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Message: [QUOTE="sutomcat, post: 3765451, member: 27"] This game was extraordinarily important for this team. Even if they end up losing to Virginia tomorrow, I think the perception of this team has drastically improved over the last couple of weeks. One thing you have to give them is that they are fighters who never give up. Really nice job of battling back from a season that was dangerously close to being completely lost. JB tends to sub more come conference tournament time and he held true to that today, giving significant PT to Edwards, Kadary and Bras in the first half. Kind of disappointing to see us blow a double digit lead in the latter portions of the first half, when we really struggled to score, but it was good to see our subs continue to make important contributions again. JB suddenly has a bunch of options at his disposal to utilize depending on game circumstances. I don't know what NC State was thinking leaving Buddy open so often in the first half. One wonders if Keatts is in over his head...amazing it took so long to make adjustments. Good to see Buddy and Alan being unselfish and passing up shots to find the open man. They tied for the team lead in assists with 5. Good numbers for wings who don't touch the ball that often. We were hurt early by NC State on the offensive boards. They got way too many chances and even though they weren't shooting very well, they got enough o rebounds to keep scoring. When JB brought Edwards in, and moved Marek to a wing, the rebounding situation improved dramatically. Edwards is now rebounding very well and you can see a difference with opposing players struggling to get shots off inside with him in the game. Our defense is so much better. I think we played a lot of minutes with Bras and Kadary in as well in the first half. That is probably our best defensive lineup and those guys pretty much shut NC State down. At this point in the season, with that lineup in, we are actually a good defensive team. First time in a long time I feel comfortable saying that. This was a nice team win. Everyone who played contributed in some way. When we shoot 14-29 from the 3 point circle, there aren't a lot of teams that are going to beat us. I am sure we won't get as many open looks from there tomorrow. UVa is good but not great. I believe they have lost 3 of their last 5. If we play well, we have a chance. [/QUOTE]

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