NC State missed its first 12 three-point attempts Friday night, which is not something that I would have done, personally, but by the end of the game those early struggles were a distant memory. The poor
perimeter shooting allowed UAB to make a game of it for a half, but State’s offense began to turn it around in the later stages of the first half and just kept on rolling through the second.
It really doesn’t take much to ignite an offense with the firepower that this one clearly has, and as the threes started falling and Darrion Williams picked up his effort, the Blazers could find no answers. NC State shot 8-9 from the field to begin the second half and extended its lead to 17 in just five minutes. Jerry Deng and Quadir Copeland hit threes back-to-back that pushed the lead to 22 with 10 minutes left, and at that point UAB was fully toast.
The play wasn’t as bad as the shooting implied during the early parts of the game, though State played too fast at times and there were more forced shots than Will Wade would like. Fortunately, UAB was hardly better from beyond the arc, and the Blazers didn’t improve there as the game progressed, finishing just 4-25 from deep.
UAB did find success a little too easily against State’s press, however, and also got into the paint off the dribble a too regularly. The Blazers shot 54.3% on twos, which I’m sure will be an emphasis as State gets back to practice. NC State just doesn’t look quite connected defensively yet—not exactly surprising for a bunch of guys learning to play together—and made matters worse for itself Friday by struggling on the defensive glass. There is a lot to work on here. (Including a certain someone with an unfortunately robust average of 1.0 technical fouls per game.)
But that’s why Will Wade put teams like UAB on the schedule—you learn a lot more, faster, with some early challenges. NC State answered the bell impressively, and dominated a big portion of the game even though Ven-Allen Lubin was limited in his impact by foul trouble and Williams had a modest night. Paul McNeill scored 18, Quadir Copeland added 18 of his own, and State shot over 74% on twos. Already this group is showing us a lot of different ways it can win games at the offensive end. It’s pretty fun.
