Over the past eight games, NC State has faced Duke, Louisville, UNC and Pitt on the road and hosted Clemson, Syracuse, Virginia and Virginia Tech. That’s a daunting stretch by any definition.
NC State went just 3-5 then, and truthfully it could have been worse but Clemson star senior guard Marcquise Reed inexplicably missed four straight late free throws and Pack sophomore guard Braxton Beverly made a three at the buzzer to knock off the Tigers.
On paper, the schedule softens up down the stretch. Here’s the 3-2-1 on the week ahead in basketball.
Three Observations
1. Promising signs from NC State last week. We noted last week that a weird benefit from having played Pittsburgh was that the Panthers used a 2-3 zone defense, and that set up NC State well against Syracuse. Turned out that was correct. NC State shot 49.0 percent from the field against the Orange in a 15-point home win last Wednesday.
What was encouraging is that a few days later NC State went to Cameron Indoor Stadium and shot 50.0 percent from the field against Duke. This is one of the Blue Devils’ best defensive teams in years. Both Duke and Syracuse rank in the top four in the ACC in field goal percentage allowed, and they are also two of the four teams in the league holding opponents to less than 40.0 percent shooting.
NC State was not a good matchup against Duke. The Blue Devils are bigger and more athletic almost across the board. Yet NCSU hung around on the road fairly well, and its second half against the Orange was some of its best basketball of the year.
