After a Tracy Smith layup put NC State up 60-57 with a little over four minutes to go, Boston College finished the game on an 18-6 run. Both the offense and the defense failed the Pack in those final minutes, and a pivotal, winnable road game amounted to nothing in Syracuse-like fashion.
You wouldn't have known it was so cold outside with the way Sid was sweating. State played reasonably well in the middle portion of the game but lost with a sputter at the start and a whimper at the end. It's those aimless periods that continue to plague this team, no less frustrating for their regularity. There we were without much focus to start the game, and that combined with a lot misses in close put the team in an early hole.
Just about everyone was guilty of forcing the issue in the first ten minutes, and... I get it and I don't. I understand why a deficit or a bad handful of possessions lead to guys trying to do too much. But they get so out of sorts it's like they haven't even practiced. This is the most balanced team we've had in a while and still it's a mess half the time. It's too bad. With Tracy in the paint and Wood and Brown and Harrow working the perimeter, points shouldn't be so hard to come by for so long. Certainly not against a defense like Boston College's. Stay within the offense and within your means and good things, or at least not totally disastrous things, tend to happen.
We are never going to get there, though. The RPI might as well be a doomsday clock.
| Four Factors | NC State | BC |
| eFG% | 48.4 | 51.6 |
| Turnover Rate | 15.2 | 12.1 |
| Off Reb Rate | 32.5 | 31.4 |
| FT Rate | 19.0 | 27.9 |
| Pts | Poss | OFF_EFF | DEF_EFF | |
| BC | 75 | 65.9 | 113.8 | 100.2 |
| NCSU | 66 | 65.9 | 100.2 | 113.8 |
