NC State was a ‘broken’ team last month. How did they get things fixed?

Kevin Keatts was frank when he assessed his team’s latest win, a scrappy, 65-62 victory over Pittsburgh.

On a day when not a lot was going well offensively (a season-low 18 field goals), N.C. State had to find other ways to get it done. That meant hitting more free throws (24) than shots from the field. That meant locking down defensively (six blocks from Manny Bates) and forcing turnovers (14).

It meant on a day when the shots were at a premium, the upperclassmen — Braxton Beverly, D.J. Funderburk, Jericole Hellems — had to take over the game from the freshmen who were suddenly finding their way the last few weeks. Beverly, Funderburk and Hellems, along with the sophomore Bates, combined for 52 points, leading the charge.

Fifteen days after their most embarrassing ACC performance of the season, a 16-point home loss to Duke, the Pack are now winners of four in a row for the first time since 2018. The team has climbed to above .500 in the league play and, with two games remaining, could possibly play themselves into the postseason. This was a win that wasn’t pretty to watch, but the kind of win teams need under their belt heading into March. Keatts knows this was a sign of growth of just how far his team has come.

“We wouldn’t have won this game a month ago,” Keatts said.

When pressed as to why this team looks different, Keatts said it comes down to his guys being confident and believing they can win this kind of game.

Since the home loss to the Blue Devils, N.C. State has won three on the road, including a one-point battle over Pittsburgh in the Steel City and a seven-point win at No. 15 Virginia. That win over the Cavaliers was the first home loss in nearly a year for UVA, their last two home defeats coming at the hands of the Wolfpack. Wins like that gave the team a boost heading into the rematch with Pittsburgh.

Shaken up

Last month Keatts said his team was “shaken.” Their leading scorer, Devon Daniels was gone for the year with a torn ACL and the team was on a slide.

“We were all over the map,” Keatts said. “We didn’t have an identity and had to refocus late in the year. That was late January. We would have found a way to lose the game and now this bunch is finding ways to win games.”

State didn’t make a field goal in the final 4:01 after a basket by Bates made it 60-55. Their final five points came from the line, but they also held Pittsburgh to just two field goals the rest of the way, forcing a crucial turnover by the Panthers’ best player, Justin Champagnie. The Pack held the ACC’s leading scorer to 15 points in 38 minutes.

Other than an 18-point win at Wake Forest, each of N.C. State’s wins during their four-game streak have been by seven points or fewer. The defense that picked up the slack in the team’s most recent win. The Pack scored 23 points off turnovers, improving to 10-0 when they score 19 points or more off of turnovers.

“We have to be able to be flexible and win any type of game,” Beverly said. “It’s important that we understand that it doesn’t always have to be pretty, it doesn’t always have to be easy, no matter what we have to figure out a way to get it done. That’s what the good teams do and of course that’s what we are striving to be.”

During the “grind it out game” as Keatts called it, his guys battled adversity, with Funderburk and Bates spending most of the first half in foul trouble, and their own demons with the inability to hit shots. With fans in attendance for the first time, a double-digit lead cut to four in the final minutes was enough to keep them on the edge of their seats. State fans had seen this movie before; a huge lead disappearing and leading to disappointment. But the 2021 Wolfpack put an emphasis on the defensive end of the floor, not worrying about the missed baskets on offense.

“This team is getting better defensively,” Keatts said. “The MVP of our team collectively was the way we played on the defensive end.”

During timeouts late in the game, Keatts stressed doing the small things on defense, the little things this team may not have been able to do last month.

“When you’re younger you are defined by if your shots are going in,” Keatts said. “Our older guys said ‘keep defending, you got to defend.’ At halftime they (Pitt) only had 21 points, and you could see the frustration in our guys because we only had 31, but we were up 10 because we defended.”