NC State cruises to 83-66 victory over Detroit Mercy. Three takeaways from the game

How about basketball in Detroit these days?

The Pistons have lost 25 straight games in the NBA, falling to 2-26.

Across town, the Detroit Mercy Titans now are 0-13 and No. 355 in the NCAA NET rankings.

It has been a season of futility and some humility for both and N.C. State added to Detroit Mercy’s woes Saturday, taking an 83-66 victory at PNC Arena.

The Pack’s D.J. Horne continued his personal heater. He had 20 points in the first half, knocking down seven of 11 shots, and finished with a season-high 26 to go with six assists and six rebounds.

One thing NCSU coach Kevin Keatts likely stressed more than a few times the past few days is that Detroit Mercy, despite the losing, had a one-point loss to Mississippi. On the road. The Pack faced Ole Miss at their place and lost by 20.

The Titans are a hit-and-miss team. They have possessions where they isolate the right players or hit good shots, then a stretch of horrendous turnovers and awful shot selection.

The Pack, which led 43-36 at halftime, took advantage of enough of the bad stretches to build leads, only to have the Titans edge closer.

The Pack opened a comfortable 18-point lead eight minutes into the second half as Keatts continued to allow a lot of players to get playing time. The Pack was sharing the ball well (18) and holding turnovers (7) to a minimum.

Three takeaways from the game:

Middlebrooks good addition

A lot of teams would be happy having a player like the Pack’s Ben Middlebooks, who can come off the bench, quickly provide energy and be happy with his minutes.

The transfer from Clemson – remember the “trade” for the Pack’s Jack Clark? – has a crash-and-bang style much like Dusan Mahorcic last season. Mahorcic was 6-10 and 235 pounds, with little finesse to his game. Middlebrooks is 6-10 and 240, with a little better shooting touch and better hands on the high post on offense but the same sharp elbows.

Middlebrooks is much like Mahorcic, who injured a knee last season and later left for Duquesne. Like Mahorcic, you always know when he’s around on the court.

Work still in progress

It’s still hard to figure out how Keatts will be able to make it work with so many guys. Can a coach have too many players, too many options?

The NCAA transfer portal allows for roster revamps but the Pack kept adding players after the season began. MJ Rice is back and playing after resolving some personal issues. Kam Woods is eligible to play after the NCAA backed down.

Keatts said after the last game that he might let Rice and Woods take more time to get a better feel for everything- especially on defense- and have them ready in January. Sounded like a prudent plan.

Woods then played 12 minutes in the first half Saturday and Rice 10. So it could be a feel thing, game to game, for Keatts and how he splits up the minutes. There’s LJ Thomas and Breon Pass and Mohamed Diarra.

Sad times for a good program

Those with long memories might remember the Titans were once coached by Dick Vitale, who took them to the 1977 NCAAs, where the Titans lost to Michigan.

A year later, Vitale was coaching the Pistons, and Smokey Ganes was the Titans’ coach. They went 25-4, losing in the second round of the NIT – to N.C. State, in Reynolds Coliseum.

The Titans would have more good years in the late 1990s and were in the NCAA tournament in 2012. It has been a much tougher go since then, with eight losing seasons (14-19 last season).

Mike Davis is a proven coach who had the tough job of taking over for Bob Knight when Knight was fired at Indiana. The Detroit program has a nice tradition. It’s a little sad to see how far it’s fallen.