The North Carolina game is always a crucible for N.C. State, a test that football coach Tom O\u2019Brien has embraced. But the men\u2019s basketball team produced an embarrassing effort Saturday that highlighted the deficiencies of this Wolfpack team.<\/p>\n
State has talent, but that\u2019s not enough. Whether Ryan Harrow is on the bench or not with the flu, there is no excuse, none at all, for lazy play. College basketball players, whether playing their rival in the Smith Center on ESPN or playing Delaware State before a small crowd, should give their all. UNC did that Saturday, and great coaches like Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski get maximum effort from their teams.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not the case with N.C. State. Carolina roared out to a 19-6 lead early in the game thanks to a 15-2 rebounding advantage. That\u2019s simply an outrageous imbalance. One of the rare mistakes the Tar Heels made in the game is they once had six players on the floor, which was comical given that UNC seemed capable of winning this game with only four.<\/p>\n
But there were little moments that were telling. Carolina\u2019s Kendall Marshall zoomed right down the middle of the NCSU defense untouched, missed a shot and there were two Tar Heels to rebound. Richard Howell got caught in a double-team, and as ESPN astutely pointed out, not a single Wolfpacker rushed to get the ball. You could see it clearly on the replay \u2013 with Howell in trouble, his four teammates just stood there.<\/p>\n
State never moved with crisp efficiency on offense, preferring to hope a player could beat his man and get a basket.<\/p>\n
And as for overall hustle, you just didn\u2019t see that from State. Harrison Barnes once beat two Wolfpack players to a loose ball. Late in the game, C.J. Leslie made almost no effort for a loose ball as two Carolina players went after it.<\/p>\n
The only conclusion you can draw is N.C. State is simply a lazy team. They have some guys who play hard \u2013 Tracy Smith, Lorenzo Brown, Ryan Harrow \u2013 but not enough. By game\u2019s end, UNC fans were chanting, \u201cNot our rival!\u201d Right now, that\u2019s the case. This was a ridiculous performance from N.C. State, and it\u2019s school, and fan base, deserve better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The North Carolina game is always a crucible for N.C. State, a test that football coach Tom O\u2019Brien has embraced. But the men\u2019s basketball team…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,81,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-n-c-state-wolfpack","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-81-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":945,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}