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NC State Basketball

NC State’s Kevin Keatts Talks Before Season Opener: BULLETED

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NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts spoke with the media today before the men’s basketball team kicks off the 2018-19 season tomorrow night against Mount Saint Mary’s. You can watch it here, or read a BULLETED breakdown below.

  • Excited for some of our players. I’m sure there will be a lot of nervous energy. Was thinking about it today…we’ve got 3 guys, really 2, CJ Bryce and Devon Daniels, who haven’t played in over a year.
  • Tried to improve on some things that we didn’t do well in the Chowan exhibition. Our guys are obviously tired of practicing against each other. They’re all excited about playing basketball tomorrow.
  • We’ll play a very good team that’s got a lot of tradition, Mount St. Mary’s. Last few years they’ve done a tremendous job and they play a very similar style to us where they try to get up and down.
  • I’m looking for chemistry and I’m looking for a lot of different lineups.
  • From exhibition, I wanted us to do a better job of blocking out. I thought we gave up a few more offensive rebounds that I would like. That being said, when you give up offensive rebounds, you don’t get a chance to get out and run as much. I know we scored 111 points, but I want to try to get out in transition a little bit more.
  • In recruiting, I think you have to, #1, obviously sell your program and your system. Obviously we’ve got a tremendous program that I think that fans obviously love and players love to play in. You talk about a great university and we certainly have that…academically and also a great place to go to school in Raleigh.
  • Braxton Beverly is doing better. We actually threw him into one or two drills to try to shoot the basketball. He’s still a ways away and I don’t know that I have a timetable for you guys. I don’t know where he’s at. In my mind, I wish he could play tomorrow, but I’m looking at probably two or three weeks out… hopefully. I’m going to listen to the doctors and trainer to tell me when he can play, and I hope it’s sooner than later. We need him. We love his leadership. I know he’s obviously a good player and can make shots, but I think we miss the leadership more than anything.
  • The two guys who played for me last year have to do a great job shooting: Torin Dorn and Markell Johnson. CJ Bryce has also played for me for a couple of years and Devon Daniels I would like to see play well. I think those four guys have to play well and I think everybody else has to follow.
  • Wyatt Walker is free spirited, a high-energy guy.  Everybody loves him, and I think his leadership and how hard he plays… everybody could follow that.
  • I told our team the other day, what we did last year was a very special year, especially with some guys who were coming off a year that they didn’t have a lot of success. We don’t take it for granted that we won 11 games in the ACC. It’s hard to do on any given year.That being said, that’s a totally different team and I’m excited about this group.
  • I would say yes, this is more my style of team. We have the pieces to play the way we want to play, but I don’t want to cheat last year’s team. Those guys bought into my system and we actually played our style. What I said earlier was that we probably had about 75 percent of our system in and hopefully now we’ll get up to 90 to 95 percent now.
  • I think the three bigs that I played in the exhibition game, help me sleep a little better knowing that they can contribute in different ways. When you look at Wyatt, he did a tremendous job rebounding the ball, and he’s a great passer. You can’t ignore the way DJ played. DJ did a tremendous job going 7-for-7 from the field.
  • In college basketball, if you can stay older or in this situation you can stay experienced, I think that’s better. We have some older guys but what we don’t have is game experience, so having him (Torin Dorn) as a guy who’s been through the wars and obviously played in the system… is huge for us because his leadership is going to be important for guys that have never really went through a season of NC State basketball.
  • I know we want to be an uptempo team and we want to get out and transition, but unfortunately the other team has scouting reports. We know we’ve worked really hard trying to be efficient in the half court and we expect to see early on, especially with Braxton out, a good dose of some zone sometime and then some man-to-man. So we’ve worked on trying to be better in the halfcourt.
  • No, I just want him (CJ Bryce) to play.  If he can average 17 points a game at this level, then I’m great with them. I try to create an atmosphere where our guys can play loose. I give them tremendous offensive freedom without getting crazy. I hope he just plays the way he plays.

Matthew is Co-Owner of Pack Insider. He writes for all sports, with a focus on football and recruiting, and is in charge of business strategy. He is an NC State alum who majored in business. Matthew is also the lead pastor of The Point Church in Cary, NC.

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NC State Basketball

NC State has Won 5 ACC Championships this Year

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NC State has won 5 ACC Championships this year, which is the most of any athletic program in the conference this year.

The Wolfpack has won ACC Titles in Women’s Cross Country, Men’s Swimming & Diving, Wrestling, Men’s Basketball and Gymnastics.

The last time NC State won 5 ACC Championships in one year was 1979-80.

As far as I can tell, here’s a look at the Wolfpack Conference Titles from 1979-80:

Football
Women’s Basketball
Women’s Cross Country
Men’s Swimming & Diving
Men’s Tennis

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NC State Basketball

NC State is 1 of 4 Schools to Have Both Men & Women’s Basketball Teams in Sweet 16

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NC State is 1 of 4 schools to have their Men and Women’s Basketball teams BOTH advance to the Sweet 16, along with Duke, Gonzaga and UCONN.

NC State and Duke are the only two schools in the country to send both Basketball teams to the Sweet 16, and also send the Football team to a bowl game.

This marks only the third time in school history that BOTH teams made the Sweet 16.

Years NC State’s Men & Women’s Teams Made the Sweet 16

1985
1989
2024

Despite the fact that the Men’s team has made the Elite 8 six times (1950, 1951, 1974, 1983, 1985, 1986), and the Women have made it 2 times (1998 & 2022), in the three occasions they both went to the Sweet 16 in the same year, neither team advanced to the Elite 8.

In 2024, Why Not Us?

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NC State Basketball

#3 seed NC State Holds on Against #6 Seed Tennessee, Defeating the Vols 79-72 to Advance to the Sweet 16

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#3 seed NC State held on last night, defeating #6 seed Tennessee 79-72 in Reynolds Coliseum to advance to the Sweet 16 for the 5th time in the last 6 tournaments.

The Wolfpack led by only 1 after the 1st Quarter, but they looked like they had things under control at halftime, leading by 18 points.

At one point, NC State led by as much as 20 points in the 3rd Quarter, but the Lady Volunteers weren’t about to give up.

With 4:19 left in the 4th, Tennessee cut the lead to 2 points, but NC State might have bent, but they wouldn’t break.

Junior Guard Aziaha James led the way with 22 points and 7 assists, which were both team highs. She scored 7 points in the final 3.5 minutes, helping to squash tue Last Vols’ comeback attempt.

Junior Guard Saniya Rivers had 20 points (6-14 FG) and 6 boards.

Freshman Zoe Brooks was clutch off the bench, chipping in 16 points and 6 boards.

This marks the 16th time the NC State Women’s Basketball team has advanced to the Sweet 16.

The Wolfpack will play #2 seed Stanford on Friday night at 7:30pm on ESPN in Portland.

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NC State Basketball

A Historical Breakdown of the Series Between NC State & Marquette

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#11 seed NC State will play #2 seed Marquette in the Sweet 16 on Friday night, which will mark the 6th time the two teams have played one another.

The first time the Wolfpack and the Golden Eagles played one another was also in the NCAA Tournament, and it just so happened to be the 1974 Championship game, with NC State winning the game 76-64, giving the Pack their first National Championship.

Wolfpack led the way with 21 points, and Tommy Burleson had a double-double of 14 points and 11 boards, with 7 blocks, which is tied for the 8th most in school history in a single game.

NC State also had 12 steals in the game, which is the most by a Pack team in an NCAA Tournament game.

The next time the two teams would meet was on January 21st, in Reynolds Coliseum. The Wolfpack won 89-76, and it was a night for the history books for Point Guard Chris Corchiani. In that game, set ACC career records for assists with 861 and steals with 276.

The following year, the Golden Eagles picked up their first win against the Wolfpack, winning 66-42 in Milwaukee.

It would be over 15 years before NC State and Marquette would play one another again, and this time it would once again be a home-and-home series in back-to-back years.

On December 22nd, 2008, the Wolfpack lost a close one at home, falling 65-68. Wolfpack Forward Brandon Costner hit all five 3-Point attempts in that game, which still stands as the best 3-Point Percentage in a single game in school history.

The following year, on December 5th, 2009, the Wolfpack would claim the lead in the series again, defeating the Golden Eagles 77-73 on the road. NC State big man Tracy Smith had a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds. Point Guard Javier Gonzalez had 15 points and 7 assists, and Wing Scott Wood knocked down 4 of his 6 three-point attempts.

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