Sure didn't look like the same team that played in Florida. They really could have (and should have) put away NC State in the first half. This NC State team is not very good, first half lots of air balls, defense was nothing special. That did they had a good strategy against Lazar. They used the same approach that we use against other teams bigs. Send I second guy in to dig at the ball when Zar puts it on the floor. And it worked. D Buycks had a lot of turn over today. It appears to me that he dribbles to far away from his body, sometimes out in front sometimes to the side, which creates lots of turnovers.
Bottom line this team did not play with the fire they needed to. They looked like they expected to win without doing the hard work. (DJO's 3 at the end of the half may have reinforced that idea) Too much settling for outside shots, when they did get to the hoop throwing up a prayer hoping for the foul call rather than trying to power through to the goal. This team is going to need the mentality of the underdog to win games against decent (not great) competition, They didn't have it today.