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NC State Basketball: NC State Wolfpack Loss to William and Mary Raises Important Questions

By James Fitzgerald

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“It is not what you do but how you do it” is a phrase that applies to a lot of facets of life. You can surely apply it to the way a team loses in basketball.

Some losses come across as moral victories, while others are surefire indictments of the present state of the team.

The North Carolina Wolfpack are already looking in the mirror after being one of the power conference casualties at the hands of a mid-major school with some firepower.

The NC State Wolfpack lost to the William and Mary Tribe 85-68 on Friday night. The margin with which the Wolfpack lost is alarming enough, but when you take into consideration the other parameters surrounding the loss, you have to wonder if the defeat is cause for panic in the early going.

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First of all, the Wolfpack lost a home opener against a William and Mary team that is picked to finish around the middle of the Colonial Athletic Association.

Though the tribe brought back four returning starters from a team that has made two straight CAA Championship Final appearances, you would think that NC State would have the advantage being at home and having been perceived as the superior ACC talent.

Obviously, that assumption was wrong.

What also was alarming, which plays into the “it’s not what you do but how you do it” narrative, is the woeful shooting display that took place on the Wolfpacks’ home floor.

NC State only knocked down 38% of their shots for the game and 27.3% of their shots from three-point land in the contest.

Cat Barber, who is someone the Wolfpack are depending on to bring a little more offensive punch to the floor this season was a meager 4 of 16.

Maverick Rowan, who is someone NC State is going to need for added depth was 6 of 15.

They are going to need to be more efficient.

But the thing that is the most alarming is that of the eight players that took the floor for NC State,  only four people truly had an offensive contribution.

Caleb Martin had 21, Abdul Malik-Abu had 17, Cat Barber had 11, and Maverick Rowan had 16.

We are not trying to disregard Beejay Anya’s three-points, but the NC State Wolfpack seem to be in trouble.

The trouble may not rear it’s head too often in the nonconference schedule, but in ACC the problem could be glaring–that problem being inexperienced scoring options and lack of depth. Last season the people mentioned provided the depth for the team.

Now with Trevor Lacey, Ralston Turner and Kyle Washington all gone, these players are being depended on, but they are still going through the process of finding their game, while Mark Gottfried finds viable reinforcements for them off the bench.

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    • When you do the math on all of that, it equals the beginning of a growth process that could take quite a few games to figure out.

    NC State plays against South Alabama Sunday evening, and the Wolfpack are going to want to take out some frustration on them.

    South Alabama is picked to finish in the middle of the Sun Belt Conference and only won 12 games last season.

    Fans need to see a blowout in this game to temporarily ease their minds, but even if they see a blowout they should still be concerned about there chances in ACC conference play.

    The Wolfpack need to get answers to the questions surrounding this year’s team.  Those questions being, “Where is the depth?  Do we have enough consistent weapons around Cat Barber?  Can we be efficient?”.

    These things need to be answered by January. In the meantime, we will be watching this South Alabama game closely.