Pack learning from its mistakes

RALEIGH -- The growth of N.C. State's basketball team can be measured by the Wolfpack's finish, winning three of its final four games, but also by its scoring lapses.

Eight times in the ACC, the Wolfpack went longer than 4 minutes in a game without scoring but only two of those droughts came in the past five games.

It shows, senior Dennis Horner said, that State is learning from the mistakes it made early in conference play.

"We're finding out the difference between a bad shot and a good shot," Horner said.

To Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe, that's the most encouraging part about how his team finished. The Wolfpack faces Clemson in the first round of the ACC tournament in the final game on Thursday night.

In State's 73-70 home loss to the Tigers on Jan. 16 in Raleigh, State went 5 minutes and 1 second in the first half without scoring a point. The Wolfpack fell behind by 21 points before a late rally made it a game.

State hit dry spells in home games against Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia Tech and also on the road at Virginia and Virginia Tech. The longest drought of the ACC season, 8 minutes and 19 seconds, came in a 77-63 home loss to UNC.

Eight times in seven games State went at least 4:13 without a point. The Wolfpack lost all seven games, with the 5:03 lapse at Virginia Tech on March 3 as the most recent and the one that provided junior guard Javier Gonzalez the opportunity to deliver the quote of the season.

When asked if the players were thinking too much during the scoring droughts, Gonzalez said:

"Sometimes that's the problem, we don't even think about it."

There was something different about that dry spell at Virginia Tech. Even while State wasn't scoring, it was getting stops on defense. Typically, the droughts have turned into runs for the opposition, and big runs have turned into losses.

But how State handled the lapse at Virginia Tech, even while it was making mistake after mistake on offense, showed a form of progress.

"It wasn't because we missed a lot of shots, we turned it over," Lowe said of the Virginia Tech loss last week. "I know that we've made progress just in watching how we're a little more patient. We're moving the ball and [our] bodies."

The second-half lapse at Virginia Tech, which saw a two-point game turn into a 12-point loss, exemplified what goes wrong when the offense goes south. Fighting a double-team, forward Tracy Smith turned the ball over twice during the stretch trying to make a play.

Turnovers, early shots in the shot clock and just plain bad shots, Lowe said, have led to the long scoreless streaks. Since losing a 10-point lead in the second half against Maryland on Feb. 17, State has had only one extended stretch without scoring.

Lowe said that's because both Gonzalez has improved his play in the past three games and taken control of the offense but also because more players are aware of what's happening.

"I want everyone to understand [what's going on]," Lowe said. "I think we're getting closer to that."