Following a 72-52 loss in the second round of the NIT to the UAB Blazers, coach Sidney Lowe said fans shouldn’t view the season as a disappointment.
“For us to be picked to finish dead last in the ACC and finish tied for ninth says something,” Lowe said. “These guys have done a great job up to this point of playing well and winning tough ballgames.”
State snuck past South Florida Tuesday night in the first round of the NIT when freshman forward Richard Howell made a layup with eight seconds left to make the score 58-57.
The Wolfpack (20-16) then faltered in the second round of the NIT against UAB (25-8), the No. 2 seed in the Mississippi State division.
Nonetheless, Lowe praised the players for their performance during the season as a whole.
“Our play in the ACC tournament and postseason shows that these guys are working,” Lowe said. “No one would’ve thought that we would end with a 20-win season.”
The Pack ended the season by winning six of its eight last games and advancing to the semifinals in the ACC tournament after losing five straight halfway through the season.
“It’s a sad moment right now. It’s my last game with these guys, and I’m proud of the team,” senior Dennis Horner, who led the team with 23 points, said. “We went through a stretch during the middle of the season where we weren’t playing too well, but the guys never quit.”
In the loss to UAB, State came out of the gates struggling, shooting a season-low 24 percent from the field in the first half and committing a string of nine turnovers in the first 12 minutes. UAB led 37-17 at halftime.
“I didn’t see that coming. “I really didn’t see us coming out the way we did,” Lowe said.
Lowe hinted that there were some worries coming into the game, however he wouldn’t comment on exactly who or what was the problem, but hinted that it dealt with injuries.
Regardless, the Pack looked frustrated early on as leading scorer Tracy Smith failed to convert on his first four shots from the field. Smith ended the night with six points on 3-of-12 shooting.
UAB dominated the paint, working the ball inside to both junior Elijah Millsap and senior Howard Crawford, who posted 27 and 12 points, respectively.
“They really beat us up in the post – and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just thought they were very physical,” Lowe said.
Lowe also credited the UAB defense for forcing 17 State turnovers and causing poor shot selection, resulting in a pair of 3-point shot attempts that flew through the air out of bounds to the right of the goal.
“They played a very aggressive, physical game,” Lowe said. “UAB did a great job of pressuring all the positions, and we were just doing everything a little too fast. We didn’t slow down and set solid screens and face up.”
Lowe voiced his frustration with the officiating of the game and received a technical foul after arguing with a call on sophomore C.J. Williams midway through the second half.
However, the real moment of the game for the Blazers came when Millsap dunked the ball off of a high pass to excite the crowd with 11:42 left in the second half.
From there, State never got closer than 16 as UAB went on to claim its second NIT win and set the stage for a matchup with UNC-Chapel Hill in the third round.
