NC State basketball plans to ‘clean up its mess’ with week off. It’ll take a lot of work
N.C. State’s locker room was somber.
Again.
Players tried to avoid the regular media availability by pulling out their phones or turning to face their lockers. Those who did speak were often short with their answers, frustration palpable.
The Wolfpack fell to newly-minted ACC opponent California, 65-62, Saturday, its third straight loss and fifth one-possession outcome in the past six games. Its three losses have been by a combined eight points.
“We’ve got to figure out how to clean up our mess,” head coach Kevin Keatts said. “Our mess is our mess. I wish I could look at you guys and say these teams are beating us. I think some of them are playing well. I just think some of it has to do what we’re not doing or have got to do better.”
The team has a week off to rest, recover and reset.
How does it do that? It’s going to take several things.
Keatts said a big part of it is consistency; a message he’s been preaching since early November but still hasn’t seen.
He doesn’t know who will be the leading scorer, who will hit 3s, who will distribute the ball and who will fight for rebounds. Even though the team has limited turnovers and held most opponents to fewer than 70 points, few things are the same from game-to-game.
“It’s tough, and we do feel good in practice. We come in and there’s periods of gains, where we do the right things, where we feel like we look really well, we look like a top level team,” Ben Middlebrooks said. “Then the problem is, there’s periods of games where we look pretty bad, and we make mistakes that we shouldn’t be making. We’ve got to figure that out.”
Keatts said the inconsistency is probably the biggest problem that’s leading to the one-possession losses. He also said there’s a lack of toughness and confidence.
When guys miss shots, he can see changes in their physical demeanor. They may not be as quick to get down the floor and defend. His players need to have the mental fortitude to move on and the confidence to rely on their preparation.
That’s one of the ongoing frustrations. Keatts’ staff regularly applies pressure in practice by simulating in-game scenarios; such as being down three with less than a minute to play, which it experienced Saturday, to leading by one. Except those haven’t always translated to the competition floor.
And when they do play well — see the four Cal turnovers in four first-half minutes — they can’t maintain it.
“Like I said, we’ve shown moments where we’re good,” Middlebrooks said. “We’re gonna have to try and focus on that, and focus on whatever upside we can find, and try and build on that.”
Keatts said N.C. State is facing a lack of leadership, too. There aren’t guys really stepping up to preach accountability and confidence. Point guard Michael O’Connell had been doing that — the Pack credits his increase of vocal leadership to its 2024 run — but Keatts isn’t seeing that now.
Middlebrooks said the team needs to find a will to win, but Keatts wants to see his senior share those messages in practice, see him vocalize that on the floor. Right now, no one is really doing that.
“We’ve got great kids. Do I have leaders in that locker room? Yes, but I need more,” Keatts said. “I need Ben Middlebrooks to be a leader. I need Michael to step up. It’s hard for the new guys, because they just don’t know what to say, and they have not had enough success in an N.C. State basketball jersey to be able to say something, but the guys who have been here, they know what it’s like. They know what ACC basketball is about. They know the ups and downs that you can have in the season. They know the prize at the end when you play well. I need them to share that and get us to where we need to be.”
After another heartbreaking loss, what’s the answer?
That’s still to be determined.
At this point, it starts with answering why. Why, unlike some teams, it can’t overcome some of the rough patches in a game to will itself to a strong finish. Why haven’t leaders emerged? Why are players still inconsistent? Then, figure out how to make corrections.
Keatts said he’ll be looking for common denominators in the past six games, offensively and defensively, to try and make adjustments. He’ll dole out some tough love — because he’s not done fighting. He’s not giving up, and he doesn’t want his players to give up, either.
“I just need our guys to develop a mentality of, ‘We’re gonna win these games no matter what,’” Keatts said. “The teams that take off are the teams that are like, ‘These are games we’re going to win.’”
N.C. State knows what belief can do for a team; it saw that less than a year ago. Now, it’s hoping it can pull off a similar turnaround.
