West Virginia 83 NC State 69 – Defense is the Difference

12/21/2014StateFans'14 Football30

Before we get going, you need to know that the lead picture above^ was called a jump ball and not a foul. This kind of smothering defense and officiating helped create 23 turnovers for the Pack — basically turning the ball over 1 out of every 3 possessions.

No foul here! A fore arm in the back. Arms extended at 45 degree angles. Momentum with the body pushing Barber off balance and forcing him to rush a play/pass. This kind of ‘defense’ wears on you during a game.

Similarly, I think the following picture was from a possession where Trevor Lacey was actually called for a charge. No kidding.

This was called a foul on Trevor… pic.twitter.com/IIlU0sLfo9

— Matt (@UMwolfpack87) December 21, 2014

It didn’t closely resemble a game of basketball. Unfortunately, I was ultimately relieved that I didn’t make the trip to the Big Apple despite planning on it for months.

The young Wolfpack’s weaknesses shone bright in Madison Square Garden — defense, defensive rebounding and free throw shooting (State shot only 60% on the night, missing 14 of 35 FTs)

I know that Mark Gottfried likes to use the phrase that “they have to stop us to” to help hide his historical record of having teams that play poor defense…but, there has rarely been a better example of the fallacy in that statement and the reverse of that last night. Other than turnovers, State couldn’t have played better offense as we shot 56% from the field and 57% from the three point line. How can you lose a game where you are that good on the offensive end of the floor?

The answer is easy — your defense allows the other team to 53% from the field and the three point line and doesn’t rebound or apply enough defensive pressure to create enough turnovers.

So, at the end of the day, the other team DOESN’T have to stop us if we can’t stop them.

The following are highlights from the game. Whenever you click and watch videos at SFN we get enhanced credit from our advertising partners as we try to figure out creative ways to reduce the number of ads at other places on the site.

I found some of these pictures from the game ‘amusing’. Look at these two pictures from Mountaineer OFFENSIVE possessions — they were SO ACCUSTOMED to having their hands attached to the Wolfpack that they were pushing on us even when they were shooting!