NC State sitting in familiar spot one year later
I was thinking this weekend about that NC State at Notre Dame game from a year ago, and how much the season changed two months later, and even how different the vibe is now a year later. For those that didn't watch the game, but NC State won 54-52 against Notre Dame and it was a bad display of basketball. NC State shot 8 of 35 in the second half, but as luck would have it (no pun intended), Notre Dame missed two front ends of 1-and-1's and then had a bad turnover. NC State held them to six points in the final 7 1/2 minutes and rallied from a 11-point deficit to win the game on D.J. Burns' heroics. NCSU finished 3 of 17 on three-pointers and 19 of 66 from the field for 28.8 percent. Just a rough display of basketball.
At that time, neither Michael O'Connell or Mohamed Diarra were starting, and Diarra was in the dog house at times during that little stretch of the season.
I didn't know that Kevin Keatts had watched that game when I asked him today about how fast things can change in a two-month period, but that was just one game, even if it resulted in a NCSU victory, I couldn't imagine viewing again. But point guard Markus Burton hurt NC State last year in that contest and he's back and scored 23 points in 23 minutes against UNC on Saturday.
