NC State basketball keeps its focus on ACC tournament, away from late-season stumbles
N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts used the term “short-term memory” in talking about Terquavion Smith’s approach to his spotty shooting of late.
Keatts also could make it an operative phrase for the Wolfpack heading into the ACC Tournament in Greensboro this week.
The Pack lost the last two games of the regular season. The first was a 25-point beating from Clemson in the Wolfpack’s last home game at PNC Arena, which was humbling.
At a time when NCAA types are mulling over NCAA tournament selections, this is not the time to be losing games — in essence, giving the NCAA committee a reason not to include you if you’re not a conference champion with automatic entry.
“I feel like everything is completely out of our hands,” Keatts said Monday of the Pack’s NCAA chances.. “I will say at N.C. State, we’re excited about the record we have.”
The Pack, after going 11-21 and finishing last in the ACC last season, will go into the ACC tournament 22-9 overall and 12-8 in the ACC. The Wolfpack was No. 41 on Monday in the NET rankings used by the NCAA committee.
Smith and Jarkel Joiner, a transfer from Ole Miss, both were second-team All-ACC selections
As Keatts put it, “We’ve done a lot.”
One way to avoid the tension on selection day is to win the ACC championship, which the Wolfpack has not done since 1987.
Asked Monday if the Pack, the No. 6 seed in Greensboro, could win four games in four days and take the title, Smith did not hesitate.
“Yes,” the sophomore guard said.
There was no follow up. As Smith later said, it’s a matter of the Pack going into the tournament, winning the first game Wednesday against either Virginia Tech or Notre Dame and moving on from there. No looking back or looking ahead.
“It doesn’t matter what happened earlier in the season or these last couple of weeks,” Smith said Monday.
Smith passed up a shot at the NBA after his freshman season for another year of college ball, intent on being a part of a turnaround for Keatts and the Wolfpack program. For much of this season he was the ACC’s leading scorer, combining his NBA-like quickness with a fearlessness that at times seemed reckless or led to some bad spills — his crash landing at North Carolina being the scariest of his falls.
But after a 32-point game against Florida State on Feb. 1, Smith has averaged 12.25 points in the last eight games of the regular season. He was 16-of-61 on 3-pointers (26.2%) in the eight games as opposing teams became more physical defensively against the lean 6-4, 165-pounder from Greenville.
Smith said the rough stuff has not bothered him, noting, “I don’t think it has affected my shooting. I feel like all those games I took shots I normally take. It just didn’t go in.
“That’s just the way it is. You have to have a short memory with that type of stuff. I feel like I’ll be fine.”
Smith was 3-for-15 from the field and appeared frustrated against Clemson but had a lot of company on the Pack that day as the Tigers led from start to finish. Against Duke, he got into a shoving match with the Blue Devils’ Tyrese Proctor and picked up a technical foul after a review of the play.
Smith made two late 3-pointers, his only baskets of the game, in the Pack’s 71-67 loss at Duke last week as Joiner carried the scoring load with 26 points – that after a freak ankle injury by Joiner early in the game.
Keatts remains confident that Smith can reclaim his shooting touch and again be the consistent scorer he was for much of the season.
“I have no concern about him,” Keatts said Monday. “If it was somebody else I would be really concerned but he might not even know he missed that many shots. He, as a guy who can shoot the basketball, has a short-term memory and he’s been fine.
“When you go into those situations, it’s almost like free throws. If you talk about it too much it becomes a major problem. He’s gotten in the gym and is working on his shot and will continue working on his shot, but he’s the type of guy, he can miss 10 and he may not be playing well and he goes into the tournament and may not miss.”
As for Smith’s shot selection, Keatts added, “His shot selection hasn’t changed since the day he got here. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, I’m just telling you that.”
The Wolfpack was the only ACC team not to have a game this past weekend, allowing time to mix in practices with some rest. Keatts said Joiner experienced soreness in his right ankle after the Duke game and was held out of a few workouts.
“What he did at Duke was simply amazing,” Keatts said. “When I went over there and I saw him I thought he’s be out for the entire game or maybe a week or two. For him to come back in the game and to play the way he played was outstanding and says a lot about him. He’ll be ready to go Wednesday.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
