#7 NC STATE vs #2 SYRACUSE Preview (ACC Tournament Edition)

Time: 7:00 pm
TV: ACCN, ESPN
Announcers:

Survive and Advance. That’s exactly what the Pack did last night by hanging on until the final 2 minutes and then pulling away at the end. The Pack showed something at the end of the game that they’ve lacked all season, mental toughness. After the Pack gave up the lead they buckled down and played smart ball and executed very well down the stretch. Now, the Pack gave up the lead because of mental breakdowns with inbounding, lazy passes, completely losing their men on defense, so don’t take this as they’ve turned any corner but it appears they were able to collect themselves and finish the game which is something they haven’t done often this year.

Miami Recap:

The Pack once again struggled on defense, giving up 44% Offensive Rebounding, making a team who struggles to shoot the ball effectively to make it look so dang easy, and many times players completely losing track of their man. The ironic part is it was their ability to cause TO’s that was a big factor in the win tonight.

Miami pushed, shoved, and grabbed Warren all night long and while it slowed him down he was still a monster out there but he needed help and it came in the form of Ralston Turner who was en fuego at times. Turner will never be uttered by anyone as a defensive player so his ability to score last night helped because as great as Warren is someone, several someones, need to be able to put the ball in the basket.

Survive and Advance to Friday night for a rematch against the Orange. I’m not going to rehash the end of game, there are enough threads on the site for that, what I’m going to cover first is what happened during the rest of the 39:45 of the game.

Syracuse Review:

NC State came in with a great gameplan to beat the Orange and it worked…sort of. The Orange only play 5 guys, yes a 6th man plays about 15 minutes but when you get down to it there are only 5 guys really involved, so no fresh legs coming in to spell or give them a shot in the arm of energy from the bench. The Pack was able to make it difficult for the Orange to score, holding them to a sub-100 ORtg, forcing bad shots, and limiting their offensive rebounding. On top of that they were able to effectively minimize Fair and Ennis by holding them to 20 pts collectively and both to a sub-80 ORtg. The Pack failed on offense though. They got a great game from Washington and Turner provided some help, while Warren was having an average day by his standards. Usually that would be enough to win but Syracuse is a Top 10 team and everyone needs to contribute, especially when scoring even if it’s only 6-8 points. So what was the unknown in the game that had a serious impact on the final outcome? Rakeem Christmas. Christmas not only doesn’t score much per game but he doesn’t even look to shoot each game, usually about 6 ppg from about 4 shots. The Pack had no answer for Christmas who appeared to be shooting into a basket twice as large as everyone else. Add on top of it he was a monster on the boards and seriously effected the Pack’s inside game. When Christmas wasn’t blocking shots he was altering them and for a team who gets their points from 2 ft in that explains a lot.

Friday’s Matchup

Congrats Pack, you’re effectively secured yourself a bid in the NIT by beating the Canes. Beating the Orange won’t get you into the tournament but you’ll be a lot closer to the bubble. If you can go out there and execute the same gameplan as last time except this time come up with an answer to Christmas, maybe box him out with Anya while the Pack is on offense. I’m begging everyone to please help Warren out, he can’t do it alone. Also, please try and focus for the full 40 minutes.

ADVANTAGE

Predictor
Because the Pack has gotten exactly what they’ve needed so far in seeding and matchups in order to give them the best chance of making the bubble, I predict NCStateShit happens tonight. We’ll see it. It’ll come in some form and everyone will recognize it for what it is.

KenPom likes the Orange by 7.

About 1.21 Jigawatts

Class of '98, Mechanical Engineer, State fan since arriving on campus and it's been a painful ride ever since. I live by the Law of NC State Fandom, "For every Elation there is an equal and opposite Frustration."

13-14 Basketball

Home Forums #7 NC STATE vs #2 SYRACUSE Preview (ACC Tournament Edition)

Viewing 17 posts - 276 through 292 (of 292 total)
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  • #46378
    TheAliasTroll
    Participant

    best player on the floor VS best team on the floor along with their coach of the year blowing folks out every turn of the season… yeah I’m not as confident as you are.

    We have a better chance of taking out Duke than taking out Clemson and then UVA.

    #46379
    hpack
    Participant

    If we somehow find our way to the finals, we’ll win!

    #46382
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    I don’t have much confidence in taking out Duke. We’ll see tomorrow, it looks.

    #46384
    MrPlywood
    Participant

    Upon further review of the Yakety Sax vid, Grant did State a favor by trying to make a statement on the follow dunk. That was very makeable, then they are down 1 with 18 seconds to go. But I’ll take the banked 3 and the botched dunk followed by 5 wild threes. Credit to State for the good defense and not fouling on that sequence, credit to the refs for not “seeing” a foul.

    Big ups to the Vandwagon, he played huge today. Only 1 block was credited but he altered more than that.

    #46386
    Texpack
    Participant

    Vandy made TWO non-dunk field goals!

    #46396
    JeremyH
    Participant

    Lunardi has us as “next 4 out”. I have to think that gives us *some* chance with no additional wins

    #46397
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    I’m cool with MG in a tourney setting. This is 3 ACCT semifinals in 3 tries, yes? Our guys’ body language is good. We have turned our maybe 2-3% chance of dancing into maybe 15-20%. That’s pretty good work.

    Yes, a win over Duke gets us in. The difference between us and the MAXIMUM 7-10 (I think we are “last 4 out” personally) bubble denizens “in front” is paper thin. Beating Duke sets us apart (4th Top 50 win, 2nd Top 25), nobody else but Providence has even a shot at doing something comparable.

    If we lose, we can argue about whether we are a 1 or 2 seed in the NIT.

    #46401
    JeremyH
    Participant

    So who gets to guard Parker? : )
    Why is Duke always in our way? Its typically us trying to get in and them jockeying for seeding, with them having more rest. (By them I’m lumping UNC and Duke together : ) Its unfortunate this last one isn’t quite enough yet.

    #46402
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    I think we have to put Le Nard on Parker, and play him heavy minutes.

    #46403
    wufpup76
    Keymaster

    So who gets to guard Parker?

    ^I’d honestly stick Des on him and immediately double any of his post-ups.

    Limit their transition, limit their easy looks, rebound the ball, make them execute half court offense and hit contested jumpers that are not in flow of the offense. Easier said than done, for sure.

    It’d be nice to be able to attack them in transition and get some foul calls, but who am I kidding with that? When’s the last time anyone won a ref battle with Duke? 🙂

    #46404
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    We could also just have KH eat him during pregame warmups.

    Vandy has had his two best games of 2014 back-to-back. Never would have believed it, just an astounding turn around. Like the switch Hipster Cat flips after halftime of late…

    #46405
    wufpup76
    Keymaster

    I think we have to put Le Nard on Parker, and play him heavy minutes.

    This, too. My thinking with Des is to limit his perimeter looks and mitigate drives, then contain him in the post.

    #46406
    wufpup76
    Keymaster

    ^^Barber has been sensational the last four games.

    #46408
    JeremyH
    Participant

    ^ I seem to only remember the ball handling gaffes that drive me crazy. But yes he is good on D.

    #46409
    JeremyH
    Participant

    I feel like we need to find a way to rest Warren in the first half. This is where it can start catching up with him.

    #46420
    Fastback68
    Participant

    TJ Warren is like a piece of iron. 40 minutes and keep on going.

    #46429
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    Hipster Cat had one sloppy sequence when he was tired. Otherwise, he was fantastic in the second half.

    I am 99% sure that the play with 40 seconds left was called during the timeout. It was a good idea, we expected them to be surprised and commit a foul, at bare minimum.

Viewing 17 posts - 276 through 292 (of 292 total)
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