NC State passes road test at UNCG that can pay dividends in March
You need games like this.
Even if Markell Johnson’s halfcourt shot hadn’t gone in, Sunday’s trip to UNC-Greensboro would have been good for N.C. State.
You need games where your players are out of their comfort zone and are challenged. That’s not going to happen at home against St. Francis or Maine.
“I just love games where it’s a dog fight from the beginning to the end,” Johnson said.
N.C. State (8-2) got just that from UNCG. The Spartans (8-3) won 29 games a year ago and went to the NCAA tournament in 2018.
Ninth-year coach Wes Miller has at UNCG, as N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts noted, a team like Keatts had at UNC-Wilmington. A tough, veteran team that expects to win and will be relevant in March. Also, one that relishes a shot at an ACC team, especially one from in-state.
As the transfer market has shown, players like UNCG veterans Isaiah Miller and James Dickey could play for anyone. Miller (26 points) and Dickey (11 points, 10 rebounds) were a handful.
If you lose a game like this? So what. UNCG will be a top-100 team in the NCAA metrics.
And if you win? Well, your team has a better concept of how to handle tight moments and your résumé is boosted by a top-100 win.
It’s exactly the kind of game N.C. State needs. The Wolfpack should play more of them. Go to UNCW. Go to N.C. Central (yes, it’s time to forgive LeVelle Moton for having the audacity to beat you in 2013).
You learn more about your team in games like this, in moments like the final 5 minutes.
It wasn’t just Johnson’s miracle 3. N.C. State had to come up with stops and steals and make difficult shots. These are all moments that can be applied to ACC play and in March. N.C. State wasn’t tested enough outside the league last season, and it showed once league play started (and when it was left out of the NCAA tournament because it didn’t have enough on its résumé).
This stretch of Memphis, Wisconsin, UNCG and Auburn — with a trip to Wake Forest thrown in — has given N.C. State a chance to pick up quality wins (even the Wake win looks better after the Demon Deacons beat Xavier on Saturday).
Confidence can go a long way, but false confidence doesn’t help anyone. There’s only so much to be learned from beating Alcorn State by 23 or Detroit Mercy by 19 points.
“For sure, you definitely get more out of this,” Johnson said.
Last year’s nonconference schedule, which ended up dead last out of 353 Division I teams, never should have happened. That was a mix of administrative failure by N.C. State and naivety by Keatts. The third-year coach has made some smart moves to avoid a repeat of that disaster.
He knew what he was getting his team into with this trip to the Greensboro Coliseum.
“These guys are going to win a lot of games,” Keatts said of UNCG.
And now after a spirit-building win, he also has a better idea of what his team could get out of it.
This story was originally published December 15, 2019 at 7:32 PM with the headline "NC State passes road test at UNCG that can pay dividends in March."
