Wolfpack beat BC, lose to Miami

In the final week of ACC regular season play, NC State took down a hungry BC team at home and lost to a questionable Miami team down in Florida.  The loss to Miami came at the hands of a second half meltdown on both offense and defense for NC State.  The Wolfpack were up by 9 points at the half and blew the lead within the first 4 minutes of the second half.  There was actually a 12 minute stretch when the Wolfpack did not score a single field goal.  Senior Courtney Fells left the BC game with a groin injury at half time and did not play in the Miami game.  Hearing from what Coach Lowe has said, Fells will be playing in the ACC tournament.

NC State finished the regular season at 16-13 overall and a 10th place finish at 6-10 in ACC play.  As it looks today, the Wolfpack will need to win the ACC tournament to get a bid for the NCAA tournament.  This is going to be tough considering the talet in the ACC this year.

What is going wrong?

• Ben McCauley’s shooting slipped up a bit during the Miami game, missed all seven of this FG attempts.
• Looks to me like we missed Fells on defense in that second half, we are going to need him come ACC tournament time.
• 12 minute runs with no offense are completely unacceptable, take high percentage shots and give the ball to the inside.

What is going right?

• Javi is shooting great, sinking 5 of 8 three pointers and scoring 19 against Miami.
• Tracy Smith continues to dominate, with his ninth consecutive game in double figures with 12 against Miami.

What’s next?
Greivis Vasquez and the rest of Maryland, possibly my most hated team besides UNC of course. The hatred stems from a Maryland win against UNCW about 4 years ago in the first round of the NCAA tournament, one that I will never forget. Of course this years Maryland team will not be as successful as that years. We need to stop Vasquez, plenty of teams have shown that stopping Vasquez stops Maryland. Maryland is mostly a outside shooting team that has no big men, aka Tracy/Ben/Brandon better get ready to each put up 15 points and grab plenty of rebounds. The game is schedule for Thursday night at 7pm on ESPN2.

NC State Fans, keep up with the latest Wolfpack Journal blog, subscribe to our RSS feed.