NC State Basketball
NC State takes on CSU today: Preview, Info & Streaming Options
NC State looks to move to remain unbeaten in the Kevin Keatts era as they take on Charleston Southern today in Raleigh.
Gametime: 4pm
How to Watch: Streaming online @ WatchESPN
Location: PNC Arena
Tickets: Available here
Get to know Charleston Southern:
This is another fairly young team. However, Charleston Southern does have at least a little veteran leadership and should be a more formidable opponent than VMI. That being said, CSU has seven new players coming into the program and two others coming off redshirt seasons.
Sophomore Christian Keeling is a preseason first-team all-conference selection. Keeling was the only freshman in the country last season to lead his team in scoring (17.3 ppg) and rebounding (7.1). His 539 points set a CSU scoring record for a freshman.
Their other guard, Cortez Mitchell, started 19 games last season and averaged 11.1 points. Mitchell, who will start at the point, committed only 40 turnovers in 749 minutes of action last season.
In the paint is senior Javis Howard, a third-year starter who averaged 7.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season.
Charleston Southern is 0-1 on the young season but was blown out by Davidson 110-62. (Davidson made 26 3s against them).
History vs Charleston Southern
- NC State leads the all-time series with Charleston Southern, 7-0.
- The Pack won the last meeting between the two programs, 86-50, on Dec. 12, 2014.
- NC State’s margin of victory in the seven all-time meetings is 35.7 points.
- NC State defeated Charleston Southern, 135-80, on Nov. 28, 1990. It’s the fourth-most points scored in a single game in NC State history. Pack All-American Chris Corchiani scored a career-high 36 points in the win.
What to watch for
Charleston Southern is going to be better than VMI was. They have Christian Keeling, who is a legit scorer, so the Wolfpack is going to really need to do their best to keep him from getting going.
For NC State, the focus will be on improving from last time out. They only had one day off, so there was probably limited film sessions, but the gist of it is simple. Same intensity, same toughness, less fouling and no late-game lapses. If NC State does that, they blow CSU out of the water.
We are predicting big games from Al Freeman and Lennard Freeman.
Al couldn’t find his rhythm in the opener, but this guy is true talent and is going to have some huge scoring games for NC State.
Meanwhile, Freeman played really well in limited minutes on Friday and even put up a career-high in scoring. We don’t believe that was a fluke and think Lennard is going to put up good points from the post position again today.
As far as improvements go, we are looking for Omer Yurtseven to show a little more toughness and aggression vs what will be a stronger front line. We are also hoping to see the defense be a little less handsy on the perimeter.
This game will tell us a little more of what NC State really has since Charleston Southern is a more talented group with more explosive players.