NC State 78, Pride of Aberdeen 71

We're talkin' hoops here, which means of course...tempo-free stats! If you were reading this site--or Ken Pomeroy's site, or Big Ten Wonk, or Hawkeye Hoops--last season, you know the drill. If not, I suggest you look over Ken's stats glossary and take a minute to familiarize yourself with the four factors. I also have a bunch of primers linked in the sidebar. The best way to get a feel for these numbers (if you're new to 'em) and put them into context is to spend some time looking around the leaderboards on Ken Pomeroy's stats page. Here, for example, is the leaderboard for the offensive rating category.

NC State

Four Factors	Percent
eFG%	56
Turnover Rate	26.4
Off Reb Rate	29.6
FTM/FGA	44

Northern State

Four Factors	Percent
eFG%	53.4
Turnover Rate	27.7
Off Reb Rate	27.0
FTM/FGA	15.5

-- NC State scored 78 points on about 76 possessions, which is a mediocre 103 pts/100 possessions. As you can see from State's eFG%, shooting wasn't the problem; it was the high turnover rate that killed the offense. Lowe promised a more up-tempo style, and for this game at least, that's what we got.

-- The Pack defense held NSU to 94 pts/100 poss. That would be a good number against a major conference foe, but it doesn't look so hot against a D-II team. We're lucky they turned the ball over as much as we did.

-- Gavin's offensive rating for this game was 124, and it came with a usage above 28%. If Gavin can keep his O Rtg above 110 this season while at the same time using 28% of the team's possessions, it would be huge. That's a best-case (and totally unrealistic) scenario, though. I'll be enthused if he can keep it around 105 with such a high workload.

-- Brandon Costner...uh, a little rusty. He was the Pack's best rebounder tonight, however.

-- Headline on NSU's hideous athletics website: "Northern Gives Up 71-78 Decision With NC State." Do what now? That's the sort of broken English I'd expect from Guelph.