Connect with us

NC State Basketball

Gameday: 5 Questions NC State Needs Answered vs. App State

Published

on

NC State vs. Appalachian State
Raleigh, NC (PNC Arena)
Tonight | 7pm | ESPN3

NC State opens the season tonight at 7pm against Appalachian State. The Mountaineers come in hoping to put a 15-16 season from a year ago, behind them, however the Pack has other plans. Gottfried and company are opening the season with a nearly entirely different team. The only two returning players who will be suiting up for this game are Lewis and Warren, both of whom played big roles last season. They will be looked to for leadership, but this team still has more questions than answers. Let’s take a look at the 5 major questions we want answered tonight.

1) What is the starting lineup?
After a preseason of constantly changing the lineup, tinkering with combinations and allowing freshman to get comfortable, Mark Gottfried has to finally pick his 5. Coming into the preseason there was a question about whether Cat Barber would outplay Lewis and cause a PG controversy. Lewis put that theory to rest quickly, but where does Barber fit in now? He’s played well in preseason games but still needs to adjust to the 2 spot where he’ll see most of his minutes. Then you have Dez Lee. The juco transfer has come in and really impressed with his physicality and ability to score it. So who is going to get the nod tonight? I think it’s a sure bet that Ralston Turner and TJ Warren are in the starting 5, but who’s the 5th? Kyle Washington? I think Beejay Anya has played himself into a strict reserve role at this point and Lennard Freeman will see time, but likely won’t start. I think it will be interesting to see which way Gottfried plays this.

2) Can Turner, Lee and Barber score it?
Lewis is going to score a bit and we all know Warren is going to be the team’s leading scorer, but State isn’t going to win much with only two guys putting up points. They’re going to need Turner, Lee and Barber to produce in that category. Lee and Turner will be your most likely to help in this area, as they are more built to score, but Barber could also chip in at times. Turner and Lee are going to be the biggest keys to this season. If they are great, NC State has the chance to be a big surprise in the ACC, however if they struggle, it’s likely the predictions will come true and the Wolfpack will find themselves near the conference basement.

3) Is Kyle Washington ready?
I think the freshman has shown readiness in spurts, but there’s no time to guide him along. Washington has to be ready now. With Vandenberg out and Anya simply not ready to contribute, it’s going to be Washington’s position to lose. Sure, Freeman will be there for backup, but Kyle is going to have to really anchor the middle for the Wolfpack. He’s going to have to really rebound and really defend in the post or State is going to be killed in the paint night after night. Washington had a decent showing in the first exhibition game but really came alive in the 2nd. This is a kid who was very highly recruited, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him break out in this season opener.

4.) What’s up with Anya?
I’m not sure we’ll see enough of him tonight to really get this answered, but I’m confused. This is a kid who was highly touted coming in. Sure, he showed up a little overweight, but he’s been really outplayed by his own guys and opponents in every game so far. I know there is tons of potential there and he’s a big, big kid, but I wonder what’s going on there. State really needs him to become a star at some point, but I think step one is to get him into playing shape. We might not see the real Anya until midseason, however it’d be nice if he could get a little run in this one and show us something.

5. Can this team defend/rebound?
Sure, all we’ve seen is exhibition games and scrimmages, but so far neither defense nor rebounding has been great. At times I’ve seen really good defense, especially from Turner, Barber, Washington and yes…even Warren, but what about against real competition? UNCP did play hard, but they were undersized and most of their team was way under-talented. What happens when this team faces real teams with real size? Will they be able to match physicality of a stronger team? Will they be disciplined enough to block out and out rebound a bigger front line? Tonight they’ll face a team has some decent size (a front line of 6’8 guys) so we’ll learn something as we watch how they attack the boards.

——–

NC State might not blow out Appalachian State, however they should walk out with a win tonight if they can address the questions above. Realize that there is going to be a learning curve with this team and there is going to be bumps in the road since they are so young, but this is a group with a great attitude and a bright future and I really believe that once they get a little experience that NC State is going to surprise a few people.

Click to comment
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NC State Basketball

NC State’s Ebe Dowuona Enters Transfer Portal

Published

on

NC State Junior F/C Ebe Dowuona has entered the transfer portal, with two years of eligibility remaining.

This year, Ebe played in 30 games, averaging 1.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per game. As a Sophomore, after the injury to Manny Bates in the first game of the season, Dowuona went on to start in 27 of the 31 games he played in, averaging 4.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

I’m not shocked. I don’t blame Dowuona for wanting to find a place where he would get more playing time.

Nonetheless this is a hit to the Wolfpack’s front court. While he didn’t offer much on the offensive end, he continually altered shots on the defensive end.

Ernest Ross will be a Junior next year, and fans will likely get to see Freshman Isaiah Miranda for the first time after redshirting after arriving to Raleigh midseason. Greg Gantt will be a Redshirt Junior next season as well.

Other questions loom for the Wolfpack front court as well. Will DJ Burns and Jack Clark return for their final year of eligibility? Will Dusan Mahorcic be granted a medical waiver for an additional year of eligibility?

Time will tell.

We wish Ebe all the best!

Continue Reading

NC State Basketball

NC State Ranked in Top-25 in Men’s Basketball Attendance in 2022-23

Published

on

When it was all said and done, the NC State fans represented in 2022-23, ranking 20th amongst Division-1 teams in Men’s Basketball attendance. The Wolfpack ranked 4th in the ACC, behind UNC, Syracuse, and Virginia.

Image

Continue Reading

NC State Basketball

Wolferetti: Feed me my crow. NC State lost to Creighton and I’m here to break it down (and admit I was wrong)

Published

on

I was wrong.

I thought this matchup was a good one for NC State. I watched a lot of Creighton this year and to me, they looked like a team that NC State could roll over. Let me explain why.

I knew a few things. I knew Nembhard was a PG that could get a little out of control if sped up. I knew with a little defense and physicality, Sheierman could be made uncomfortable. I knew Kalkbrenner was a good defender but was going to sink on the pick-and-roll to protect the basket.

Joiner’s pull up just wouldn’t fall

I figured that Joiner, the pull-up king would be taking that DJ Burns screen, getting to the middle, and pulling up as Kalkbrenner sank. I figured Smith would exploit this as well. Well, turns out Joiner was off and couldn’t get his pull-up game going and Smith, well yeah Smith did exploit this pretty well.

Burns didn’t look like Burns

The other thing I’d figure would happen is that I thought DJ Burns would really frustrate Kalkbrenner. If you’ve looked at games where Kalkbrenner had to face a really good, physical back-to-the-basket big man, those bigs usually had pretty good games in the scoring column.  I honestly don’t understand what happened to Burns in this one. Sure he got a few stupid early fouls, but before he even picked up a foul he looked out of it. With no double teams coming, Burns is usually calculated, slowly backing you down and hitting you with a flurry of head fakes, pump fakes or spins. If the big doesn’t bite, Burns can fade away, go with a contested hook shot, or pass out.

In this game, Burns looked sped up for some reason. The first time he got the ball he quickly backed in and threw up a hook that rattled out. Not awful, but usually you see him probe a little more. Then the next time he didn’t even look for contact, instead, he threw up a little floater that didn’t fall. While neither were awful shots, both were uncharacteristic of Burns. On top of those things, he looked absolutely gassed within minutes of coming in. My guess is that it was the altitude, but either way, it took a toll on him.

Whatever it was, it had him frustrated and he had two really bad fouls where he just shoved Kalkbrenner (he also had a phantom foul that was ridiculous). That said, it just wasn’t his night and this made NC State a lot more one-dimensional.

Casey Morsell came to play, but this NC State roster just wasn’t built to get a guy like him going, which is a shame. Jarkel Joiner was a huge reason why NC State got to where they got. His scoring ability, his speed and his toughness and leadership skill were huge. But Joiner is a scoring guard, and great basketball teams need POINT guards.

What is a point guard, and why can’t we have one?

A point guard isn’t just a guy who dribbles it down. It’s a guy who understands the games within the games. Guys who dictate pace, call plays (sets) and are essentially coaches on the floor. NC State and Kevin Keatts never had that this season, and while you can get a long way with scoring guards and good big men, you’ll never compete for anything of worth until you prioritize the skill set of a true point guard. I think that has been NC State’s problem for years, and I find it kind of insane that coach after coach falls into this idea of having a scoring guard play as a PG for more offense to get on the court.

This is no shot at Jarkel, either. The guy was one of my favorite players to watch on this team, but it just is what it is. He is a scoring guard who happens to be slotting in at PG. When you see Keatts bring in a guy whose priority is getting his guys open and dictating pace, then you can start to believe that this program may be close to arriving. Until then, sneaking into the tournament and hoping guys get hot hands is as good as it gets.

Look at Kihei Clark (Virginia’s PG). I know it’s not a great time to be talking about Clark, whose errant pass ended up losing the game for Virginia on Thursday, but look at Clark’s build.5’10, 170lbs. Look at his stats. Mid-30s shooting % from 3. Hight 70s from the FT line. The guy is nothing special when it comes to the numbers, but he’s a leader and he distributes the basketball to the right guys at the right time. Tony Bennett has started Clark for 4 years despite the fact that he’s coaching a team that is always in the running to win the ACC and won a national championship less than 5 years ago.  He could replace Clark with an elite, tall, athlete at any moment. But he doesn’t. Why? Because he understands what I’m talking about. It’s a puzzle that coaches need to put together, and one piece of that puzzle is a guy like this.

I was wrong about this game. I thought things would play out differently. They didn’t. I’m not blaming anyone in particular, but the makeup of this team vs. the makeup of teams that play deep into March are different. Maybe this is step one to getting there. We’ll have to see how the roster shapes up next season.

Continue Reading

NC State Basketball

VIDEO: NC State falls to Creighton 72-63 in first round of NCAA Tournament | Extended Highlights & Box Score

NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

Published

on

NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

Continue Reading