NC State 85, ECU 65

Box Score

It was a tough night offensively for the Pirates; they struggled to shoot the ball all night and had difficulties staying out of their own way.  The turnover of the game was an awesome bounce pass to the guy at the end of the Pirates' bench.  You don't see the baseline bounce pass to the bench very often.  Should be worth something.  They were able to hang around in the first half because NC State had trouble adjusting to life without Tracy Smith. 

The Macrowave subbed out around the 17 minute mark of the first half after scoring the first four points of the game.  He sat for almost five minutes while I grew increasingly confused and angry about the apparent decision to let DeShawn Painter and Richard Howell get some quality time together.  If only bizarre substitution patterns were the culprit.  He made a brief appearance midway through the half but that was it; he'd tweaked a knee problem early on and the coaches decided to shut him down.

YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME NOT THIS YEAR COME ON MAN WE'RE HAVING A BREAKTHROUGH HERE NO NO NO NO.

Uh, right. Sorry.  Fortunately, Tracy's services were not needed in the second half as the Wolfpack hit the gas, extended the lead and put the game away before five minutes had elapsed.  The Pirates were totally overwhelmed by State's transition game.  I'm not sure overwhelmed even begins to describe their fail level in those early moments.

-- We rebounded the ball a lot better than I would have guessed while watching the game.  ECU only grabbed about 32% of their misses in both halves; I could've sworn they found half of their misses in the first half.  Painter did a nice job, pulling down 10 boards in 26 minutes, while Howell added 7 boards in 23 minutes.

-- Lorenzo Brown was outstanding tonight.  He forced a couple of turnovers early on, and he was composed and effective at the offensive end all night.  While we were struggling to score in the first half it sometimes seemed like he was the only guy on the floor with his head on straight.

-- Ryan Harrow was solid as well, and a good thing, too, what with Javi buried by personal fouls.  This is still in the hypothetical stage at this point, but I'm thinking that one sweet dime from Harrow makes up for about three bad plays on his part, in that I tend to forget about the mistakes he's made prior to said sweet dime.  He could miss three contested jumpers in a row (he didn't; I'm just saying) and then it's all OOOH THE DISH AND A SHINY ZO BROWN DUNK.

-- It'll be George Mason tomorrow at 6 PM on ESPNU.  Liveblog on.