North Carolina State University Athletics
Learning Wolfpack Hosts Fairleigh Dickinson
11/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2010
Men's Hoops, Football Have Dual Broadcasts
2010-11 Basketball Trading Cards
Editor's note: Trading cards of the assistant coaches will be given away to the first 5,000 fans in attendance at Saturday's basketball game against Fairleigh Dickinson. Visit gopack.com/tradingcards for distribution details.
RALEIGH, N.C. – Long before they had a big Thanksgiving feast together Friday afternoon, the NC State men’s basketball players had spent the week digesting more than just turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes. Upon its return from the Charleston Classic, the Wolfpack spent a lot of time digesting the things that went wrong in the second half of an 82-67 loss to No. 20 Georgetown in last Sunday’s championship game.
On Saturday night, the Pack (3-1) will get a chance to return to the win column when it hosts Fairleigh Dickinson (0-2) at the RBC Center. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
Competitive for the first 24 minutes against the experienced Hoyas, NC State was certainly culpable for some of the quick shots and mistakes that aided Georgetown in a decisive 15-0 run that sent the Charleston Classic Championship trophy to D.C. instead of Raleigh.
“We watched the film and showed them where we lost the ballgame,” said NC State head coach Sidney Lowe. “We also showed them the things we did well and why we were in the ballgame in the first half. We broke it down and let them see how many times we broke it off and kind of went one-on-one and just tried to do it ourselves.
“We tried to teach them that you have to stay within the plan and be disciplined so we can take good shots.”
Shot selection was an issue for NC State during Georgetown’s big second half spurt, not to mention the quickness with which some of those shots were taken. Instead of running the offense and looking for the best possible shot early in the second half, the Wolfpack became impatient and provided the Hoyas with some key run-out opportunities by jacking up a number of quick jumpers from the perimeter. NC State missed 9-of-10 3-pointers after intermission and had only one assist on 10 baskets.
The learning curve for NC State’s talented freshman class will also be significant before the ACC wars begin in January. Accustomed to taking over games when their high school teams got into trouble, Ryan Harrow, Lorenzo Brown and C.J. Leslie are finding out that forcing the action during certain game situations at this level isn’t quite as effective.
“We have three young men on our team who are accustomed to going one-on-one at any time,” Lowe said. “It’s a little more difficult here to do that.”
And for the immediate future, NC State will have to learn how to play without the offensive post presence provided my senior center Tracy Smith, who will be out of action for at least a few more weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Smith’s absence was quite noticeable against Georgetown as the Wolfpack got few post touches from reserve big men DeShawn Painter and Jordan Vandenberg.
Without any semblance of inside-outside interaction, the flow of the Wolfpack offense is bound to struggle.
“The ball still has to go in there,” Lowe said. “You’ve got to keep the ball moving and hit the open man. We talk to our big guys about how to get the ball. You don’t always have to get the ball on a post-up. They can step out, set a ball-screen and set up a pick and roll.
“Now you’ll get the ball going to the basket with no one on you.”
In season-opening defeats to Stony Brook and Albany, Fairleigh Dickson shot just over 31 percent and averaged just 53 points in those two games. Six-foot senior guard Mike Scott is the biggest offensive threat, averaging 21 points per game.
With big road games at Wisconsin and Syracuse looming next week, Lowe would like to see the Wolfpack win on Saturday night and look good doing it.
“It’s important for us to play the way we’re capable of playing,” Lowe said. “We need to execute, take care of the ball and concentrate. We’ve got to be sharp. We need to show we learned from the Georgetown game.”
In two previous wins over Fairleigh Dickinson (1982-83 and 2002-03), the Wolfpack scored better than 100 points. The Wolfpack’s all-time record against teams from the Northeast Conference is 9-0.
For fans planning to attend Saturday night’s contest at the RBC Center, the NC State – Maryland football game will be shown on the video board during pregame warm-ups. There will also be updates provided during timeouts and at halftime.
Full radio coverage of the basketball game is available in the Triangle area on ESPN Radio, 99.9 FM the Fan starting at 5:30 p.m. The full network will join the basketball game in progress once the football game at Maryland is over. Extended pregame coverage for the football game from College Park will begin at 2 p.m.
• By Tony Haynes, thaynes@gopack.com
