Basketball Preview: Why the heck is nobody talking about Torin Dorn?

When last season started, it was the Dennis Smith Jr show. He’s who everyone was talking about. He was the savior that had come to help NC State rise to greatness once again. Only, if you remember back, it wasn’t Smith who was leading the team in the early going. It was Torin Dorn.

Through the first eight games of the season, Dorn averaged almost 18 points and 7 rebounds per game. He was dominant. He was scoring from inside and out. He looked like a superstar in the making. But something happened after these 8 games. Dorn went cold. He lost confidence in his shot and it seemed as if as Dennis Smith starter to bloom as the team’s top scoring threat, Dorn found himself wondering what his role was.

The early media take was that Dorn ran into a buzz saw when he hit ACC play and it was a little too physical for him, and he was simply outmatched. That never really made sense to us because Dorn had big games against some big-time talent. He put up 16 vs Creighton and then had a 17 point (7-11), 7 rebound outing vs a pretty good Illinois team. When he started to fall off, it wasn’t against better talent. It was against Tennesee St and Appalachian St. In fact, Dorn’s  numbers started to decline just as NC State’s offense started to get stagnant and turned into a Dennis Smith Jr watch party. It was also right around the time that Omer Yurtseven came back from suspension and the Wolfpack started to go big. Dorn just didn’t have much value with a clogged up lane and nowhere to drive.

What we are getting at is that Torin Dorn never had a problem being outmatched at the ACC level, he just lost his confidence, had the offense change on him a bit, and never was able to turn it around. The fact still remains that he’s proven that he can be a real scorer at this level and we believe he’s going to be a major surprise this season for NC State.

Dorn’s quiet end to the season last year has people forgetting that this guy was the Conference USA Freshman of the Year for Charlotte just a few years ago. He’s finally in a situation where he fits the offense perfectly. The 4 guard lineup that NC State will be playing to start the season is the dream situation for him. The floor will be spread and there will be a ton of space to go to work.

While there hasn’t been much hype around Dorn this offseason, we think he is going to be one of the Pack’s most productive players in 2017-18.