NC State 81, Virginia Tech 56

Box Score

NC StateFour FactorseFG%78.1Turnover Rate18.6Off Reb Rate22.2FTM/FGA12.5Virginia TechFour FactorseFG%50.0Turnover Rate16.9Off Reb Rate22.6FTM/FGA7.7











-- Our five best offensive performances in conference play:

 Pts Poss Off_Eff

1.) vs. VT 81 59 137.3
2.) at Wake 88 75 117.3
3.) vs. UNC 83 73 113.7
4.) vs. Clemson 76 67 113.4
5.) at VT 70 63 111.1

Notice who checks in twice. Poor Hokies. Today's win was our offensive pièce de résistance, our most efficient showing in a regular season conference game since at least the 2003-2004 season. Wish I could go back further, but I only have a few seasons worth of data. Our high mark last season was 1.33 pts/poss against Boston College.

-- I didn't think it was possible to shoot better than we did against the Tar Heels, but we did--a lot better, in fact. The run we had coming out of the locker room was shocking; I figured we would get tired, go cold, and end up having to fight with the Hokies down the stretch. Instead we scored 26 points in the first nine minutes, putting us at 71 with 11:00 to go. Imagine if we hadn't slowed down in the last quarter of the game.

-- The individuals:

 %Poss ORtg eFG% PPWS

Atsur 29.4 133.9 95.0 1.91
McCauley 26.9 144.9 60.0 1.29
Costner 20.8 112.3 85.7 1.64
Fells 19.7 138.9 77.8 1.56
Grant 14.7 165.2 83.3 1.58

-- Before our last meeting with Carolina, Roy Williams said:

State proved to me they are 34 points better than we are, because they beat Virginia Tech by 11, and they were kicking our tails by 23 at one time.

So let's see if I can apply some Roy Williams Math here... Tech has since beaten Carolina again, this time leading by as much as eight, making them a total of 31 points better than the Heels. We beat Tech again, this time by 25, making us a total of 36 points better than the Hokies. But then again, if for the sake of consistency I go with our biggest leads rather than final scores, that makes us...Christ, I'm gonna need a new piece of paper. You know what--forget it. Okay, 31 plus 36 is 67; we are 67 points better than the Tar Heels. If you're really nice, Roy, we might only beat you by 20 on Wednesday. Might.