NC State Basketball: Virginia Postgame Reaction

The room for failure for NC State basketball was very small heading into a New Year's Eve matchup against Virginia. The Pack was unable to take advantage of any of the quality non-conference opportunities so being successful in ACC play is crucial to the Wolfpack's NCAA Tournament hopes. An overtime win against Florida State put the Pack in the win column to open up ACC play and with the Virginia the next one up on the schedule, a 2-0 start in ACC play was no doubt achievable. Through the first 20 minutes in Charlottesville, it appeared that State would cruise to a 2-0 start in conference play. Some hot three point shooting (finally) and solid defense saw the Pack take a 10 point advantage to the halftime break. In the 2nd, State would build that lead to 14 with 18:48 remaining in the contest but from there it was all downhill. The Wolfpack would be outscored by 24 points over the next 13 minutes, finding themselves in a 65-55 hole with just under 6 minutes to play. The word "collapse" may not even be the most accurate description of that stretch of basketball. Some of the best basketball we'd seen from NC State all year occurred just minutes prior only to be followed up by the embarrassing debacle that ensued in the 2nd half. As these types of games often seem to go, State made it a game again late and had opportunities to tie or even take the lead. Brandon Huntley-Hatfield missed multiple layups, Jayden Taylor missed a bunny bank shot left of the lane that would have cut the Cavalier lead down to 1 with 18 seconds remaining, several possessions in the 2nd half State got multiple shots only to come up empty, and a few costly turnovers sprinkled in as well. The issues we have seen under Keatts teams (Final Four run aside) were especially glaring in this second half. All of that topped off by the inability to get a stop and was being led by Virginia's only true scoring threat, Isaac McKneely, lighting up the Pack.

NC State has no quality wins at this point in this season. The ACC is as bad as we have ever seen the conference. The ONLY avenue to NC State returning to the NCAA Tournament is winning games in conference play, and a lot of them at that. In a year when the ACC is so down and State needs any possible win that can be had, blowing a double digit second half lead feels even more disappointing and sharp than it normally would. Granted the Pack didn't have Ben Middlebrooks today, but with or without him blowing a 14 point lead with 18 minutes to play against a mediocre conference foe is not going to get you to the Big Dance. Consistency is a major key to success and NC State was the polar opposite of that today, something we've seen the Pack struggle with this year but not to that degree. Moving forward this has to be a "gut check" type of loss. State couldn't afford to give away any games like that heading into the day, and especially can't now. The margin for error was small to begin with but is even smaller now. Kevin Keatts, his staff, and this team have to realize that and right the ship or will be sitting at home come March. The number of opportunities is getting smaller and smaller, time to take advantage of them.

-Bobby Black