North Carolina State University Athletics
HAYNES: Pack Opens ACC Second Half Against Wake
2/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TONY HAYNES
Raleigh, N.C. When he gathered his team for practice on Monday, NC State men’s basketball coach Sidney Lowe wasn’t quite sure what he was going to get a from a team that had just suffered a potentially devastating loss 24 hours earlier at Virginia Tech.
Up 18 points with just over 12 minutes remaining, the Wolfpack let the lead slip away and eventually lost by four in overtime. Had it not been for the sound of a diesel engine, the four-hour bus ride back to
Perhaps it is the resiliency of youth, but by Monday, the Pack (12-9, 2-6) was ready to go back to work and prepare for the second half of its ACC season.
Seventh ranked
“We had a great practice [Monday], Lowe said. “As a coaching staff, we talked about it afterwards. We met, we watched the film and we certainly saw some things that we didn’t like both as a staff and players. But when we got back out on that floor, the guys were great. It was a good practice. Nobody was feeling sorry for themselves.”
Playing brilliant basketball over the first 28 minutes in
Turning the ball over at a rapid clip against Tech’s energized defensive pressure, the Pack would end up with a total of 15 turnovers in the second half, miscues that led to 21 Hokie points after intermission.
Igniting the Virginia Tech run was a controversial intentional foul call on Courtney Fells. After turning the ball over, Fells chased down Hokies guard Hank Thorns from behind and blocked Thorns’ layup attempt against the backboard. There was lower body contact between the two players, contact that sent Thorns careening into the basket support. Official Ray Styons blew his whistle and crossed his arms, indicating that Fells would be called for an intentional foul, meaning Virginia Tech would get two free throws and possession of the ball.
Dorenzo Hudson replaced Thorns and knocked down two free throws and a 3-point basket to make it a 13-point game. Forcing yet another turnover on NC State’s next possession, the Hokies then got a 3-point shot in transition from Malcolm Delaney to complete a rapid 8-0 run in a matter of just 27 seconds.
It was a sudden momentum shift from which the Wolfpack never recovered.
“We were controlling the ballgame and that one play really changed the game,” Lowe said. “We tried to make our guys aware that Virginia Tech would try to build on it by becoming more aggressive. [The intentional foul call] certainly had an impact on the game and I knew it would. I was just hoping we could fight through it.”
Styons ruled that Fells had committed excessive contact, an interpretation that is corroborated in the NCAA basketball rule book. One provision of the intentional foul rule stipulates that a player can be called for an intentional foul by “causing excessive, non-flagrant contact with an opponent while playing the ball.”
Whether the contact was indeed excessive will forever remain in the eye of the beholder, but NC State’s inability to recover from the play and Virginia Tech’s positive response to it created a rather epic shift in the game’s storyline.
Becoming energized and aggressive, Virginia Tech started to take the Wolfpack out of its offense by pressuring the ball, overplaying the passing lanes and rooting out in the post. Tech’s defensive strategy yet again exposed a not-so-secretive NC State shortcoming: a scarcity of players who can effectively defeat pressure by breaking down defenses off the dribble.
“There aren’t a lot of teams that can execute a set play and get a good shot in the last five minutes of a game,” said Lowe. “Those shots occur either because the ball goes inside and then is kicked out to an open man because the defense doubles down or someone puts it on the floor and creates a shot for someone else. If you don’t have someone who can do that, it’s real tough in crunch time to get the shot that you want.”
A 6-2 sophomore, the lightning-quick Teague is No. 2 in the ACC in scoring (20.9 ppg.), No. 8 in field goal percentage (51.3%) and No. 2 in steals per game (2.1). He’s also the only player in the league to have scored 29 points or more six times.
“He’s very explosive,” Lowe said. “He’s quick, he can come down and pull up with a shot, he can get to the basket, he’s a good ball-handler and he just plays hard. He’s a winner.”
Ranked No. 1 for one week in January, the Deacons had dropped three of four games before drilling
With 6-9 freshman Al-Farouq Aminu, 6-8 sophomore James Johnson and 7-0 junior Chas McFarland spreading their substantial length around on the frontline, the Deacons don’t give up a lot of chip-shot baskets.
“They can get out and pressure the basketball and funnel you right into their big guys,” Lowe said. “Their perimeter guys are also very athletic out there. That allows them to really apply a lot of pressure and not really be concerned about getting beat because they do have those big guys back there.”
The series between NC State and
RADIO COVERAGE CHANGE: For fans in the Triangle area who are accustomed to listening to NC State basketball on flagship station Mix 101.5 WRAL-FM, Wednesday’s Wolfpack Sports Network broadcast will be moved to 99.9 FM the Fan. WRAL, which will be in the midst of its annual radiothon to raise money for the children at Duke Hospital, will return to the network when the Pack plays at Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon. The NC State
The Radio Broadcast will also be available free of charge online through Pack Pass on Gopack.com.
