NC State Basketball At The Halfway Point Part I

We're at the midpoint of conference play, so it's a good time to take a look at what the Wolfpack has done up until now, and how that compares to what happened last year. Sure, we know it's less bad, but how much less bad? All numbers in this post include conference games only.

There are two questions you might have after looking at those figures: 1) is the turning into the Big Ten? 2) is the ACC getting worse from an offensive perspective? Yes and yes. Why back in my day, the average offensive efficiency in league play was around 105. Excuse me, I need to... I have a thing.

Okay, no, no. I'm good. I'm good. It's fine.

The league is slowing down and it doesn't really have anything to do with State except that it sucks a lot and I hate it, but in an amusing twist, it's now the Wolfpack buoying the league's tempo with a transition-inclined offense. Normally we're the ballast. (Daytight compartments are made out of iron.)

Anyway, it's easy enough to see how much more important it is to simply shoot the basketball well vs. shoot the basketball poorly and do some other stuff pretty well. Last year's team was better at protecting the ball and generating second chance opportunities, but didn't shoot nearly as well, particularly inside the arc.

Lorenzo Brown, Calvin Leslie and C.J. Williams have improved significantly from two-point range, Richard Howell and DeShawn Painter have essentially held steady, and State dispensed with Ryan Harrow (43.8 2FG%) and Javi Gonzalez (41.6%). And then there is the matter of having some structure to the offense.