Wolferetti: Size matters and Keatts has a big one (basketball team, that is)

You’ve all heard the phrase.

“Size doesn’t matter. It’s how you use what you’ve got.”

You know who says that? People with small things.

Now first off, get your minds out of the gutter, you 12 years olds. We’re talking about basketball here.

Keatts is coming into his 5th year as the head coach of NC State, and the whole time we kept hearing about how he wants a long, tall, athletic group of interchangeable athletes who can cause havoc on both ends of the floor. However, for the first 4 years we haven’t seen it materialize.

State has had size, but they’ve never been able to truly run out this type of lineup without seriously hurting themselves. They either would have to take a hit on ball-handling, shooting, or speed.

But not this year.

This is going to be the first year where you’ll be able to see basketball the way Kevin Keatts wants to play it. You’ll likely see a lineup of 6’3 and above most of the time. Cam Hayes (6’3), Casey Morsell (6’3), Terquavion Smith (6’4), Dereon Seabron (6’7), Jericole Hellems (6’7), Manny Bates (6’10), Ernest Ross (6’9), Greg Gantt (6’8).

So why does this matter? Well, the first four guys listed up there are guards. State is going to have 4 guards that are going to have a size advantage almost every night. And what that means is that suddenly, the high screen that nearly every ACC team is going to run is going to lose a lot of its effectiveness.

Look, we loved Braxton Beverly, but he was a defensive liability for this reason alone. Teams would run the high screen and create havoc. Either Beverly would be put into a mismatch, or they’d be scrambling to hedge and switch without giving up the edge.

What this means is that penetration into the lane is going to be tough for teams. They are going to have to beat their man off the dribble, and despite NC State’s size, these guards are also pretty darn quick.

This type of size will affect the game in a lot of ways. Point-to-point passes will be harder to throw around this type of length. There won’t be any ‘shooting over’ guys to get easy buckets, and hey, “You have to guard us to, pal.” (Moment of silence for Mark Gottfried)

Offensively, NC State is going to be able to play big on offense without clogging the lane with traditional lumbering bigs. They’ve worked all offseason in helping Manny Bates acquire a consistent jump shot (and *gulp* 3-point shot), but my guess is that you’ll likely see him play a lot like he played last year.

The difference will be that instead of Funderburk at the 4 (a great talent, but a guy defenders could sag off of a little bit on the wing) you’ll have Jericole Hellems, who is one of the Pack’s best shooters. This is going to cause problems for opposing teams. The 1-3 position will be guards, but again, they’ll be anywhere from 6’3 to 6’7 most of the time.

This NC State team is going to be able to fast while also playing big and that’s something Keatts has always wanted but never been able to do without a trade-off. This year there’s no trade-off. NC State’s best scorers are all big, and all guys who can score on multiple levels.

The big question is going to be whether or not they’re able to hit consistently from outside. Hellems, Hayes and Smith are all great shooters, and if Morsell and Seabron can keep defenders honest with their jumpers, this is going to be a potent team on both ends of the floor.

Of course, you still have Thomas Allen and Breon Pass, both of whom are around the 6-foot mark, and both can shoot it. So, NC State isn’t ALWAYS going to be playing big, however, when they want to or need to it’s a luxury they have at their disposal.