ben, Fells, and possibly Costners last years.
Go Pack!