Defense has held NC State back all season

That was quick.

Three weeks ago, N.C. State was celebrating its first road win at Duke in 22 years.

Five games later? There are doubts about Mark Gottfried’s future as N.C. State’s coach and the Wolfpack (14-12, 3-10 ACC) has lost five straight.

The annual home game with No. 10 North Carolina (21-5, 9-3) doesn’t so much conjure up memories of the rivalry’s glorious past as it does the 107-56 beatdown the Tar Heels put on N.C. State in Chapel Hill on Jan. 8.

As bad as that loss was, a “disaster” as Gottfried called it on Tuesday, it wasn’t the beginning of the Wolfpack’s problems this season.

N.C. State has had season-long issues on defense. Only once since the ACC was formed in 1953-54 has the Wolfpack given up more points in league play (86.7 per game) than it has through 13 league games this season.

Those problems were clear during N.C. State’s uneven performance in nonconference play with close calls against low-major also-rans and losses to its only major opponents. N.C. State gave up 112 points to Creighton on Nov. 20, the second-most in any game in school history, and then allowed Illinois to score 56 points in the second half of an 88-74 road loss on Nov. 29.

The Illini shot 67.9 percent in the second half against N.C. State and scored nearly as many points in 20 minutes as it did in an 89-57 loss to West Virginia on Nov. 24.

“If we keep doing that, it’s going to be bad for our team,” freshman forward Ted Kapita said after the Illinois game.

Kapita didn’t quite know how right he would be or how bad it could get.

80-point games

The numbers paint a bleak enough of a picture without any historical context. The Wolfpack ranks No. 324, out of 351 teams, in points allowed per game (79.9) and No. 246 in 3-point FG defense (opponents make 36.1 percent of their 3s).

N.C. State has allowed 10 of its 13 ACC opponents score at least 80 points – and have lost nine of those games. The 1990-91 team is only other in school history to allow that many 80-point games in league play.

The 1975-76 team is the only one that allowed more points per ACC game (88.3) than this one. That Norm Sloan team, featuring Kenny Carr, was able to outscore some opponents and go 7-5 in ACC play.

Gottfried entered the season hoping to win with offense, his best teams’ calling card, but also to use their depth to improve on defense. Save for a 112-60 exhibition win against Barton, N.C. State hasn’t been able to use its depth and defense to create easy points in transition.

But N.C. State has been able to score. At 79.9 points per game, the Wolfpack ranks No. 47 nationally in scoring offense and is on pace for the program’s highest-scoring team since the 1995-96 season.

As Gottfried said after he looked at the box score from a 100-93 overtime loss to Syracuse on Feb. 1: “We did enough to win the game.”

With Smith leading five players in double-figures, scoring hasn’t necessarily been a problem but stopping others has.

A level of immaturity

Part of N.C. State’s problem on defense is effort. More than anything, that has led to the fans’ ire with Gottfried. The 107-56 loss at UNC was the largest in any ACC game in school history. The 88-58 loss at Wake Forest was the largest ever on the road to the Demon Deacons.

But even before those blowouts, an 81-63 loss at Miami on Dec. 31 offered a glimpse into the problems to come.

“They just played harder than we did,” Smith said after the game. “That’s the end of it.”

Wake Forest guard Keyshawn Woods suggested N.C. State quit after it fell behind early to the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem on Saturday. Gottfried does not agree with that assessment but does think inexperience plays a big role in the Wolfpack’s defensive woes.

“When you get punched in the mouth, how hard do you fight back?” Gottfried said.

There is a level of “immaturity” to the team, Gottfried said, that shows when N.C. State goes through a rough stretch and doesn’t know how to respond. Two freshmen start (Smith and Yurtseven) and two more get regular minutes (Kapita and guard Markell Johnson).

Henderson, a senior transfer from West Virginia, missed nearly two full seasons. Sophomore guard Torin Dorn sat out last season after he transferred from Charlotte. Smith missed his senior season in high school with a major knee injury.

Sophomore Maverick Rowan and junior Abdul-Malik Abu are N.C. State’s only experienced players on the roster and defense is not the strength of either player.

The missing glue guy

Along with experience, there is a toughness element missing. Forward Lennard Freeman, who would be a senior, is redshirting to recover from a leg injury that lingered during the 2015-16 season. Freeman only averaged 3.2 points and 5.0 rebounds last season but he is the team’s best defender on high screens and the best screener on offense.

“Lennard is kind of that glue guy for a lot of different reasons,” Gottfried said. “He doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet but he finds a way to help you win.”

In a perfect world, Gottfried would have had Freeman and senior forward BeeJay Anya as the team’s experienced, veteran leaders.

“It didn’t work out that way,” Gottfried said.

Anya, who has had problems with his weight throughout his career, showed up in August at 344 pounds and has not been able to consistently contribute. Gottfried suspended Anya for one game, a 95-71 loss at Florida State on Feb. 8, after long-standing tensions between the two bubbled over in practice two days before the trip to FSU.

‘Not just one thing’

Along with a new roster, Gottfried also has two new assistant coaches, Heath Schroyer and Butch Pierre, this season. Gottfried said after the team struggled on defense last season, going 5-13 in the ACC, he wanted new ideas and decided to replace assistant Bobby Lutz, who was in charge of the defensive game-planning.

With the new coaches have come a change in strategy on defense. While Lutz preferred to not switch on screens and go “over” or “hedge” high screens, Gottfried has tried some different schemes in man defense.

Earlier in the season, when N.C. State played more man defense, Gottfried tried to switch more and go “under” screens. That strategy backfired against Syracuse when guard John Gillon scored 43 points and made nine 3-pointers.

Even before the Syracuse loss, there were bigger problems with the man defense. The players had a “summer league” attitude, as Gottfried called it. The N.C. State players would gamble on steals and play lazy two-dribble defense rather than make a sustained effort.

Gottfried has tried to use more zone, a 2-3 matchup, to correct some of the problems with the man defense. The zone has worked with mixed success, giving them a spark in the 84-82 win at Duke on Jan. 23, but also leading to some rebounding problems in recent losses to Miami and Florida State.

“It’s not just one thing,” Gottfried said of his team’s defensive problems.

It never is when the season spirals out of control as quickly this one has. Before the recent problems, N.C. State clung to hope. The Duke win was only 22 days ago. There was plenty of optimism in the summer, when Gottfried made some late roster moves to seemingly set the team up for success this season.

Even then, Gottfried understood the promise of the season but also its fragility.

“We’re the team of ‘ifs,’ ” Gottfried said in a near empty gym in late July and then started to list what had to happen for the season to go right.

Not enough of those “ifs” have come home to save this season.

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Defense has held NC State back all season."