No. 3 Arizona’s Trier may be nations best scorer, can Wolfpack stop him?

NC State takes on No.3 Arizona this Wednesday night at 7pm as a part of the “Battle For Atlantis” tournament.

The matchup will be the first true test for both teams, however, a lot more will likely be learned about the Wolfpack, who are a bit of an unknown at this point. New head coach Kevin Keatts’ squad has passed the early eye test, but how will they hold up against elite competition. For instance, how will they deal with someone like Arizona’s top scorer, Allonzo Trier?

Trier could have gone to the NBA after his sophomore season. He averaged 17 points, 5 boards, shot 46% from the floor and 40% from beyond the arc. He would have likely been a late 1st round, early 2nd round pick, but that wasn’t good enough. Trier returned to Arizona this season to enhance his draft status and to try to win a national championship.

It’s safe to say, he’s off to a good start.

Trier is a 6’5, 205lb guard who can do it all. He’s long and strong and can get into the lane, create contact and finish. When he doesn’t have a lane, he’s fine settling for the 3 ball, where he’s a sharp-shooter from deep. Just look at these ‘per game’ stats so far this season:

Points: 30
Rebounds: 4
Assists: 3
Steals: 1
FG: 70%
3pt: 59%

Are you serious? Yeah, Arizona has only faced Northern Arizona, UMBC, and CSU Bakersfield, but those numbers are mind-boggling. 70% from the field? Maybe if you’re a big, scoring from 2 feet out, but this kid is shooting over five 3s per game.  Speaking of 3s, he’s knocking down nearly 60% of those. Just for a Wolfpack comparison, Scott Wood’s BEST season was 42%.

So can NC State stop him?

That’s really the million dollar question. There isn’t really a blueprint on how to bother Trier. He’s put up big games in his career vs. both big and small guards.

NC State can try to bother him with constant pressure from Johnson and Batts, or they can go big and have Dorn or Al Freeman try to slow him down.

We believe from watching as much Treier film as we could, that a longer, athletic guard is the best option. Trier will kill you inside and outside. Just watch his highlights. The guy really gets going by getting to the rim and finishing through contact. However, the one weak spot (if you can call it that) in his game is his slow jumper. It’s accurate, sure, but it takes him a while to get it off. NC State could guard him with Dorn who could give him an extra step to stop the drive but have the length to close out and get a hand up by the time he’s ready to release.

We will wait and see how Keatts defends a guy like Trier, but we suspect he has a little more success than Gottfried did vs. elite scorers. Against Gottfried guys like this were going for career nights on the regular and we don’t expect that to be the case this time.

If NC State wants to shock the world and topple the Wildcats, it starts with stopping Allonzo Trier.