No excuses necessary for NC State after win at Virginia
The excuse was there for N.C. State. For once, the Wolfpack didn’t need it.
Instead of folding after forward D.J. Funderburk was erroneously given a technical foul, and subsequently fouled out 25 seconds later, N.C. State pulled out a 53-51 road win over Virginia on Monday night.
Throw in the absence of two regular rotation players and it could have been Excuse-a-palooza for the Wolfpack. Many, many (many) times in the past 25 years it would have been for N.C. State. An infamous technical foul on Damon Thornton at Maryland in 2000 immediately comes to mind.
But something else happened on Monday in a building where N.C. State (14-5, 5-3 ACC) had literally never won before. Everything was going wrong for N.C. State until it wasn’t.
“We just had to find a way to win and that’s what we did,” senior guard Markell Johnson said after the game.
Johnson’s 3-pointer with 2:44 left to give the Wolfpack a 48-47 lead was a big part of that. So was his game management. Johnson can be spectacular at times. He wasn’t on Monday. He was just steady — with seven points, five assists and no turnovers in 37 minutes — and that’s what N.C. State needed.
So many of N.C. State’s lead guards have come here and tried to dribble through Virginia’s hedged screens and left with more turnovers than field goals.
If we’re being honest, Virginia (12-6, 4-4) is a better-in-the-metrics-than-in-real-life team. The clutch scoring of stone-cold guards Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy is sorely missed but the Cavaliers still have the top defense in the NCAA.
Funderburk was having his way against Virginia’s trap-the-post defensive swarm. He made his first four shots and had 12 of N.C. State’s 28 first-half points. He was the best player on the floor. He was taking care of Virginia star Mamadi Diakite and everyone else Tony Bennett threw at him.
A perplexing foul call
Bennett then turned to Francisco Caffaro, a little-used 7-footer, to try to body Funderburk and slow him down. Caffaro threw a forearm shiver into Funderburk’s back at 7:14 in the second half with N.C. State up 42-39.
Referees Michael Stephens, James Breeding and Pat Driscoll somehow viewed the play and came away thinking both Caffaro and Funderburk deserved technical fouls.
It was a perplexing call.
“I mean the dude punched D.J. in the back,” N.C. State guard C.J. Bryce said. “I didn’t really understand the call.”
Neither did Funderburk.
“Honestly, I don’t know what happened,” Funderburk said. “I know he pushed me in my back or hit me in my back. I turned around and we had a couple of words exchanged. They called something before we even started talking to each other.”
On Virginia’s next trip down the floor, Funderburk was called for a touch foul on Caffaro.
Instead of coming unhinged, N.C. State plodded on.
“We told (D.J.) we had his back,” Bryce said.
Eventually they did. Virginia was able to take a 46-42 lead before the Wolfpack broke a 10-minute scoring drought.
Without Funderburk, N.C. State got a huge bucket from Jericole Hellems and then Johnson’s key 3 to take the lead back for good.
It was the kind of win N.C. State desperately needed. The two home wins last week against Miami and Clemson were nice but the Wolfpack needed something more.
With Virginia at No. 60 in the NET, this road win counts as a “Quadrant 1” win. With Wisconsin and UNC-Greensboro already in the top quadrant, that gives the Wolfpack three Q1 wins with eight weeks to Selection Sunday.
“We can only control what we can control,” said N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts, who has sworn off talking about the NET this season.
“It’s a great road win for us.”
It was and not just because it was its first win at Virginia in 15 years. Something bad happened to N.C. State and it survived. That’s a great precedent for an improving team to have and be able to use going forward.
This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 11:21 PM.
