NC State Wolfpack vs. Williams & Mary Tribe
8pm | Raleigh, NC | ESPN3

Notes:
This is NC State’s season opener. William & Mary actually has beaten NC State before. That was in 1952. The Tribe graduated their all-time leading scorer, Marcus Thornton, last season. However, they do return 4 starters.

Scouting report: 
As we stated, W&M has 4 starters coming back this season and 7 of their top 10 scorers. Omar Prewitt, Terry Tarpey, Daniel Dixon and Sean Sheldon combined for 43 points and 20 rebounds per game last year. Together, they’ve played 283 games, with 157 starts. The TLDR here is that they are experienced and they can score  (via the 3 ball.)

Their weakness:
W&M is not going to out-rebound anyone and their defense leaves much to be desired (allowed almost 80ppg last season). They are going to struggle to keep Cat Barber out of the lane and they are simply just not big enough to match up with the Pack. If they aren’t hitting from the outside, this could be a long night.

Keys for NC State:
State needs to control the tempo on offense and get good shots. A lot of that is going to fall on the shoulders of Cat Barber. The bigs should really have a big night offensively, with a lot of stat padding going on with rebound and put backs. On defense, the Pack really needs to make sure to keep close on the shooters. With their length you’d think this wouldn’t be a real issues, but last season they were not very good at closing out and contesting 3s. If they can funnel the Tribe’s guards into the lane, then Beejay and company can take it from there. This should be a good tune-up for Gottfried’s group.