NC State basketball’s defense ‘didn’t travel’ to Florida State, in a game it had to have
The first words out of Kevin Keatts here late Tuesday night were about defense, as anyone might’ve expected, and about the lack of it for N.C. State against Florida State. The Wolfpack arrived in Tallahassee with plain knowledge of what was required, both in this game and late in a season that has turned ugly, and then it went out and offered perhaps its worst defensive performance.
It was a striking meltdown on that end of the court for State, whose dwindling NCAA Tournament hopes were already on life support even before Tuesday. Now, after the 90-83 defeat against the Seminoles, at least the postseason calculus seems simpler and less complicated for the Wolfpack: pretty much its only hope of making the tournament is to win the ACC tournament.
This is an N.C. State team that was once 5-1 in the ACC; a team that looked to be headed for good things after that victory against Wake Forest in mid-January. The Wolfpack that night persevered through some strange officiating moments and through Keatts’ early ejection and through a dogged, never-say-die effort from Wake, and afterward Keatts talked his talk.
And why not? State, at the time, had a lot of reasons for confidence and bravado.
But there just wasn’t much to say after this, late on a depressing Tuesday night in the Donald L. Tucker Center. The Wolfpack’s defensive effort, or lack thereof, was only part of a grim evening here, where only a few thousand or so bothered to show up. This was like one of those old-school ACC basketball games played with a blizzard raging outside, and fans unable to make it – except, well, we were in Florida, and it was 60 degrees, and spectators just didn’t care.
They were hardly the only no-shows. Keatts held the boxscore after arriving for his postgame press conference and studied it for a bit and said, looking at all those points, that “it was a great offensive game.”
“But that doesn’t win you games on the road,” Keatts said. “And I didn’t think our defense traveled tonight.”
The question is how that could be, both in the context of this season and this point in Keatts’ seventh at N.C. State. His team most certainly knew the deal Tuesday night. It knew that just about any prospect of making the NCAA Tournament, however long and remote the odds, included beating FSU on the road. It knew that this was essentially a must win.
It knew, presumably, what kind of effort a victory would require. It had to know, in the first seconds of taking the court at the Tucker Center, that this was to be one of those bring-your-own-energy kind of games, given the malaise in the building and empty section upon empty section of burgundy seats — plenty of good ones still available — that were impossible to miss.
And then the Wolfpack went out there and did, well ... that.
State allowed FSU to shoot 60% from the field. The 90 points were the most the Wolfpack had surrendered in any ACC game this season, and most since a 95-86 loss against BYU on Nov. 24. Yes, State hung around and gave itself a chance, despite the defensive breakdowns. Credit there for that. But this was another game of “almost” and “what could’ve been,” in a season now full of them.
“Once again, our defense didn’t travel,” Keatts said, repeating his earlier line. “It’s hard to win any ACC game when you give up 90 points.”
It wasn’t effort, necessarily, he said, but that his team had “a shootout mentality.”
“And that wasn’t good,” Keatts said. “And you know, obviously, like I said — we scored enough. If I let you see one side of the box score, you’d be like [shoot], N.C. State won the game by 11.”
Instead, it suffered a defeat that all but ends any NCAA Tournament talk, as far-fetched as any of that already was even before Tuesday. Against the Seminoles, the Wolfpack played not like a team with its season hanging in the balance, but as though this was a casual sort of get-together; an exhibition in front of a few thousand who took advantage of general admission seating.
The Wolfpack labored to handle screens that left open FSU players. State had trouble, too, defending the Seminoles in transition. FSU shot 60% in large part because it created easy scoring opportunities. Afterward, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton appeared downright jolly with the victory, for it hasn’t been the easiest of seasons for him and his program, either.
He walked into his postgame press conference joking with reporters about how he was surprised to still see them there so late; that he thought they’d already be “at the club.”
“Club Waffle House,” somebody said, referencing the all-night diner.
“I might need to go with you,” Hamilton said, laughing. “I know my wife didn’t cook anything.”
Well, his team cooked plenty, as the kids say. It cooked the Wolfpack all night long, in a game State had to have. In losing, the Wolfpack wasted standout efforts from Casey Morsell, who finished with 19 points and broke out of a prolonged slump. Jayden Taylor finished with 24, and made four 3-pointers.
Indeed, with those two performances, and with 83 points, State did enough offensively. Defensively, Keatts said, his players didn’t follow the scouting report. The effort and execution on that end were befitting of an environment without any energy or much life. State still has “a few more opportunities,” Keatts said, referencing a final stretch that includes games at North Carolina and at home against Duke, but those games feel like they matter less after this, on Tuesday.
The Wolfpack knew the stakes in Tallahassee. It was all the more confounding, then, that it left its defense at home.
This story was originally published February 28, 2024 at 9:37 AM.
