State had one final chance for a resume building win outside of the ACC when Arizona came to Raleigh for the back end of a home-and-home series. Last year Arizona barely escaped at their place with Tracy Smith suspended for one game. Smith was out again for this game, and State again lost.
Arizona pulled away with a 10-0 run mid-way through the second half to win 72-62. State shot 31.8% from the floor and continues to be one of the worst shooting teams in the country. They desperately need Tracy Smith's consistency inside because they're not a good outside shooting team with the exception of Scott Wood. CJ Leslie, Richard Howell, and Deshawn Painter have gotten manhandled inside at times. Leslie needs to add some muscle. Howell and Painter just aren't explosive leapers and don't have polished inside games so they get shots swatted at times.
Scott Wood hit 4 3-pointers and had 16 points. He tried to keep State in the game but it didn't work out. Lorenzo Brown had 14 points. Richard Howell had 12 points and 7 rebounds.
Ryan Harrow however had only 6 points on 1-9 shooting. CJ Leslie was even worse, with 2 points on 1-14 shooting. He did have 11 rebounds, but it's hard to win when 2 of your top scorers combine to shoot 2-23 from the floor.
As a result, State is now 6-4 on the year. They have, I think, 4 more non-conference games. They'd be expected to win them all. But they need Smith back, and their best rotation needs to gel in a hurry in ACC play. I'd think with 10 wins going into ACC play 9-7 would be a must at this point to avoid the NIT yet again. That would make for 19 regular season wins, though they need some ranked teams on that list.
This isn't the chemistry debacle of J.J. Hickson's lone season, but it's a talented bunch of young players lacking the steadying go-to guy who was supposed to be the glue and bring the best out in them and lead the team.
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