Losing season now possible for N.C. State

N.C. State's basketball season could quickly spiral downward if Saturday's 84-71 loss at Florida State was any indication. The Wolfpack was picked for fourth in the ACC this year in preseason, but that looks like a vast misjudgment by the media based on early results. It is now conceivable that State could have a losing season, and you can't imagine that athletics director Debbie Yow would judge Sidney Lowe favorably in that situation.

The Pack was never in the game at Tallahassee as a season-long indifference toward defense continued. "That was probably the worst defense I've seen us play in a long time," Lowe told The News & Observer. "It really hurt us."

Florida State shot 69 percent from the floor in the second half. For the game, the Seminoles never trailed, outscored State 20-8 on points off turnovers and held the Wolfpack to 19 first-half points.

Even more amazing was that State did not score a single point on a fast break, while FSU scored 11.

The stretch ahead could be gruesome for the Wolfpack. Duke visits the 19th, followed by Miami, at Clemson, at UNC, Virginia Tech and at Duke. State has some young talent, but this season could get even uglier fast.

North Carolina improves from an ugly win to a not so pretty win

North Carolina improved from an ugly performance against Virginia to merely a "not pretty" game against Virginia Tech as the Heels won 64-61.

After getting down by 16 in the first half, the Tar Heels went on a 9-0 run at the end of the first half to cut the margin to seven.

That stretch may have saved the game for the Heels. The run was highlighted by a pair of bank shots by freshman Kendall Marshall and an alley-oop pass from Marshall to John Henson for a dunk.

Virginia Tech had hit six threes, including five without a miss, but the Hokies did not score over the last six minutes of the half. Despite the Hokies having had a big lead and leading by seven, the game felt even. You just knew it was going to get closer.

Still, it took the Heels more than 10 minutes into the second half before they got the lead. It went back and forth before an 8-0 Carolina run put the Heels up 55-52 with 3:14 to go.

Harrison Barnes had his best stretch of the game with five of those eight points. The other three came on an unlikely triple from Marshall who swished it from out front.

Marshall wasn't the leading scorer but he was the leader and he seems well on his way to displacing starting point guard Larry Drew II. Marshall had nine points and nine assists without a turnover. Plus, he played 24 minutes as compared to 16 for Drew.

For more on the Virginia Tech game, please click here.

So much for going undefeated as Duke shoots just 31 percent

For all the pundits who saw Duke waltzing through the ACC regular season and tournament, think again. After a close victory at home against Maryland, Duke went down to Florida and fell to Florida State 66-61 tonight.

The Blue Devils managed to hit only 31 percent of their field goals, and relied too heavily on the three-point shot, hoisting up 35 of them.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski doesn't so much believe that as he believes Florida State's defense was just that good. "They just played great defense," Coach K said. "Their defense just dominated our offense for about 25 minutes."

He said his team played well the last 15 minutes or so but that Florida State played the full 40 minutes.

"Florida State played with an unbelievable amount of emotion and their defense was just great," he added. "I've said all along we're not a great team since Kyrie's (Irving) injury but we have a chance to be a good team."

Duke was ranked No. 1 and had won 25 straight games dating back to last season. Many were not only handing the ACC regular season title to the Devils but expecting them to go undefeated through the ACC tournament.

"Each team has to learn through tough experiences," Coach K said. "We're going to get everyone's best shot."

We said after the close win over Maryland that took late threes to win it, that it would be tough for Duke to go undefeated. Having the loss so early in the ACC season may actually help the Blue Devils. Running the table will still give Duke the ACC regular season title and there no longer will be that pressure and conversation about Duke being undefeated.

For their part, Florida State, 12-5, played well coming off a 12-point loss to Virginia Tech. Derwin Kitchen, who hit a big off-balanced baseline jumper late in the game, led all scorers with 22 points. Chris Singleton, who drained an open three with less than three minutes to play after Duke had cut the lead to one, added 18. Florida State hit five straight free throws over the last 34 seconds.

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said his players stuck to the game plan, kept their poise and made some big defensive stops. "I hope they (his players) understand now the way we have to play in order to be successful," Hamilton said.

Duke, 15-1, were led by Kyle Singler's 20 points and Nolan Smith's 19.

Pack coaches ultimately responsible for State's defensive lapses

It's only the first ACC game, but N.C. State's efforts Tuesday night in a 75-66 loss at Boston College continued what has been a recurring theme with the program in recent seasons.

"We just didn't defend," Lowe told the Associated Press after the game. "We had a three-point lead and I just think we relaxed a little bit. Going in, we talked about limiting their threes, but I think we just suffered from a lack of concentration on the defensive end."

When you break this quote down, you start to see some problems. First, Lowe said, "We talked about limiting their threes," which translates into, "The coaches told them what to do."

However, he concluded, "We just suffered from a lack of concentration on the defensive end." In other words, the players did not do what they were told. So the blame is subtly shifted from coaches to players.

Another way of looking at this would be to shift the blame from the players to the coaches. For example, why didn't the coaching staff have them better prepared? Why didn't the coaches have players on the floor who could play the necessary defense?

Ultimately, N.C. State has to play better defense to win in the ACC. And the responsibilty for that rests with Lowe and his staff.

Rivera, another defensive-minded coach, a bit of an unknown quantity

Ron Rivera, the new coach of Charlotte's Panthers, is confusing to me. I've heard that he doesn't interview well for jobs and that's why he hasn't gotten a head coaching job until now. By all accounts, he did well at his press conference and by all accounts, former players like him and see him as a great motivator.

He supposedly didn't get along with Bears coach Lovie Smith. In fact, there were reports that the two had to be separated from a physical altercation. Rivera, despite many Bears fans preferring him over Smith, got the ax in Chicago a few years ago.

Rivera is certainly a solid defensive coach but, as Redskins fans know, Jim Zorn was a solid offensive coach too. It doesn't always translate to being a good head coach.

Rivera may turn out to be a solid pick but many Panther fans (after four straight defensive-minded coaches hired as the head man) understandably would have liked a higher-profile, offensive-minded guy like Harbaugh (who wasn't considered).

Perhaps Rivera can put together a good staff to get the offense moving again. (Names floating around for offensive coordinator are Rob Chudzinski, Marc Trestman and Ron Turner.)

While I would like to see Russ Grimm get a head coaching job somewhere, insiders speak highly of Rivera and he'll have a young team to mold. It doesn't take as long to turn NFL teams around anymore so anything is possible. And, remember, the Panthers have the first pick.