NC State Falls In Chapel Hill, 76-65

C.J. Leslie was absolutely horrible in the first five or 10 minutes of the game, but NC State managed to keep pace despite its turnover deficit thanks to superior shooting. There was an odd calm that came with that--it didn't feel like Carolina was exploiting weaknesses; the Heels were just rolling with our stupidity. (And making shots. It also helps to make shots while rolling with the stupidity.)

But that feeling didn't last. State not surprisingly took much better care of the ball in the second half, and it was by no coincidence that Leslie had little or nothing to do with the offense. What an awful game for Leslie, who just appeared lost in some sort of fog during the first five minutes of the game. He also didn't seem capable of forgetting those early mistakes, which is not particularly surprising, either.

This is the shit that goes with all the good stuff that we have to accept. Calvin is going to be just way the hell out there sometimes. And sometimes the shit is going to snowball to a point that any human being would be mentally incapacitated. I think we saw that to an extreme degree in Chapel Hill on Saturday night.

There are no officiating issues here--there are no strategic particulars that need discussing. This makes dealing with defeat a whole hell of a lot easier, but it also serves to reinforce the disappointment attached to each loss this year. We'll be in the NCAA tournament and that's cool and all but we could have done ourselves a much better service and oh well.