Yesterday took them to the Carrier Dome to take on Syracuse. State did play better overall than I expected. Syracuse's 2-3 zone has frustrated teams for 25 years or however long Jim Boeheim has been there. NC State's outside shooting other than Scott Wood has been suspect. Tracy Smith wasn't going to be operating in the middle of the zone.
State gave a solid effort but too many turnovers, some missed free throws, and some other mistakes got Syracuse off the hook. The Orangemen escaped with a 65-59 win.
Scott Wood had 18 points on 6 3-pointers. CJ Leslie figured out how to operate on the interior of the zone and notched his first career double-double and the best game since his first. He had 13 points and 11 rebounds. But the two of them didn't get enough help. Javier Gonzalez had 9 points and 4 assists, but Lorenzo Brown disappeared. He had 6 assists but only 2 points. State fell to 4-3 but they return home to some lighter competition to continue to find their rhythm and Tracy Smith may only miss one more game.
State played pretty well without Smith in the win against George Mason but they've been rocky in the other games, and it's not just because the quality of competition elevated.
I think their problem is that they have a bunch of very good athletes, probably the most athletic team since I've been watching them hands down, but that shines most in the open floor. So they need to get out on the break, force turnovers, and run more.
When they get to the halfcourt set they bog down. It's very obvious they need someone to run the offense through. That needs to be Tracy Smith. Smith would have done some major damage on the interior of Syracuse's zone last night. State did finally figure out how to attack the zone. CJ Leslie figured out where to operate on the floor. State also got the ball inside to Jordan Vandenberg. But he isn't Tracy Smith and he's not an offensive threat, so the response of Syracuse's zone was zero. The ball went in, the ball came back out, reset. If Smith was catching that ball, the defense would have come to him opening up some lanes, and freeing up some outside shooters for a good look on the kick. So they need him back.
Without a go-to guy Ryan Harrow has had some trouble making forced passes, penetrating too deep or getting stuck in the air with nobody to pass to, and turnovers commence. He's very talented but defenses have figured out how to contain him a bit and there's still a learning curve here.
CJ Leslie also needs Smith. Prior to yesterday he's been pretty aimless out there in the half court set. He either forces a bad shot, takes something outside of his range, or takes it into traffic and gets swatted. If he's going to freelance a bit to take advantage of his athleticism he needs Tracy Smith down low as well to draw double teams to give Leslie room to cut and drive to the basket. In time he'll develop an ACC grade jump shot (one hopes) but not yet.
Am I panicking or thinking State's freshmen are overhyped? No, they'll all gel. But as good as they are they need Tracy Smith to be the centerpiece off the offense and play off of the offensive threat he provides. He scored only 10 against Tennessee Tech in the season opener, as I think he deliberately deferred in a game he wasn't needed to get the freshman comfortable and in a rhythm in their debut. That's leadership. But then he went down with the knee tweak 6 minutes into Game 2 against ECU.
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