NC State: Aftermath of Heartbreaking Loss to Syracuse - SCACCHoops.com

NC State: Aftermath of Heartbreaking Loss to Syracuse

by All Things ACC

Posted: 2/3/2017 1:00:25 PM


After blowing a 16-point lead at home on national television to a mediocre Syracuse team a month before March Madness, many believe that N.C. State (14-9) failed a golden opportunity to seize a much-needed ACC win.

Another herculean effort was put forth by wunderkind Dennis Smith, (notching his second triple-double of the season, with 13 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds), and a huge outing from Maverick Rowan (31 points), State failed again to deliver in a game that was as close to must-win at this point in the season as it gets.

Credit to John Gillon of Syracuse, a graduate transfer from Colorado State for catching fire, and setting a PNC Arena record with 43 points. After Maverick Rowan hit a huge three-pointer with less than 10 seconds on the clock, putting the Pack up by 3, many in the audience breathed a collective sigh of relief. As they say, the “Cardiac Pack” did what they do best, lose games in unfathomable ways.

Gillon made 10 of 13 shots and 9 of 10 3-pointers, the last a tough one with 1.8 seconds left on the clock, forcing overtime.

"They thought it was over," Gillon said. "I was just like, 'We're not losing this one, so we're going to keep pushing."

And push they did, pouring in 100 points against a confused and lackluster NC State defense, a troubling trend for NC State this season.  The going does not get any easier for the extremely young, but also very talented NC State squad, with a visit from Miami coming up next, a visit to Florida State and another matchup with a Wake Forest team that beat NC State earlier in January. After that comes UNC, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech, not exactly inspiring confidence to fans and players alike that an NCAA Tournament bid is even in the picture, save for a magical run in the ACC Tournament. For NC State, when they play up to their opponent’s talent level (and do not squander huge leads late in the game), they can beat most teams, like a very solid Duke squad. When NC State loses confidence and becomes seemingly disinterested in the game at hand, they can lose by 51 to UNC.

This may be the second year in a row where a potential top 2-3 pick in the NBA draft fails to make the NCAA Tournament (Ben Simmons and LSU last season). For Mark Gottfried’s sake and for a freshmen-laded team confidence and morale, let’s hope NC State can dig deep, play with heart as they did against Duke, and navigate (and win a few) of their remaining ACC games. State will then need to most likely go on a deep run in the ACC tournament, as we’ve now seen that even 20-22 wins in a stacked ACC conference puts you squarely on the bubble. The remaining games will tell us if NC State is indeed growing and learning under Gottfried, or if they are stuck in a quagmire too deep to climb out of.

 

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