NC State Basketball Update 5/7

Dereck Whittenburg Takes Home an Emmy
Dereck Whittenburg is not only the senior assistant to Mark Gottfried on the NC State staff, he’s also an Emmy award winning filmmaker. Yesterday Whitt took home the hardware for his work on ‘Survive and Advance,’ a documentary about the Wolfpack’s 1983 championship run. The film was easily one of the best ’30 for 30′ documentaries that has been produced and a lot of that credit goes to award winning producer Jonathan Hock of Hock Films. Congrats Dereck, on a well deserved accolade.

We won an Emmy for #SurviveAndAdvance #30for30 Big thanks to everyone involved in the film! This one is for You V!!! pic.twitter.com/3K5qBbi4W3

— Dereck Whittenburg (@DWhittNCstate) May 6, 2014

Corchiani Jr. Walking on
Chris Corchiani Jr, the son of legendary NC State PG Chris Corchiani, decided this past weekend to forego his chance of a small school scholarship and walk-on with the Wolfpack. This is exciting news for Pack fans who remember watching his father play over 20 years ago. Corch Jr. played at Broughton before transferring to Ravenscroft in Raleigh. He is a 5’11 lead guard who plays tough, changes speeds well and has very good vision. While he might not be ACC ready at the moment, he will surely get his opportunities if he plays well in practice. NC State recently missed out on 2014 PG Devonte Graham. With Tyler Lewis transferring to Butler and Cat Barber the only true point guard on the roster, Corchiani walks into a situation with some promise. I’ve had the chance to play pick-up with Chris quite a bit during high school career and he is certainly a talented kid with a great head on his shoulders. He’s coachable, respectful and just the type of guy you want walking on to your basketball team. We’ll be looking to catch up with him soon and get the full story.

Had the opportunity to play at some smaller schools, but decided attending and walking on at nc state is in my heart #NCSU18

— Chris Corchiani Jr. (@ChrisCorchJr13) May 3, 2014

“>Here is a story we ran on Chris Jr. this past season…and here is some video.

 
Wolfpack Will Take on Purdue Next Season
Another part of the schedule was unveiled this past week when it was announced that the Pack will take on Purdue in the ACC/BigTen challenge. It will be an away game for NC State on Dec 2nd. The Boilermakers were 15-17 last season, but look to build on that with returning star AJ Hammons.

Abdul-Malik Abu Senior Mixtape
The kid is a dunking machine and will be yet another factor in NC State’s front court. He’ll slot in at the PF for State and share time with Lennard Freeman and Kyle Washington. With Beejay Anya at center, it seems as if they’ll be a log jam down there, but this gives State a lot of versatility with their bigs. They can run out a smaller lineup without Anya or a big lineup with Washington at the 3, Abu/Freeman at the 4 and Anya at the 5. For the first time in a long time State has a very, very dangerous bench this coming season.