Things to watch for on Wolfpack’s Trip to Italy

Next month NC State basketball will head to Italy for some of their first true competition as a unit. Here are a few things well be keying in on.

What will Kevin Keatts style of play look like at NC State?

During his time at UNCW, Kevin Keatts was known for his up and down, fast-paced, defense first style of basketball. How will that play out at NC State?

While he does have a few guys that he has brought in, he will mainly be working with guys leftover from Mark Gottfried’s tenure. If you remember, Gottfried constantly promised a run and gun style of play, but rarely did it come to fruition. Now with 4 months of tutelage from Kevin Keatts, will this team finally be the energetic, up and down type of team Wolfpack fans have been dying for?

It’s easy to imagine Markell Johnson, Lavar Batts, Malik Abu and Torin Dorn thriving in this atmosphere, but none of those guys are particularly good shooters. Keatts UNCW teams took a ton of transition 3s and it really allowed them to play at a break neck pace. So, what will this team look like? If defenses get back and clog the lane, will they be forced to slow it down and find open looks? Will they settle for 3s even though they might not be shooting at a high percentage? Offensively, I think there are a lot of questions to be answered.

Defensively, we will likely get a good idea of where this team is pretty fast. Last season there was little to no defense played by this group. Has Keatts been able to through to them in 4 months? Are they in good enough shape to lock down teams for 40 minutes? Are they going to make their money as a solid ‘stay between your man and the basket’ type defensive team with good communication and smart positioning, or will they be more of a high-risk, high-reward gambling defensive unit?

How do Markell Johnson and Lavar Batts co-exist?

Both are point guards will similar skill sets. Neither one can really stroke it from 3pt range, but they are super fast, very quick and extremely athletic. Is there room for two guys that basically play the same style of basketball? This, to me, will be one of the more interesting things to watch. Keatts is going to need some backcourt scoring, but who will he be able to count on.

If NC State is going to be successful these two guys will need to carve out their roles so they compliment each other. There certainly will be a lot of ball movement and penetration, but can either one of these guys step in as a true scorer?

Keeping Johnson and Batts on the court together will obviously pay off on the defensive end, but if neither one of them steps up as scorers, Keatts will be forced to rely on a lineup of Johnson (or Batts), Dorn and Freeman (which may end up costing a little bit on the defensive end.) Keatts is a defense first guy, so we should be watching closely at how he handles this situation.

Is Al Freeman NC State’s go-to scorer? 

With Dennis Smith Jr in the NBA, Terry Henderson being denied his senior season, and Mav Rowan deciding to transfer, NC State is left with a huge hole in the scoring column. Who will fill it?

Enter Al Freeman. Freeman transferred to NC State from Baylor where he averaged 9 points per game. He is not super athletic and not the quickest guy on the court, but he can shoot it. His game is pretty similar to Trevor Lacey in that he can create his own shot and shoot it over his defender. He’s also a pretty good catch-and-shoot guy. Freeman has never been a lead scorer at Baylor, but at NC State he may need to fill that role. Is he ready?

How will this team look without Yurtseven?

As you probably already know, Omer Yurtseven will not be making the trip to Italy and instead will be staying in Turkey to play with the national team. This is pretty unfortunate because it would have been great to see how Keatts plays with all his pieces.

One of the biggest questions is how Yurt will fit in this run and gun style of offense. Keatts really didn’t have a guy like him at UNCW so it’s tough to pull any parallels and come up with an idea of how he’ll be used.

A stronger and more confident Yurtseven would be huge for NC State. In a season where scoring could possibly be their biggest problem, Yurt has the skill set to really have an impact as a go-to guy. The only problem is that we thought the same thing last season and it turned out that the big man simply wasn’t ready for the physicality of the ACC. Has that changed? I don’t know but we’ll be watching.