NC State 88 South Alabama 70

Pack improves to 1-1 and still has an opportunity to get better vs IUPI on Wednesday before heading to Brooklyn next week to take on Arizona State and LSU or Marquette.

The Pack replaced Terry Henderson with Maverick Rowan and played only seven players most of the night. Cat Barber had a double double by pulling 12 rebounds and missed a triple double by only two assists. Julius Hodge (in 2002) was the last Pack player to log a triple double.

Link to recap

They bounced back from a surprisingly one-sided loss to William & Mary two nights earlier in the opener by shooting 51 percent – nearly 59 percent after halftime. They never trailed but couldn’t pull away until early in the second half.

”We just came out and we wanted to win the game,” Barber said. ”The last game, we wanted to win that, but we weren’t in that mood of taking the game. This game, we came out and our mood was to take the game and we were going to win it.”

Taishaun Johnson had 18 points for the Jaguars (1-1), who shot just 31.5 percent.

Abdul-Malik Abu added 14 points for N.C. State, which broke this one open by scoring on seven straight trips downcourt in the second half. Martin – who scored a career-best 21 points against the Tribe – played a central role in that spurt.

View galleryCaleb Martin leads NC State past South Alabama, 88 …
North Carolina State’s Maverick Rowan (24) is fouled by South Alabama’s John Brown during th …
He sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a stickback of Abu’s missed jumper. BeeJay Anya’s putback dunk two possessions later made it 60-44 with 11 minutes to play.

That put the Wolfpack well on their way to the win and helped them avoid their first 0-2 start since the 1993-94 team opened with consecutive losses to Weber State and Wisconsin-Green Bay at the Great Alaska Shootout.

”I thought we were obviously a little bit better than we were a couple of nights ago,” Gottfried said. ”We’ve just got such a long way to go. Tonight we took a step forward, which was nice. Defensively, we’ve got to learn a lot, and offensively, learn how to run an offense and learn how to find each other.”

They also wanted to prove they could win without shooting guard Terry Henderson, the latest in a series of high-scoring guards who transferred to N.C. State in recent years. He will miss at least six weeks after suffering an ankle injury against William & Mary.

The Wolfpack trailed by 23 in that 85-68 defeat, and for a while, there was a lingering sense that they were in for a fight against a team picked to finish seventh in the Sun Belt.

View galleryCaleb Martin leads NC State past South Alabama, 88 …
North Carolina State’s Abdul-Malik Abu (0) muscles around South Alabama’s Don MuepoKelly (5) …
This was a four-point game in the final minute of the first half – when Don MuepoKelly’s putback dunk with about 30 seconds left made it 38-34. N.C. State didn’t take its first double-figure lead until Barber’s free throw with 18:37 to play pushed it to 44-34.

Link to Wolfpacker recap.

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15-16 Basketball

Home Forums NC State 88 South Alabama 70

Viewing 10 posts - 26 through 35 (of 35 total)
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  • #92487
    TKEWOLF75
    Participant

    Ryebread said

    We also have fewer shooters — 2 by my count (Rowan and Martin).

    I remember a TV show named Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In. If you were at the game Friday it was a laugh in…if you were sitting on the William and Mary bench.

    #92489
    choppack1
    Participant

    From what I am reading on tos the week may get worse. Hopefully we are getting trolled.

    #92493
    Rick
    Keymaster

    Nope. Of seems to be real.
    Bad week for ncsu

    #92497
    Tau837
    Participant

    The majority of Gott’s team’s success has always seemed to rest on outside shooting. TJ was an aberration (a fantastic one!), but it’s seemed to me that we’ve needed a Scott Wood, a Ralston Turner, or a Trevor Lacey to get hot and hit that key shot to win the important games. The mature player that knows when and how to get that score.

    How many teams are there in this era of college basketball who win consistently without good outside shooting? I don’t see this as a Gott specific issue.

    #92503
    mak4dpak
    Participant

    Curious as to the comments we get at the end of the season. I believe they will be different. The team will improve, and get the chemistry going. Gott has not failed us yet, so I just (GOTT) to believe things are going get better.

    #92506
    pakfanistan
    Participant

    Curious as to the comments we get at the end of the season. I believe they will be different. The team will improve, and get the chemistry going. Gott has not failed us yet, so I just (GOTT) to believe things are going get better.

    The second half of the South Alabama game was night and day compared to the W&M game with regards to team chemistry. Four plays that stand out are the two high low passes between Abu and Anya, and the two layups by the Martins off passes from Cat.

    #92507
    1.21 Jigawatts
    Keymaster

    I caught some of the IUPUI @ Marquette game last night and here’s my quick thoughts on our upcoming game Wednesday.

    1. IUPUI is small, their 2 low post players are 6-8 everyone else is pretty much 6-5 or shorter. If State’s Bigs don’t dominate this game then it’s going to be another long night and not a pretty one.
    2. IUPUI’s starting 5 are all upperclassmen which doesn’t bode well for State IMO, they’ve played 2 tough games on the road already and won’t come in scared.
    3. If I were coaching State I’d make sure we had proper spacing on offense and pound the ball inside all night long.

    Coming into this season I thought the IUPUI game would be a no brainer, now I give State a 50/50 shot.

    #92512
    ryebread
    Participant

    The bad news alluded to on the recruiting front is now official. I never had a good feeling about that one.

    As for zone, those not wanting it are seemingly operating on the assumption that given the staff won’t teach people how to play proper man to man, that they won’t teach people how to play proper zone. I tend to think there’s less to teach in playing zone — keep your hands up, stay in your area, when the shot goes off, find someone to box out because they will be coming. The only real question is how and when to trap.

    My point about Jim Boeheim is that the talent on this team isn’t hopeless. They just have to be used properly. Jim B. would win a lot of games using a 2-3 with this personnel. It’s up to this staff to utilize the players correctly. Playing man to man in a half hearted way seemingly isn’t it.

    The scary thing to me is that this is how we look early, yet we had an increase in practice time allowed by the NCAA this year in the summer. How bad would we have looked otherwise?

    #92668
    mak4dpak
    Participant

    No blog from our 23 point win over uipui. This same team took Marquette to OT, before losing by 5. So certainly a great win, and continued improvement with the team.

    #92669
    john of sparta
    Participant

    Super-Duper Security checks at the gate.
    be prepared to empty your pockets because
    your purse won’t make it. serious.

Viewing 10 posts - 26 through 35 (of 35 total)
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