Wolfpack Adds to 'Road Warrior' Narrative With Clemson Win
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RALEIGH — Winning on the road in conference play doesn't come easy in any league across college basketball. For NC State men's basketball, there isn't any rhyme or reason to the road success, but the Wolfpack has found a way to turn itself into an incredibly difficult out away from the Lenovo Center.
The most recent evidence in this case study could've been the Pack's most important win of the season. NC State stormed into Littlejohn Coliseum and took down the 18th-ranked Clemson Tigers in overtime, outlasting a late push by the solid home side. The victory erased the blemish left from a disappointing home loss to Georgia Tech the previous Saturday.
Just more inconsistency according to Wade
After Saturday's loss to the Yellow Jackets, Wolfpack head coach Will Wade was left more disillusioned with his team's lack of consistency than at any previous point in his first year with the program. While he was proud of his team's road effort, he wasn't any more convinced that the performance was sustainable in the future. When asked about the team's 3-0 record in ACC road games, Wade quickly fired back.
"We ain't worth a damn at home," he said. "It's a good thing that we're pretty good on the road because we're awful at home... It says we're very inconsistent. We're searching for some consistency. Hopefully, we'll find some consistency from this game."
Player perspective
While there was greater urgency for the Wolfpack in Tuesday's matchup against the Tigers because of the Georgia Tech loss, the mindset didn't change. NC State knew it needed to win at all costs, as it believed before every game. The disconnect for the team is executing and living up to those standards that the coaches and players set for one another.
"We just want to come in here and compete," senior forward Ven-Allen Lubin said after scoring 22 points in the victory. "That's what we're capable of doing. We want to continue to win every game, home and away, because it's important for all of us to make sure we get our best season."
The play of senior forward Darrion Williams on the road versus his performances in the Lenovo Center have been the most jarring of late. He scored 20 or more in the wins over Boston College and Florida State, then returned to Raleigh with a seven-point outing, making just two of his 11 shot attempts. He scored an important, but inefficient, 17 points in the win over the Tigers. The forward believes the team is struggling with consistency, just as his coach does.
"I think we've just got to be more consistent," Williams said. "I think we can compete with anybody, but it's a tough league, so nobody is going to give us any games, regardless of our record... We've just got to use this as a stepping stone moving forward."
The statistical evidence
While Wade and the players don't seem to think there's much difference between home and road, there are some clear statistical differences. The Wolfpack appears to settle in nicely on the offensive end in road games, a trend further supported by the shooting totals from the team's losses in the Lenovo Center compared to its 3-0 start through conference play.
In losses to Kansas, Virginia and Georgia Tech at home, NC State shot 38%, 36% and 37%. The Wolfpack shot a combined 26-for-87 from 3-point range, good for 29.9%. For the season, the team is shooting 39.6% from beyond the arc, good for the sixth-best rate in the country according to KenPom. The shooting woes particularly affected the Pack in the loss to Virginia and down the stretch in Saturday's game against Georgia Tech.
In the three wins on the road, the Wolfpack shot 48% against Boston College, 55% against Florida State and 44% on Tuesday against the Tigers.
While some of the issues could be entirely coincidental, the burden of expectation on the Wolfpack in the Lenovo Center could certainly be a part of the issue. NC State as a whole was confident headed into Wade's first season as head coach of the program and behaved as such during the offseason. That created higher-than-realistic expectations for a team that hadn't played together yet.
If the team wants to make a push through the ACC with 12 games left, it will have to maintain its road warrior mentality, while also finding a way to get over its issues back in the City of Oaks.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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