My Take

[sutomcat]

I think that was one of the crazier games I have ever seen. Wild runs by both teams, SU getting as hot as they ever have at times and as cold as they ever have at others.

NC State has some nice pieces but I don't think a team that plays defense as poorly as they do is going to win a lot of games in conference, even in a relatively weak conference like the ACC. Glad they were able to fill their arena to see their team get manhandled...it is good for them to get used to losing to Syracuse and getting out-cheered in their own facility. I like the way they put students near the court on the sidelines. Hope that maybe someday being in the ACC will help facilitate us doing the same thing with our student section. Probably will never happen because of the $$$ impact, but it would be nice to improve our home court advantage.

I wasn't impressed with the Wolfpack defense. From my perspective, NC State let everyone except maybe Triche shoot from the outside whenever they wanted. They tried to zone us in the first half. Didn't work very well, especially with a lame zone that left people open for 3s and let people drive inside (with no help coming) whenever an SU player wanted).

They went man later in the half, which I think kind of helped them in that SU started spreading the court against it and going one on one, which hurt the flow of the offense and maybe the energy we were playing with on defense. At one point, Wood was covering Waiters. Really wish JB had called a couple of isolation plays for Dion when they was going on.

The start of the 2nd half marked the first time all season I thought we really played poor defense. A lot of the blame goes to the guards, who got did not get back and allowed NC State to get a staggering number of easy transition baskets in a short time. Scoop and Dion need to make sure at least one of team rotates back when someone on SU takes a shot on offense.

Thought we caught a break when Leslie got hurt. That really affected their ability to score...he is one of their few good athletes and without him, SU was able to key on Williams? (the other CJ) and take him out of the game. We did a nice job on Wood, overplaying the zone on his side all game long, and basically took him out of the game.

Concerned at times with our willingness to accept and take open 3s too often and too early. After going cold from the 3 point circle early in the 2nd half, we scored a lot of points off the dribble, using the one on one abilities of KJ, DW, Scoop and even CJ a little to beat people and get quality shots inside. And we got some transition points too. Still didn't do a stellar job rebounding on the defensive end but it wasn't a disaster area and we were able to offset issues there by doing some damage of our own on the offensive boards.

We have a lot of answers for different types of situations. We can beat teams a number of ways. Might be our biggest strength. Good win. I look forward to getting revenge against Bucknell on Tuesday.

 

[alibrat66]

I think that was one of the crazier games I have ever seen. Wild runs by both teams, SU getting as hot as they ever have at times and as cold as they ever have at others.

NC State has some nice pieces but I don't think a team that plays defense as poorly as they do is going to win a lot of games in conference, even in a relatively weak conference like the ACC. Glad they were able to fill their arena to see their team get manhandled...it is good for them to get used to losing to Syracuse and getting out-cheered in their own facility. I like the way they put students near the court on the sidelines. Hope that maybe someday being in the ACC will help facilitate us doing the same thing with our student section. Probably will never happen because of the $$$ impact, but it would be nice to improve our home court advantage.

I wasn't impressed with the Wolfpack defense. From my perspective, NC State let everyone except maybe Triche shoot from the outside whenever they wanted. They tried to zone us in the first half. Didn't work very well, especially with a lame zone that left people open for 3s and let people drive inside (with no help coming) whenever an SU player wanted).

They went man later in the half, which I think kind of helped them in that SU started spreading the court against it and going one on one, which hurt the flow of the offense and maybe the energy we were playing with on defense. At one point, Wood was covering Waiters. Really wish JB had called a couple of isolation plays for Dion when they was going on.

The start of the 2nd half marked the first time all season I thought we really played poor defense. A lot of the blame goes to the guards, who got did not get back and allowed NC State to get a staggering number of easy transition baskets in a short time. Scoop and Dion need to make sure at least one of team rotates back when someone on SU takes a shot on offense.

Thought we caught a break when Leslie got hurt. That really affected their ability to score...he is one of their few good athletes and without him, SU was able to key on Williams? (the other CJ) and take him out of the game. We did a nice job on Wood, overplaying the zone on his side all game long, and basically took him out of the game.

Concerned at times with our willingness to accept and take open 3s too often and too early. After going cold from the 3 point circle early in the 2nd half, we scored a lot of points off the dribble, using the one on one abilities of KJ, DW, Scoop and even CJ a little to beat people and get quality shots inside. And we got some transition points too. Still didn't do a stellar job rebounding on the defensive end but it wasn't a disaster area and we were able to offset issues there by doing some damage of our own on the offensive boards.

We have a lot of answers for different types of situations. We can beat teams a number of ways. Might be our biggest strength. Good win. I look forward to getting revenge against Bucknell on Tuesday.

Best way to beat a transition team is to run the ball back down their throat. Tends to catch them flatfooted and going the wrong way.

Agree with you, Tom, about settling for the three at the beginning of the second half. Live by the three, die by the three.

 

[tbonezone]

gotta love the students right behind the enemies bench.and screw the big dollar people argument. this ain't $$$$topia.

 

[Madbiker]

Good analysis. The first 4 minutes of the 2nd half we came out and inexplicably just jacked up bad, quick 3's on our first 4 or 5 FG attempts. With no floor balance,, the misses resulted in easy transition buckets on the other end for St. Textbook case of how to blow a double digit lead in like 4 minutes. Once we started to go inside and beat the NC St defenders off the dribble order was restored. All in all a quality performance for the nation's #1 team.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Good analysis. The first 4 minutes of the 2nd half we came out and inexplicably just jacked up bad, quick 3's on our first 4 or 5 FG attempts. With no floor balance,, the misses resulted in easy transition buckets on the other end for St. Textbook case of how to blow a double digit lead in like 4 minutes. Once we started to go inside and beat the NC St defenders off the dribble order was restored. All in all a quality performance for the nation's #1 team.

I don't think they were necessarily "bad" shots - several of them were pretty open. It's just that after we missed a couple, we shouldn't have kept shooting them until we made one. You miss about 3 outside shots in a row and the next attempt better be at the rim. That's Basketball 101 and we forgot that in the first 5 minutes or so. But boy we are a good team.

 

[GoSU96]

I think that was one of the crazier games I have ever seen. Wild runs by both teams, SU getting as hot as they ever have at times and as cold as they ever have at others.

NC State has some nice pieces but I don't think a team that plays defense as poorly as they do is going to win a lot of games in conference, even in a relatively weak conference like the ACC. Glad they were able to fill their arena to see their team get manhandled...it is good for them to get used to losing to Syracuse and getting out-cheered in their own facility. I like the way they put students near the court on the sidelines. Hope that maybe someday being in the ACC will help facilitate us doing the same thing with our student section. Probably will never happen because of the $$$ impact, but it would be nice to improve our home court advantage.

I wasn't impressed with the Wolfpack defense. From my perspective, NC State let everyone except maybe Triche shoot from the outside whenever they wanted. They tried to zone us in the first half. Didn't work very well, especially with a lame zone that left people open for 3s and let people drive inside (with no help coming) whenever an SU player wanted).

They went man later in the half, which I think kind of helped them in that SU started spreading the court against it and going one on one, which hurt the flow of the offense and maybe the energy we were playing with on defense. At one point, Wood was covering Waiters. Really wish JB had called a couple of isolation plays for Dion when they was going on.

The start of the 2nd half marked the first time all season I thought we really played poor defense. A lot of the blame goes to the guards, who got did not get back and allowed NC State to get a staggering number of easy transition baskets in a short time. Scoop and Dion need to make sure at least one of team rotates back when someone on SU takes a shot on offense.

Thought we caught a break when Leslie got hurt. That really affected their ability to score...he is one of their few good athletes and without him, SU was able to key on Williams? (the other CJ) and take him out of the game. We did a nice job on Wood, overplaying the zone on his side all game long, and basically took him out of the game.

Concerned at times with our willingness to accept and take open 3s too often and too early. After going cold from the 3 point circle early in the 2nd half, we scored a lot of points off the dribble, using the one on one abilities of KJ, DW, Scoop and even CJ a little to beat people and get quality shots inside. And we got some transition points too. Still didn't do a stellar job rebounding on the defensive end but it wasn't a disaster area and we were able to offset issues there by doing some damage of our own on the offensive boards.

We have a lot of answers for different types of situations. We can beat teams a number of ways. Might be our biggest strength. Good win. I look forward to getting revenge against Bucknell on Tuesday.

They toyed with a mid range ACC team on the road. Shot a ton of jumpers and took it to the hole at will when they needed to.

Pretty impressive.

 

[orangenauburn]

And abused a coach over his head right Go? One who opened his mouth before the season

 

[Upstate]

There will always be something to say when you play a relatively highly-hyped team and beat the piss out of them. We're the #1, Sully or not, we're the best.

 

[syr02esq]

I think CJ sometimes gets outmuscled under the goal. Was hoping he would get stronger this season but his outside shot is looking nice.

 

[billsin01]

Agreed on the students surrounding the court though we'll never see it happen. To the poster saying to screw the money argument -- isn't that why we're moving conferences? Money? That's the reason basically anything is done.

NC State put on a clinic in how not to slide. Not only did they have poor secondary slides, which happens fairly often in college hoops, but they didn't even have any sort of primary slide. Somewhere Keno Davis must've was on his feet with a tear in his eye, doing the slow clap like the janitor near the end of "Rudy."

Nice to see JS contribute. I'm still puzzled as to whether or not he'll be a key contributor regularly, but he can be a factor against teams that don't exactly excell defensively. Gotta figure we'll see at least a few of those as the season rolls along.

I guess you're only labeled a "gamer" if you make big shots, but I do love whatever it is Scoop has that makes him completely unafraid to take big shots. It can work against him at times, but it's ultimately good to have a couple players not only confident they can be the hero, but also willing to be the goat.

Not sure I've ever seen a team consistently carve up the zone like NCSU did. WE forced some turnovers but they not only got a lot of easy looks, but a bunch of completely uncontested looks.

Nice game overall. Love to see DW emerging as a go-to guy and legit force. That will make everyone else better as long as he continues to play within the team concept (which it appears he will do).