What they're saying about NC State Wolfpack basketball's loss to Miami
Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack basketball's 64-59 loss to Miami on Saturday afternoon.
Three teams in the ACC remain undefeated in league play through Saturday. NC State could be one of them.
Instead, the Pack squandered two late second-half leads in back-to-back games over the past five days.
Now the Wolfpack sits at 2-2 through four conference contests and requires a road win against a ranked opponent Wednesday to remain above .500 in league play.
It’s only January and still far too early to start worrying about conference standings or NCAA Tournament resumes. NC State will be fine if it can just figure out how to close games.
But the Pack needs to figure out how to do so quickly amidst the toughest month of its schedule. The road becomes a lot more challenging over the next two weeks, and NC State can’t afford more missed opportunities in January.
• Matt Carter, TheWolfpacker.com — Quick hits from NC State's loss to Miami
NC State led much of the first half, which has been its custom thus far in ACC action, and was up 32-31 at the break. NC State has led at halftime of every game of the season. But on Saturday that was on the strength of 17 fast break points in the first half. When it was not in transition, it had just 15 points.
A big problem NC State faced in the second half: zero fast break points. That meant that the Wolfpack had to play entirely in the half court offense, and on a day where Keatts criticized the offensive performance during his post game press conference, NC State was held to 27 second half points. The only time it had fewer points in a half this year was when it scored 23 points in Tuesday's overtime defeat at Clemson.
Those are the only two games where NC State had less than 30 points in a half this season.
The Pack led by six points with 6:18 remaining, eerily similar to the seven-point lead it had with just over six minutes left in regulation in the 74-70 road loss to No. 19 Clemson in overtime Tuesday.
NC State shut out Miami for a seven-and-a-half minute period in the second half to build the six-point lead, but the Hurricanes were able to close the game on a 19-8 run to come away with their first conference victory of the season.
Redshirt junior guard Thomas Allen made a three from the corner with 57 seconds left to cut Miami’s lead to one point, but the Pack couldn’t build upon it due to continued struggles in the half-court offense and six Hurricanes points in the final minute.
“For whatever reason, I didn't think we were clicking offensively,” head coachKevin Keatts said. “Give Miami's defense, maybe give those guys some credit for the way we didn't play on the offensive end. We've got to get better. This is one of those games where usually we play a little bit better on the offensive end, but we just couldn't get going. Very seldom does it happen with us in two different halves. Typically we could find it in the second half, but we did not have it today.”
• Jonas Pope IV, Raleigh News & Observer —NC State starts slow, can't finish in loss to Miami
For the second straight game, things didn’t go the right way for N.C. State.
On Saturday, Isaiah Wong’s driving layup with 1:49 remaining gave Miami a 56-54 lead. It was part of the 6-0 Hurricanes’ run in the final three minutes of yet another close ACC contest for the Wolfpack. After losing to Clemson in overtime on Tuesday, N.C. State dropped the home game against Miami, 64-59.
Earl Timberlake hit two from the line for Miami to push the visitor’s lead to four. N.C. State guard Thomas Allen hit a three on the other end, pulling the Wolfpack to within one, 58-57, with 57 seconds remaining. The matchup turned out to be a breakout game for the former Garner star. Allen came off the bench for the first time this season, scoring a season-high 14 points.
But Timberlake put back a Wong miss with 23 seconds left making it a three-point lead. After N.C. State’s Shakeel Moore missed on the other end, Timberlake hit two more from the line, all but icing the game with 17.1 seconds remaining.
N.C. State (6-3, 2-2) led by six with 6:18 remaining, but only got two field goals the rest of the way. After a layup by Devon Daniels put the Pack up 51-45, State missed four of its next five from the floor. Miami (4-5, 1-4) scored 13 straight for the comeback win.
• Jonas Pope IV, Raleigh News & Observer — Kevin Keatts on loss to Miami: 'We found a way to lose'
Kevin Keatts wouldn’t compare this latest loss to the Clemson game.
Sure, there were similarities. At Clemson on Tuesday N.C. State led the Tigers by seven with 6:27 remaining, only to fall in overtime. Saturday against Miami the Wolfpack was up by six with 6:18 to play. And for the second straight game, the wheels fell off.
At least at Clemson, State’s offense was sharp. It was the lack of offense against the Hurricanes that led to the 64-59 Miami win.
The Wolfpack dropped its second straight league game, this one more frustrating than the last.
After taking a six-point lead on a Devon Daniels layup, Miami outscored N.C. State 19-8 the rest of the game. Against Clemson the Pack didn’t take care of the ball, against the Hurricanes they couldn’t buy a bucket.
• Joe Giglio, WRALSportsFan — Tough enough? NC State falls to Miami
Senior forward D.J. Funderburk had another explanation for the loss.
"They were tougher than us," Funderburk said in the post-game press conference.
When asked to expand, Funderburk said:
"It is what it is. Sometimes teams come in and they’re more aggressive than you. It doesn’t mean they are tougher than us but in this game, that’s what happened."
Guard Thomas Allen led the Wolfpack with 14 points but turnovers cost NC State as did its inability to check freshman Earl Timberlake (13 points) down the stretch.
"We just did not have it today," NC State coach Kevin Keatts said. "I can’t explain it."
Even though it lost the lead and momentum was clearly in Miami’s favor, the Wolfpack managed to stay within striking distance and eventually took the lead back with around 10 minutes still left to play.
Like Miami, the Wolfpack was not able to extend its lead and the Hurricanes kept it close, pulling ahead with just under two to play and holding the advantage for the remainder of the game.
Redshirt senior Devon Daniels played a big part in the Pack retaking the lead in the second half, scoring nine in the second half after only putting up two in the first. Redshirt senior forward D.J. Funderburk and redshirt junior guard Thomas Allen both also scored in double digits with 12 and 14, respectively, the latter of which was a season high for the transfer.
“I don’t think any of our main guys played good basketball today,” Keatts said. “I thought they were all just OK. We didn’t have that guy that played well. When you look at the stat sheet, of course Thomas Allen had 14 and D.J. had 12, and it looks like Devon had 11, but I don’t think any of those guys played great.”
The 16 total turnovers are higher than the team’s season average of 12.5 entering Saturday’s game, but the Pack has struggled to hold onto the ball in its last five games (including Miami), averaging 16.4 over those games.
Once again Saturday afternoon, for the fourth game in a row, a conference game came down to the final seconds for the University of Miami men’s basketball team.
After losing the previous three by a total of five points, the Hurricanes finally finished on the winning end — 64-59 on the road against North Carolina State.
The difference this time? “Details,” said coach Jim Larranaga.
On Friday night at the team meeting, in an effort to stress that details matter, Larranaga wrote the names of all his players on a white board, but misspelled each name by one letter. Instead of “Earl” Timberlake, it said “Ear.” Instead of “Kam” McGusty, it said “Pam.”
He asked his players if it made a difference that their names were misspelled, even though it was just by one letter. They all agreed it did.
Then, he had the players put their right shoe on their left foot, and vice versa, and had them walk around.
“I said, `Same shoe, same size, same color, but it probably doesn’t feel great being on the wrong foot, right?’ ’’ Larranaga explained of his lesson.
The team apparently got the message. They took care of details in the final minutes, made free throws when it counted most, grabbed rebounds in the closing minute, and that made the difference.
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