RALEIGH -- It's difficult to increase squad depth in the middle of a basketball season, but N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried may have to try whether he likes the idea or not.
Based on the Wolfpack's limited bench production in Wednesday's 82-71 loss in the RBC Center to Georgia Tech, personnel numbers could be a recurrent problem during the ACC's regular-season grind.
With N.C. State basically employing a seven-man rotation and getting little offense from subs Alex Johnson and DeShawn Painter, the Yellow Jackets (8-8, 1-1) exploited Wolfpack foul trouble with surprising ease.
N.C. State (12-5, 1-1) was favored by nine points at home and seemed in decent control with five minutes left in the first half. But when sophomore forward C.J. Leslie picked up his second foul and Gottfried attempted to survive the half with Leslie benched, the momentum flipped fast. Up 26-21 shortly before the foul call, the Pack was down 40-29 at intermission.
While State's third sub - forward Thomas de Thaey - played only three minutes, nine Yellow Jackets played at least six minutes.
It was a skewed stat because Glen Rice, Jr. (22 points) didn't start for Georgia Tech, but the Yellow Jackets finished with a 27-5 bench scoring advantage. More importantly, Georgia Tech's bench edge allowed coach Brian Gregory to use an attrition strategy that N.C. State couldn't counter.
And that's the problem.
Even Wake Forest (10-6, 1-1) has enough frontcourt depth to hurt N.C. State on Saturday in Winston-Salem unless Leslie and Richard Howell can avoid foul trouble. N.C. State's starters were called for only 12 fouls Sunday in a 79-74 win over Maryland but got tagged for 18 Wednesday night.
For a team with a balanced, five-man offense, the difference between 12 and 18 fouls can be routinely challenging, and occasionally overwhelming.
Until Wednesday, Gottfried had been able to work around the issue. Even in the first three games of the season when Leslie wasn't available because of a suspension related to impermissible benefits that N.C. State reported to the NCAA, the Wolfpack was able to get by.
But the Yellow Jackets didn't merely hand N.C. State a critical loss - they also handed out a scouting report to other ACC teams.
Those teams with enough passable personnel to swap fouls probably will do so until State responds with more depth - and better free-throw shooting.
With Leslie (in 24 minutes of playing time) and Howell (29 minutes) combining for seven misses on 16 free-throw attempts, fouls were a problem coming and going.
