Keys to the Game: NC State vs. Tennessee

NC State vs Tennessee
7pm | PNC Arena | ESPN2

Tennessee comes to Raleigh with a 4-3 record, but don’t take that too lightly. So far the Vols don’t have a bad loss, they just have a very tough early season schedule. They lost to #15 VCU, #11 Kansas and Marquette (on a neutral court). This will be Tennessee’s first true road game.

Players to Watch:
Tennessee relies heavily on the scoring of senior guard Josh Richardson, who is averaging 17 ppg so far this season. Richardson is a big 6’6 slashing guard with decent touch and good athleticism. He’s backed up by junior forward Armani Moore. The 6’5 wing is a smaller guy that plays classic Volunteer basketball. He’s long, wrangley and tough. He averages 10 ppg, but is the team’s leading rebounder at 7.

Who is Tennessee:
The Vols are coming off a big win over #15 Butler and a 1 point win over Kansas State a few days earlier. This a hot team right now that is coming into Raleigh with the Pack still trying to find themselves.

Tennessee is a team that want to play a messy, gritty, physical basketball game. They are going to bump State off their cuts and not allow them to run their offense. They are not really that great a rebounding or a scoring team, but they’ll keep games in the mid-60s if it’s up to them.

Keys to the Game:
Keys for State will be to play through contact. This is going to be a physical game and the Pack is going to have to deal with it. Tennessee is not a big team and they aren’t a great rebounding team so State has a big advantage there. Last time out the Wolfpack bigs didn’t do too much. Tonight the game is on their shoulders. They’re going to need to keep the Vols off the glass and limit second chance opportunities.

Another key is going to be Trevor Lacey. Right now Lacey is scoring at about the same clip Warren was at this point last season. The only different is that Lacey isn’t being used as much. I know it’s against Trevor’s style of play to be a high volume scorer, but he’s going to have to if this team wants to put points on the board, and especially if the bigs are going to be as uninvolved as they were against Wofford.

Bench points! State needs them. Against Wofford they didn’t get them. Washington, the Martin Twins and Dez Lee are all going to have to contribute if they want to be this Tennessee team that is built to wear you down and knock you out.