NC State’s State’s Saturday Stinkiness Ranked

Whatever happened to NC State’s offense against Virginia Tech on Saturday afternoon, the results weren’t pretty. They weren’t even ugly. They were hideous.

The Wolfpack, the nation’s No. 23 team coming off an overtime loss to Virginia, made 2 of 28 shots from 3-point range, 7.1 percent. They hit nine of 54 from the field overall, .167 accuracy. They had more turnovers (10) than field goals.

They scored 24 points, 10 in the second half.

Afterward second-year NC State coach Kevin Keatts was a master of the obvious.

“Obviously I can’t say that I’ve seen this before,” Keatts said. Nobody had. At least by a ranked team during the shot-clock era, which began in the 1985-86 season. “It obviously didn’t go the way we wanted to. I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of a game where none of our guys played well. Obviously if you look at the stat sheet we didn’t shoot well at all.”

The Pack’s starters combined to hit 6 of 43 shots, a .140 conversion clip.

The previous low-scoring game by a ranked ACC team since the advent of the shot-clock occurred last season, when Clemson lost 36-61 at Virginia. The 18^th-ranked Tigers still reached the NCAAs, as NC State is likely to do this year.

The lowest scoring total by any 2018-19 ACC opponent was notched by Eastern Washington, which lost 66-34 at Syracuse to open the season.