Mitch Stringer – USA TODAY Sports Images
Some people got a little too worked up about North Carolina State’s win over Duke this past weekend.
Sure, the Blue Devils were the No. 1 team in the country going into the game, but the Wolfpack was the favorite to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. North Carolina State was expected to win that game, especially playing at home.
Well, the Wolfpack was brought back down to earth on Wednesday night, falling 51-50 to Maryland on the road.
As I’ve said a million times, life on the road in college basketball is extremely difficult. It’s also worth remembering that there are no great teams or favorites in college basketball, only a bunch of good teams capable of beating anyone or getting beat on any given night.
North Carolina State typically shoots the ball pretty well. It came into the game against the Terrapins shooting over 50 percent from the field.
But the Wolpack shot a miserable 31.1 percent on Tuesday.
“We were offensively pretty bad,” North Carolina State head coach Mark Gottfried said in a post-game press conference. “We bobbled balls, we had shots around the rim we couldn’t make and it wasn’t one guy. That was one of those nights. You’re going to have those and we haven’t had a lot of them this year.”
North Carolina State will bounce back. Gottfried is a heck of a coach and he will have his team in contention for the conference championship and poised for an NCAA tournament run in March.
But like he said after the loss to Maryland, it was just one of those nights where the shots just don’t fall and you end up losing a game.
Brian Lester is a college basketball writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @BLester1993.
