Arizona 76, NC State 74

by Akula Wolf on Dec 24, 2009 3:11 AM EST

Four Factors	NC State	Arizona
eFG%	51.5	50.0
Turnover Rate	26.9	14.8
Off Reb Rate	41.0	21.9
FT Rate	15.2	47.4

	Pts	Poss	OFF_EFF	DEF_EFF
UA	76	74.3	102.3	99.6
NCSU	74	74.3	99.6	102.3

Box Score

The most basic things were a challenge for NC State in the first half, from securing defensive boards without flirting with embarrassing turnovers to simply dribbling the basketball. The Pack shot 42.6%, turned the ball over on a third of its possessions, and got to the line once, yet somehow managed to keep the game within reach.

That set up a wild back-and-forth second half, fueled by another post-break offensive surge.

NCSU Offense	OFF_EFF	eFG%	TO%	OR%	FTR
1st Half	70.4	42.6	33.7	33.3	3.7
2nd Half	122.5	57.7	21.6	47.6	23.1

I don't understand how basketball can look so difficult in one half, so simple in another. How Javi can go from airballing a 10-foot floater to channeling Jason Williams. I'm not going to lie, nor am I going to attempt to justify the illogic of the moment, but I thought we had them after Javi's four-point play with about eight to go. It felt a lot like the Marquette game at that point, like the Wildcats were too stunned to hit back.

But they did. We endured a drought at the worst possible time, failing as we had all night and all decade to take advantage of the opportunities presented us. That last minute seems cruel in retrospect, an added level of unnecessary pain.

-- Jordan Vandenberg finished with 11 boards and one block in 25 minutes, though he affected many more shots than the box score suggests. That's some fine work. I think it goes to show that he's worth playing for his defensive impact alone.

-- Richard Howell scored nine points on 3-5 shooting, including one of the more improbable threes we're going to see this year.

-- Dennis Horner was 3-10 from the field and turned the ball over five times (well, four times, but this is Karl Hess's world, suckas). No Macrowave and a bad Flame and still the win was within reach...Arizona is bad.

Tweet Comment 1 comment | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Not to harp on it...

… but in a 2-point loss decided on a last-second shot, things like this matter.

I recall during the liveblog two specific examples of blatantly incorrect calls that gave Arizona the ball. One led to a 3, the other to a 2. I really don’t want to hear the “good teams overcome that” bullshit… when you have two evenly-matched teams, those calls can and do indeed make the difference in the game, and that’s unacceptable.

Other points of note regarding Hess & his boys… Nic “can I buy a K” Wise committed 4 fouls… after he picked up his 4th foul. The one that stands out the most is obviously the slap on Javi’s last bucket. Call that, and we’re up 1… and Wise isn’t available for last-second heroics. Just call that one, and we’re likely celebrating a great come-from-behind win. Instead, those calls went against Tracy the other night, he had the gall to mention it, he sits out, Wise gets the star treatment that Tracy deserved, and we lose.

Which brings us to Javi. The dude’s turning into an absolute beast in the last few minutes of the game, in crunch time. If he can keep that up, we will win more games than we deserve this year.

And lest we forget – yes, there were positives from this game. Jordan did not look like a wasted scholarship… he’s still raw and a bit clumsy, but our coaches will be able to teach him…. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! …. sorry, forgot that we don’t have coaches. But Howell did look like he can contribute, Wood hit a big 3 (I still want him taking key shots – I trust him), Mays rarely went all “Mays” on us, and the offense showed a few signs of movement in the 2nd half (including Jordan’s sweet little pass to a cutting CJ).

But all in all, as you mentioned, Arizona’s a bad basketball team. And we lost to that team. Overall, we looked pretty even… which doesn’t make us worse than bad… just bad.

No news there… unfortunately, this is probably one of the better games we’ll play this year. And I’m developing fears that, no matter who you put into this offense, we’re going to be pretty ineffective on that end of the court. You can’t have an offense where you have dead-eye shooters who have to create their own shots. This isn’t the NBA, and clear-outs/one-on-ones aren’t going to consistently get it done. There are better ways… it just appears that we don’t know any of them.

by wolfonthehill on Dec 24, 2009 7:21 AM EST reply actions