ESPN Picks Pack 17th in 2015-16

Half of you are going to be pretty excited about the news that NC State is going to be starting next basketball season ranked in the top 20 (17 to be exact). The other half, well, they’re going to be mad that ESPN just jinxed us. Either way, the point is that people are starting to really take note of this basketball team.

Here is whate ESPN had to say:

17. NC State Wolfpack

The Wolfpack revealed their true talent in March, upending No. 1 seed Villanova on the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. A week later, they pushed Louisville — whom NC State beat on the road in February, just before losing to Boston College, which pretty much sums it up — to the brink. Now the fun really begins. Ralston Turner is the only significant departure to account for. Everyone else is back. The biggest name involved is Trevor Lacey, who would be a nightmare to guard even if he weren’t playing alongside the insanely fast, appropriately nicknamed Anthony “Cat” Barber. Freshman forward Abdul-Malik Abu’s bullying performance against Villanova prefaced greater things to come; fellow big man Beejay Anya is one of the nation’s best shot-blockers. If these guys can just guard consistently — something Mark Gottfried’s teams almost never do — they’re scary-good. Just ask Villanova.

You have to fell like this is a pretty spot on blurb. It highlights the fact that this team has all the pieces but also hints that they really need to figure out how to put them together if they want to be elite. I don’t know how Gottfried is going to do it, but he needs to turn this team into a real defensive monster. They have the athletes, the length and the deep bench to make this happen. It’s now just a matter of motivation and focus on that part of the game. To be honest, the loss of Ralston, while it may hurt the offense at times, will improve the overall defense. Turner struggled keeping his man in front of him and too often lost his man when he was trying to get in position to help. We’ll have to see how transfer Terry Henderson slots in to this spot. If he can use his athleticism to defend then he’ll be a great addition, but if he suffers the same shortcoming as Turner, then you might see Caleb Martin getting a lot of those minutes. Meanwhile, if Martin wants to lock down that 3 spot he needs to improve his scoring ability and shot selection next season.