NC State’s shooting woes make a turnaround look unlikely

So the wheels flew off the basketball team Tuesday night, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be re-attached! Nobody ever talks about that part. The re-attaching of the wheels, while uncommon, is not unprecedented. Gonna be a bit of a challenge this time, though.

The only way this Wolfpack team can start trending in a positive direction is to start shooting the ball better; it’s as simple as that. Are these guys capable of doing it? That looks less likely with each passing game. The Pack hasn’t shot well in any game this month, and put that way, it feels less like a slump and more like this team’s reality.

Given the Pack’s struggles from the field, I was curious how this year’s edition stacked up with other poor-shooting NC State teams. Here are the five worst shooting NC State teams of this century, by effective field goal percentage:

1.) 2022 NC State — 46.7%
2.) 2011 NC State — 47.8%
3.) 2010 NC State — 48.3%
4.) 2016 NC State — 48.5%
5.) 2001 NC State — 48.9%

Well, crap, that’s not good.

If you were wondering, those other four teams had a combined overall record of 64-65. They were 20-46 in ACC play, and none won more than five conference games. Gotta make shots!

There will be periods yet where NC State does shoot the ball well—maybe even a stretch of multiple games—because that’s just bound to happen. But probably they are who they are at this point, and it portends a rough run through ACC play in the new year.