NC State basketball to host ECU on 10/21 for ‘Secret Scrimmage’

NC State kicks off basketball season on Oct. 19th at 8pm with their annual ‘Primetime with the Pack‘ pep rally (tickets still on sale).

While that event doesn’t include a scrimmage anymore, the players won’t have to wait long to get in some game action. That’s because of a ‘secret scrimmage’ scheduled on 10/21 against ECU, according to college basketball analyst Jeff Goodman.

It used to be that teams just hosted semi-pro or foreign national teams for their early season game prep, but over the past few years, that has changed. Suddenly, almost every school is scheduling scrimmages with other D1 schools. (If you remember, last year they hosted Campbell.)

“They want to go up against like teams.” Said Goodman. “They get to really see where they’re at, at this point and they can control it. It’s a controlled environment. That’s the biggest thing. (STADIUM)”

The NCAA allows teams to have two exhibition games. These can be public events that fans can attend and they can sell tickets for, or they can be private scrimmages like this. As you can see, because of this ‘secret scrimmage’ NC State will only play one public exhibition game on Monday, Oct. 29th vs. Chowan.

So why would a team opt to forgo ticket money and play a private scrimmage instead?

“It’s a way for them to control. They can stop it halfway through and say ‘Hey, coaches want to get them together and work on their zone offense.’ And that’s what they can do for a 20 minute period if they want.” said Goodman. (STADIUM)

There has been no official word, but this event will very likely be closed to the public and the media (as all others have been).