Thursday Items

-- Javi ended up taking the last shot of the game thanks to a miscommunication. Gavin's right, though--the game was lost well before that. Also in the article:

Toward the tail end of the Wolfpack’s postgame press conference, as Lowe talked about his team’s mental errors, the State logo on the front of the lectern came unfastened, swaying from side to side, then falling to the carpet with a thud.

Call it a coincidence. Call it symbolism. But the Wolfpack’s season seems to be facing a similar fate.

That works on so many levels.

-- Kudos to Ken White, who manages to find the positives in last night's loss. I wish I could, too. But all this losing stuff wears you down after a while.

-- Tech's strategy: defend State like it defended UNC. In other words, not well. How laudable. Even with the turnovers, both Carolina and State had good days against the Jackets; our performance, 1.10 pts/poss, happened to be our best in conference play so far. Tech, by the way, has the worst defense in the league.

-- Speaking of defense...

The Pack lost the game on the defensive end in the final minutes. With 3:41 left in the game Fells completed a three-point play to give State a 65-63 lead. But the Pack would allow the Yellow Jackets to score on every possession in the last three minutes, turning a lead into a four-point deficit by the two minutes mark.

By my count, Tech scored 14 points on its final eight possessions.

I'm beginning to wonder if we are going to be able to stop anybody in the ACC. Our average defensive efficiency in the four games thus far stands at 112.6. That's not excused by the fact that we've faced a tough slate of offenses.

-- It could have been worse.