If anyone is qualified to write a book on how to fall apart down the stretch of a season, it’s NC State men’s basketball.
Dropping six of its final seven games in the regular season, the Wolfpack is now stumbling its way towards the bubble. Falling 85-84 to Stanford, the Pack is ending the regular season with a whimper — a far cry from what was expected this year.
“Obviously we would’ve loved to finish top four, but that’s not the way it worked,” said senior guard Jordan Snell. “We know that was attainable for us, but we just didn’t get it done, but you can use that as motivation.”
The Wolfpack (19-12, 10-8 ACC) had its chances all afternoon against the Cardinal (20-11, 9-9). However, by stacking critical mistakes throughout the game, NC State found itself on the losing end of another winnable game. The mistakes compounded into the Pack’s third one point loss of the season.
“You don’t get any points for trying,” said head coach Will Wade. “You get points for winning and we haven’t won enough.”
In a theme that’s familiar for every Wolfpack fan, the red-and-white allowed one player to put a blowtorch to the defense. Despite experimenting with a zone defense early, the Pack surrendered 33 points to Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie. While Okorie is a capable scorer, averaging 22.8 points per game this year, the Wolfpack failed to offer even the slightest resistance both on the perimeter and inside when Okorie drove to the basket.
“He’s a great player,” Wade said. “Early on he got going from three against the zone and in the second half got going in transition, so he’s just electric with the ball.”
The defensive woes continued for the Wolfpack, even when Stanford missed. The Cardinal finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds, which led to 13 second chance points. Even when NC State managed to get into position for the boards, it struggled to corral the rebound and start offensive possessions.
“We haven’t been able to grab some loose balls, some rebounds,” Wade said. “We just haven’t been tough enough to make those plays to deserve the opportunity, so that’s why our record is what it is.”
The troubles flowed into the offense where the Pack left nine points at the free throw line. In a one possession game, every free throw can be the difference between winning and losing.
“We missed a technical free throw,” Wade said. “We had some inopportune misses, so I mean look you leave nine points at the free throw line, that’s tough.”
NC State also failed to find a player to drive the offense when the game was hanging in the balance. While senior forward Ven-Allen Lubin finished with 17 points, many of his points came from put backs. Senior forward Darrion Williams entered the season with expectations of being the focal point of the offense, yet he’s failed to succeed in the role. Today Williams finished with a measly four points off of 1-for-8 shooting.
“We gotta find a way to get him back going,” Wade said. “He’s been struggling. I haven’t done a good enough job helping him out, but we need him. We need him to play better for our team and I need to do a better job of trying to reach him and get him to play up to his capabilities.”
With a litany of errors to solve before the postseason, NC State is in a tough position. The Wolfpack should be in the NCAA Tournament if it can win at least one game in the ACC Tournament. However, by dropping four in a row, NC State is opening the door to miss the NCAA Tournament if it suffers a poor showing in the conference tournament.
“There’s a reason all the teams are on the bubble,” Wade said. “They all have warts, we certainly know of our warts cause we’re here everyday, but all the other ones have warts too, so I think we’ll stack up pretty favorably … We’d be well advised to win our first game.”
NC State will look to bounce back on Wednesday March 11 in the second round of the ACC Tournament in Charlotte. The Wolfpack will enter as the No. 7 seed and will play at noon.
