TAKEAWAYS: Wolfpack can't solve Orange in ACC Tournament loss
Dreams of NC State men’s basketball making a deep enough run in this year’s ACC Tournament to pull out an NCAA at-large bid ended before they began Wednesday, as the Pack’s stay in Greensboro ended up being a short one with an 89-66 loss to Syracuse.
NC State was simply outplayed on Wednesday as the Orange’s offense overwhelmed the Wolfpack and NC State couldn’t find enough answers for Syracuse’s zone itself.
Here’s a few key takeaways from the defeat:
No answers on defense
In this one, simply put, the Wolfpack could not get stops. Syracuse shot an absurd 57% from the field and 48% from three. A large part of that was the Wolfpack simply playing poor defense and allowing too many open looks from downtown.
But the Orange also seemingly couldn’t miss, hitting plenty of contested, low-percentage shots and even a few right as the shot clock expired.
Five players finished the game in double figures for the Orange, but NC State in particular had absolutely no answer to Buddy Boeheim, as Syracuse’s junior guard shot lights out, putting up 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting and going 6-of-12 from three.
“We surely had some breakdowns, but they made some tough shots,” said Kevin Keatts. I mean, two or three of them were when the shot clock went down. Buddy Boeheim was just raising up making shots, and give that kid credit. … “I told the team before the game, these guys take tough shots and they make tough shots, and they did today.”
Offensive issues
NC State had a good day shooting from behind the arc, finishing 41% in that regard. That’s about the only thing that went right on offense, however, as the Wolfpack shot just 36% from the floor and struggled to solve Syracuse’s zone on a consistent basis. Even when the Pack could work it inside, there were too many missed layups to keep up with the Orange’s blistering offense.
The Pack struggled to take care of the ball in the second half in particular, with seven of its 12 turnovers coming then.
“We just had some guys that didn't play well,” Keatts said. “When you're playing seven guys, out of those seven, we've got to have at least four guys that play really good basketball to put us in a great situation to win. … So I thought we played hard. We didn't always play smart, but when you're down to a limited roster you have to have everything clicking for at least four out of the five guys that you have.”
D.J. Funderburk led the Wolfpack with 14 points and added six rebounds, and he was joined in double figures by Manny Bates (12 points, seven rebounds) and Dereon Seabron (11 points, eight rebounds.
Early struggles, but Pack survives first half
Not much went right for NC State in the first half. Syracuse could not miss, shooting 58% from the field and 43% from three, and knocked down contested jumpers at will. Buddy Boeheim in particular gave NC State fits and could not be stopped, with a whopping 20 first-half points on 8-of-11 shooting.
Other than its own 3-point shooting (60%), NC State struggled to get its own offense going consistently, shooting 42% from the field. Despite all that, NC State found itself down by just five heading to the locker room, largely thanks to its own first-half shooting from long range and a good finish to the half.
At one point after an early media timeout with 12 minutes left in the half, Syracuse was shooting 75% from the field and NC State just 29.
The Pack settled in a bit after the timeout, and Braxton Beverly and Shakeel Moore hit 3s on three straight possessions to make it a five-point game, but the Wolfpack continued to struggle to get stops and get its own offense going consistently.
After Syracuse pushed its lead back to 12 with four minutes and change, however, the Pack closed the half on a 13-6 run, including scoring the final five points heading into the locker room to give itself a fighting chance.
Syracuse slams the door in second half
Any hope of a comeback died a quick death early in a second half that saw Syracuse outscore NC State 46-30.
The Wolfpack looked the opposite of energized by its late first-half surge, however. NC State came out of the locker room looking borderline lethargic, as the team turned it over four times in under four minutes to start the second, and Syracuse scored the first 10 points of the half.
“I thought we came out of the locker room with a lot of energy, but we had two bad turnovers at the beginning of the second half and we kind of played catch-up from that point,” Keatts said. “We never really got a flow of the game. I think the first media timeout, they had scored 14 points and we had scored four in the second half, and that's not a good formula.”
A four-point play for Boeheim put the Pack down 16 with just over 16 minutes to play, and that pretty much wrapped it up as NC State never got within single digits again.
“We wanted to focus on our energy,” Funderburk said. “Other than that, contain Boeheim. He had 20 going into the half, and he ended up with 27, so I feel like we did what we were supposed to as far as containing him. But we let everybody else start to find their shot, and they were just one unit as a team today.”
A disappointing finish, but there’s reason for optimism
While it’s possible the Wolfpack could still end up playing in the NIT, this loss will end any NCAA Tournament pipe dreams, as the Wolfpack likely needed to win two games minimum in Greensboro to have a chance.
This team still deserves to be commended for the way it responded to its blowout loss to Duke on Feb. 13, its fourth in five games after Devon Daniels was lost for the season, but a similar loss in the ACC Tournament is a rotten way for it to end.
The Pack still won five games in a row to close out the regular season and should have built plenty of confidence for the future with the play of its freshman guards (Cam Hayes, Dereon Seabron and Shakeel Moore) in that stretch. Wednesday’s performance is one that will certainly leave a disappointing feeling for everyone involved, but Keatts said he won’t base the season on that.
“I told them after the game, ‘I'm not going to define your season because of this game,’” Keatts said. “‘I'm going to define your season on how hard you worked with the adversity, turning things around’, and told everybody I love them and I'm proud of them, and I am. We win together, we lose together, and that's the entire staff and our players. We're building. Our young guys got so much unbelievable experience.”
Wednesday’s game wasn’t how anyone hoped the 2020-21 season would end, but there’s plenty of reason for hope going forward.