I hate it when this happens.
Wouldn’t you know it, all of the things that have plagued NC State this season reared their familiar heads again last night. NC State turned in its worst defensive performance of the season, surrendering 1.33 points per possession to Louisville, and afterward Kevin Keatts naturally wanted to dwell on this end of the floor.
Normally I would come in here and talk about how our defense has really kept us in a lot of games but I didn’t think it was very good tonight. We didn’t do a good job understanding scouting reports. We knew Louisville was a great shooting team, not a good shooting team, but a great one, and obviously gave up 11 threes and they were 11-19. We just had too many breakdowns defensively.
We have been in every game because our defense has really kept us in games and tonight was a one-off … I hope it’s a one-off. I just didn’t think we did a great job on the defensive end …
But has the defense kept State in games? Relative to the offense, sure, I guess: NC State ranks 17th in offensive efficiency in league games, and 13th in defensive efficiency. State has allowed 1.1 PPP or more in six of 13 ACC games, including its three worst efforts of the season. Last night was unique in that it happened in Raleigh—the Pack has been especially dreadful away from home—but mostly it was just a more extreme episode in what has become an extended series of televised unpleasantness.