Quick Hits: Miami

Thursday night NC State travels down to Coral Gables to take on their second straight opponent in the state of Florida. The Miami Hurricanes have been a surprise team in the ACC thanks in large part to two transfers in PG Angel Rodriguez and SG Sheldon McClellan. Rodriguez is a steady presence at point and is familiar with the Pack as his cousin Javi Gonzales played for the Wolfpack a few years ago. Sheldon McClellan is a transfer from Texas and leads the Hurricanes in scoring averaging 15.4 points per game. These two players are the keys to Miami’s attack, much like Ralston Turner and Trevor Lacey are for the Pack.

Our guards must be up to the task of keeping Rodriguez out of the paint as he is adept in slithering his way around defenders with his quick first step. He also has a nice scoring touch as he went for 25 against UVA and 24 versus the Blue Devils. It will be interesting to see how Lacey will handle the assignment against Rodriguez if Cat is unable to play. Turner will be matched up with McClellan who uses many of the same moves to score as does Turner. Both players are also the same height and weight roughly the same as each other. Most important for Ralston is to defend without fouling! It is imperative that he is on the floor for the Pack as we need his offensive fire power to stay effective offensively. All too often Ralston seems to pick up the idiotic foul 35 feet from the basket. He cannot do this if we are going to win.

Not only will our guards have their hands full but so will our big men. Miami has a monster underneath named Tonye Jekiri. Standing 7 feet tall the big man is averaging 7.9 points per game and 10 rebounds per for good measure. Not only is Jekiri long but he is extremely active. He uses outstanding lateral movement and his length to claim countless rebounds, against BC he pulled down 15. Anya, Washington, and Abu must put a body on Jekiri to knock him off balance, trying to out jump him will not work.

Offensively we must be disciplined and stay within the offense. Versus FSU we ran our sets efficiently and ran our lead up to 17 points; however, following that we became sloppy which allowed FSU back into the game. In order to come away with another great win on the road we must stick to the offense for 40 minutes. Miami plays a similar style to us in the way they love to push the ball up the court. We must be smart and not fuel the fire with careless turnovers. Points off turnovers will be an all important statistic and will be a major factor in which team walks away with a win.

Will NC State be able to win two consecutive games on the road? Tune in Thursday at 8PM on the ACCN/Raycom to find out.