N.C. State committed a season-high 18 turnovers, didn’t play as smart defensively as they have recently and combined with a questionable coaching move, resulted in a 84-78 loss to Va. Tech Saturday afternoon. The loss dropped the Pack to a 5-2 conference record, with both losses coming on their home floor.
At first, it looked like the turnover battle was going to be a big plus for State. But it didn’t turn out that way because it did not turn those early turnovers into points and then it ended up turning over the ball almost as much as the Hokies.
But a back-and-forth game was lost due to a coaching decision.
Neither Ben Middlebrooks nor Mo Diarra were having a particularly good game. But with two big men on the rfloor, Tech had trouble getting a lot going defensively. Frustrated with some turnovers by his big men, coach Kevin Keatts took both of them out, first going with a combo of DJ Burns and Dennis Parker Jr. and then Burns and four guards. And it just didn’t work.
When Diarra turned the ball over with 6:47 remaining, State trailed by two. With Keatts going to a smaller lineup, it ballooned to a 14-point deficit at the 2:20 mark. Keatts went back to a bigger lineup and the Pack was able to cut the lead to five before running out of time. Parker finished the game with a plus/minus of -4 and Burns was -7. Both players logged 17 minutes in the game.
Keatts likes playing with a smaller unit and has had some success with that in previous years. But the plan fact is that two of Burns, Diarra and Middlebrooks should be on the floor at all times for this squad to be as good as it can be. The sooner Keatts embraces that, the better the team will be.
But as frustrating as going small was, the turnovers were even worse. State is one of the better teams in Division I in taking care of the ball but that just wasn’t the case on Saturday. And there was plenty of blame to go around. DJ Horne had four turnovers, while Burns and Middlebrooks had three apiece.
After going 0-8 in the last game on three-point attempts, the Pack missed their first five shots beyond the arc in this game. But they shot well after that, hitting six of their final 14 shots from long distance. State also did a nice job from the line, converting 20-24 foul shots, all of which came in the second half.
Casey Morsell led the way with 19 points. He hit two of his three 3-point shots and was 9-10 from the line. Horne had 16 and Jayden Taylor had 15 before fouling out.