The last time out for the N.C. State men’s basketball team was a heartbreaking loss to rival North Carolina, but the Pack face a Georgia Tech team that has lost seven straight ACC games and has not won a conference game on the road all season.
The Wolfpack (14-13 overall, 4-9 ACC) hosts the Yellow Jackets (11-16 overall, 3-10 ACC) tomorrow afternoon at the RBC Center with tip-off scheduled for 2 p.m.
This game will be a test for the Pack in several ways. For one, State needs to show that it can fight for 40 minutes and finish games.
After riding high on a two-game win streak against Wake Forest and Clemson, State dropped its following two games to Maryland and North Carolina, both in meltdown fashion.
The Pack led in both games, but lost it down the stretch, falling to 10th-place in the ACC standings. Coach Sidney Lowe said the team has been faltering due to late turnovers.
“We just can’t afford to make those kinds of mistakes,” Lowe said. “At one point, we had a three-on-one and turned the ball over. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot there. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re playing hard, but we’ve got to become a smart team in order to win games.”
Turning the ball over is one reason for the consecutive losses the Pack has suffered, but blown scoring opportunities late in the game has also been a persistent problem for the team. Following the loss to Carolina, Lowe said the team needed to work on its shot selection.
“This was a lot like the game against Maryland — we took some poor shots,” Lowe said. “We’ve got to become a smarter basketball club. Losing games like this because of offense is not good. It’s tough. We’ve got to become a smarter team in terms of shot selection.”
Another test for the Pack will be shutting down Georgia Tech’s guards Iman Shumpert and Glen Rice, Jr. Both players are averaging double figures in points this season, and both have been hot as of late.
Shumpert is averaging 18.8 points per game since ACC play began, and Rice, Jr. has averaged the same amount in his last seven games. While both players can shoot the ball on point, they are also first and second on the team in rebounds, both averaging nearly six per game.
Meanwhile, the Pack has had an offensive duo of its own lately in senior forward Tracy Smith and freshman forward C.J. Leslie. Both players have scored in double digits in each of State’s last four games and are first and third on the team in rebounding, respectively.
The missing member for the big men in the last game was sophomore forward Richard Howell, who the Pack hopes it will get back for the matchup with the Yellow Jackets. Howell is second on the team in rebounding and is third on the team in blocks.
But Lowe says the player he has been most impressed with lately is freshman guard Lorenzo Brown.
“You know, Lorenzo’s got great size. He’s more a north-south player,” Lowe said. “And [Brown] showed in a tough environment, against a very good team, very good players, that he could handle the situation. And we will look at situations and play him more at the one.”
Brown has been a dynamic passer and ball handler all season, as he leads the team in assists. Brown has also received the most playing opportunity of the three standout freshmen, starting in 23 of the team’s 27 games and averaging the second-highest minutes on the team.
With the ACC tournament only three games away, State needs to start winning and the schedule certainly sets the team up with some winnable games. While the loss to Carolina was a tough one to swallow, Lowe knows that the team needs to pull it together and play smarter basketball to win the game on Saturday.
“It’s going to be tough to bounce back from this,” Lowe said. “But if our guys listen to the message we’re telling them, we’re going to be good. We’ve got the effort down. Now we’ve just got to become smarter basketball players and take smart shots. If we get that down, we’ll be fine.”
