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There is no way around it, NC State needs to beat the Heels today in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels enter the game as one of the top 5 teams in the country, while the Wolfpack limps in at 0-4 in ACC play.

The Heels (a 16pt favorite) sport a balanced attack. They can beat you at the guard position where Marcus Paige is averaging 15ppg. He’s being backed up by Joel Berry II who is right behind him at 13 ppg. Down low they are a team that is rapidly gaining confidence. Brice Johnson is leading the way at 17ppg and 10 rebounds. After years of uneven play from him, somehow Roy Williams has convinced Brice to toughen up and it’s really helped the Heels. Then there’s always Isaiah Hicks (who put up 21 last time out), Justin Jackson (who is averaging 13ppg and shooting 50% from the field), and of course Kennedy Meeks (who is just working his way back from injury, but is always a factor.) When you look at this UNC team on paper, they are scary good. They have the bigs, they have the guards, they have the size and athletic ability to really play with anybody. So, is there really any way State can stop them? If there is, these will certainly be the keys…

A huge game from Cat Barber
State is going to need Barber to play huge. We’re not talking about him just having a hot shooting night. We’re talking about him stepping up as a vocal leader, dictating the pace, getting his teammates involved, and shutting down Paige on defense. This is the perfect time for Barber to transition from scoring point guard to team leader. Cat is certainly capable of this type of performance, but will he have the energy? UNC is likely going to put some pressure on him in the backcourt and make him work to even get into the offense. Gottfried is going to have to use his timeouts wisely and steal some minutes with Cat on the bench getting a breather if he wants his PG to be fresh on both ends of the floor.

Abu dominance
Last game against FSU, Abu finally looked like the dominant post presence he became at the end of last season. He was physical, strong, relentless and aggressive. UNC has some major size on the blocks and their bench goes deep. Abu is going to have to by as physical as ever while staying out of foul trouble. This has something he’s never quite mastered, but there’s not better time to turn over a new leaf than against your arch-rival in a must win game. Cat is their #1 option, but Abu has to become #2 if this team wants a chance today.

Defensive Gameplan
How is Gottfried going to attack this UNC team on D? While he might come out in a straight up man to man, he’s likely going to want to switch up some looks. With his thin bench against UNC’s depth, State might have to look into a little matchup zone against the Heels. The problem with that is that the Heels also have guys like Johnson and Meeks that can get into the gaps of that zone and knock down short jumpers. It will be interesting to see how he game plans against the Heels. To be perfectly honest, State really does not matchup that well against this team. Gott may very well opt for State to really pack down in the middle and make the UNC guards shoot their way to a win.

Play smart/disciplined basketball 
NC State is not going to win this game if they play the same way they’ve played thus far this season. That’s a harsh reality, but unless UNC absolutely lays an egg, the style of ball the Pack has played isn’t enough here. They are going to need to need to show patience in their offensive sets. Every possession is going matter and they need to cherish each and ever one to maximize efficiency.

They are going to need to be aggressive but calculated on defense. Playing in the passing lanes and making it tough for the UNC guards to make point to point passes or clean entry passes is big. This is where State can create turnovers and chaos without gambling. This would extend the defense a bit more and allow some more room for the bigs to operate, so if the UNC bigs start taking over, Gott may have to call back the guards and really pack in the defense.

They need to contest shots, not try to block them. Too many times teams have pump faked or shot over top of a jumping Pack defender and it’s led to a breakdown of the NC State defense. A simple pump fake that gets a guard off his feet sets in motion a situation that this team just hasn’t handled. The opposing guard gets a guard off his feet with a pump fake from 3. He then puts in on the floor to attack. Beejay or Abu usually steps up to stop the drive, but NC State’s rotation to cover Beejay or Abu’s man is just too slow. The times they do get there, the next level of rotation never happens and a 3 point shooter is left wide open. Instead, the Wolfpack guards need to close out with a hand in the defenders face, but keep balance enough to react to the pump fake. If they shoot over you and make it, let them. Those shots are the ones you don’t mind giving up.

For the bigs it’s the same thing. Too often Beejay Anya or another big comes help side for the block, leaving their man without a body on him. This is a major gamble. Great shot blockers are not just athletic, but they are smart. They know when to take that gamble and when to not. They know their limits, and the consequences if they don’t get the block. Too often the NC State bigs are helping out, looking for the weakside block, but missing. This is leading to an easy put back by the offensive rebounder. The Pack has some good shot blockers, but they simply need to pick and choose their spots.

Can Mav and Caleb connect?
We talked extensively about the struggles of two guys that NC State was really counting on for perimeter scoring. Rowan and Caleb Martin are good shooters, but just have not found any sort of consistency this season. Today they are going to be needed more than ever before. Rowan has gotten red hot at the end of nearly all of the ACC games thus far, but has struggled out of the gate. Martin is coming of of one of the worst shooting nights of his career. These guys need to come alive in this game and that’s going to start with them taking good, clean shots. Forcing 3’s against this Tar Heels team is going to lead to long rebounds and quick transition buckets on the other end, but a hot Rowan or Caleb could change this game.

Leave it all on the floor
One area that you really can’t fault this team is how hard they play. They don’t always make the right decisions on the floor, but they stay in games because of their hustle and want-to. There is no doubt this team wants to win. The problem is that they haven’t quite figured out ‘how.’ Today is no different. They need 100% effort out of every man. They don’t need heroes out there, they need guys willing to grind. Every possession will matter in this game and NC State isn’t deep. They are going to need a possessed type performance on both ends of the floor and with the team sitting at 0-4 in the ACC and taking on their arch-rival who is a heavy favorite, I don’t think the conditions could be better for them to get one.

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wolfpack74
wolfpack74
7 years ago

TravelWolf They are trying, trying my patience.  Abu is the only one that can shoot further than 5 feet await from the basket.  The three bigs are average about 18 points a game, 6 points a piece.  Pitiful for four stars guys and Freeman.

TravelWolf
TravelWolf
7 years ago

I wish someone would looks at the stats for how many baskets we make (and miss) by bigs which are not:
1. dunks
2. put backs (i.e. offensive rebounds)

My guess is that it’s very few per game. We have absolutely no inside game – we didn’t notice this the last 2 years because of our outstanding guard play.

Glad you pointed out that these guys are trying. Few people have pointed that out.

NC State Basketball

NC State’s Ebe Dowuona Enters Transfer Portal

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NC State Junior F/C Ebe Dowuona has entered the transfer portal, with two years of eligibility remaining.

This year, Ebe played in 30 games, averaging 1.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per game. As a Sophomore, after the injury to Manny Bates in the first game of the season, Dowuona went on to start in 27 of the 31 games he played in, averaging 4.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

I’m not shocked. I don’t blame Dowuona for wanting to find a place where he would get more playing time.

Nonetheless this is a hit to the Wolfpack’s front court. While he didn’t offer much on the offensive end, he continually altered shots on the defensive end.

Ernest Ross will be a Junior next year, and fans will likely get to see Freshman Isaiah Miranda for the first time after redshirting after arriving to Raleigh midseason. Greg Gantt will be a Redshirt Junior next season as well.

Other questions loom for the Wolfpack front court as well. Will DJ Burns and Jack Clark return for their final year of eligibility? Will Dusan Mahorcic be granted a medical waiver for an additional year of eligibility?

Time will tell.

We wish Ebe all the best!

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NC State Ranked in Top-25 in Men’s Basketball Attendance in 2022-23

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When it was all said and done, the NC State fans represented in 2022-23, ranking 20th amongst Division-1 teams in Men’s Basketball attendance. The Wolfpack ranked 4th in the ACC, behind UNC, Syracuse, and Virginia.

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Wolferetti: Feed me my crow. NC State lost to Creighton and I’m here to break it down (and admit I was wrong)

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I was wrong.

I thought this matchup was a good one for NC State. I watched a lot of Creighton this year and to me, they looked like a team that NC State could roll over. Let me explain why.

I knew a few things. I knew Nembhard was a PG that could get a little out of control if sped up. I knew with a little defense and physicality, Sheierman could be made uncomfortable. I knew Kalkbrenner was a good defender but was going to sink on the pick-and-roll to protect the basket.

Joiner’s pull up just wouldn’t fall

I figured that Joiner, the pull-up king would be taking that DJ Burns screen, getting to the middle, and pulling up as Kalkbrenner sank. I figured Smith would exploit this as well. Well, turns out Joiner was off and couldn’t get his pull-up game going and Smith, well yeah Smith did exploit this pretty well.

Burns didn’t look like Burns

The other thing I’d figure would happen is that I thought DJ Burns would really frustrate Kalkbrenner. If you’ve looked at games where Kalkbrenner had to face a really good, physical back-to-the-basket big man, those bigs usually had pretty good games in the scoring column.  I honestly don’t understand what happened to Burns in this one. Sure he got a few stupid early fouls, but before he even picked up a foul he looked out of it. With no double teams coming, Burns is usually calculated, slowly backing you down and hitting you with a flurry of head fakes, pump fakes or spins. If the big doesn’t bite, Burns can fade away, go with a contested hook shot, or pass out.

In this game, Burns looked sped up for some reason. The first time he got the ball he quickly backed in and threw up a hook that rattled out. Not awful, but usually you see him probe a little more. Then the next time he didn’t even look for contact, instead, he threw up a little floater that didn’t fall. While neither were awful shots, both were uncharacteristic of Burns. On top of those things, he looked absolutely gassed within minutes of coming in. My guess is that it was the altitude, but either way, it took a toll on him.

Whatever it was, it had him frustrated and he had two really bad fouls where he just shoved Kalkbrenner (he also had a phantom foul that was ridiculous). That said, it just wasn’t his night and this made NC State a lot more one-dimensional.

Casey Morsell came to play, but this NC State roster just wasn’t built to get a guy like him going, which is a shame. Jarkel Joiner was a huge reason why NC State got to where they got. His scoring ability, his speed and his toughness and leadership skill were huge. But Joiner is a scoring guard, and great basketball teams need POINT guards.

What is a point guard, and why can’t we have one?

A point guard isn’t just a guy who dribbles it down. It’s a guy who understands the games within the games. Guys who dictate pace, call plays (sets) and are essentially coaches on the floor. NC State and Kevin Keatts never had that this season, and while you can get a long way with scoring guards and good big men, you’ll never compete for anything of worth until you prioritize the skill set of a true point guard. I think that has been NC State’s problem for years, and I find it kind of insane that coach after coach falls into this idea of having a scoring guard play as a PG for more offense to get on the court.

This is no shot at Jarkel, either. The guy was one of my favorite players to watch on this team, but it just is what it is. He is a scoring guard who happens to be slotting in at PG. When you see Keatts bring in a guy whose priority is getting his guys open and dictating pace, then you can start to believe that this program may be close to arriving. Until then, sneaking into the tournament and hoping guys get hot hands is as good as it gets.

Look at Kihei Clark (Virginia’s PG). I know it’s not a great time to be talking about Clark, whose errant pass ended up losing the game for Virginia on Thursday, but look at Clark’s build.5’10, 170lbs. Look at his stats. Mid-30s shooting % from 3. Hight 70s from the FT line. The guy is nothing special when it comes to the numbers, but he’s a leader and he distributes the basketball to the right guys at the right time. Tony Bennett has started Clark for 4 years despite the fact that he’s coaching a team that is always in the running to win the ACC and won a national championship less than 5 years ago.  He could replace Clark with an elite, tall, athlete at any moment. But he doesn’t. Why? Because he understands what I’m talking about. It’s a puzzle that coaches need to put together, and one piece of that puzzle is a guy like this.

I was wrong about this game. I thought things would play out differently. They didn’t. I’m not blaming anyone in particular, but the makeup of this team vs. the makeup of teams that play deep into March are different. Maybe this is step one to getting there. We’ll have to see how the roster shapes up next season.

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NC State Basketball

VIDEO: NC State falls to Creighton 72-63 in first round of NCAA Tournament | Extended Highlights & Box Score

NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

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NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

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