Who won?
Wolves Greater Than Lions as NC State beat Penn State 85-78
How?
Omer Yurtseven and Sam Hunt came in early in the first half and sparked an offensive explosion that saw an 11-0 State deficit grow to a 7-point halftime lead. State wouldn’t trail again, even though had to clench their cheeks for the last few minutes.
GIF:
State’s bench scoring:
What People Are Talking About:
Omer Yurtseven appears to be rounding into form, coming off the bench and notching a double-double (19 points, 11 rebounds). State needs Yurt to keep up his run of play, especially now that Abu’s knee injury may take longer to heal than expected.
What People Should Be Talking About:
The changes in NC State’s basketball philosophy after Mark Gottfried has been apparent from the start of the season. However, tonight, Markell Johnson started but had two early turnovers and wasn’t playing especially solid defense. In his post-game comments, Keatts mentioned he knew Markell hadn’t been practicing right and was expecting and prepared for him to not play well tonight. It turned out he was right, so he pulled Markell for a large chunk of the game. Johnson remained composed and came back in midway through the second half and provided a huge spark when it looked like Penn State might be making a run. It’s that type of accountability that was missing in Raleigh for the better part of the last several years and fans will appreciate that. Wonder who..er…what the old coach was doing the whole time?
What’s Next?
State takes on South Carolina State this Saturday.
Quote:
Omer Yurtseven with 15 points and 9 rebounds so far tonight for NC State. Not unexpected. Read why here:https://t.co/GDqJsWLcUb
— Stephen Wiseman (@stevewisemanNC) November 30, 2017
8 is Wild:
Even though we were watching basketball, a lot of the talk here tonight was about NC State’s Dave Doeren. Apparently, he’s overplayed his hand in some ways and Tennessee is interested in him for their coaching vacany. How are things going with Vols fans on the mention of Doeren coming in? Well…
Multiple people have tweeted me that they’re lining up on campus in the morning to cancel their season tickets if #Vols hire Dave Doeren.
This is going well, you guys.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) November 30, 2017
Yikes.