NC State opens season tonight against Bucknell | Gameday Preview and How to Watch

NC State Wolfpack vs Bucknell
Time: 8:00pm
Location: Raleigh, NC
TV: ACCN Extra | ESPN+
Line: NC State – 25

Preview of The Bucknell Bison

Bucknell is coming off a crazy season. I mean, everyone is, but few teams had the type of disjointed season that the Bisons did.

First off, they only played 12 games all season due to starting the season two months late (COVID reasons) and then having a huge gap in February due to more COVID stuff. In all, they only played 5 different teams and finished the season 5-7.

So, yeah, trying to figure out what this team is going to look like this season is anyone’s guess, but what we can do is look at stats from last season.

Andrew Funk, their senior guard is back after averaging 12.5ppg last season. Funk has size at 6’5, but he’s not super quick and he only shot 27% from 3pt range last season. Most of his damage was done by bullying smaller guards in the Patriot League, something he won’t be able to do against NC State’s tall and long backcourt.

After that, there isn’t much to talk about. The Bisons did lose Andrew Meeks, who was their go-to scorer last season at 25ppg. He transferred to College of Charleston.

Source: Bucknell transfer John Meeks has committed to Charleston.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 14, 2021

Junior Xander Rice, a 6’3 guard, may start to come into his own this season. He averaged 10ppg last season, but with Meeks gone, he’s going to get more volume and this is a kid who shot 42% from 3point range last year.

Keys For NC State

NC State has a ton of advantages in this game, but their biggest is going to be Manny Bates in the middle.

– Rely on Bates: Bates sat out the exhibition game, so this will be his first action of the season, however Bucknell simply doesn’t have anyone in the middle close to Bates’ level. He’s going to make it hard on their guards to get anything going to the rim, and he’s going to be too much to handle for any of the Bison bigs. Bates should have a big game in this one.

The other key for NC State is going to be figuring out their rotation.

– Play Fast and Play Fresh: Keatts has a lot of talent and a pretty deep bench this season (everywhere but at center), so how he uses them will be interesting. I think you’ll see him finally get that full-court press rolling now that he has a roster of long, tall athletes. That should cause havoc for Bucknell who certainly won’t be used to this type of size, speed, and physicality.

– Get on the boards, EVERYONE!: What you should be keying on in this game, however, should be rebounding. NC State did not fare well on the boards in their exhibition game (although Bates was out), but this is a team that is going to have their guards do well on the boards. Bates has never been an elite rebounder and Hellems is undersized at the 4. So it’s going to have to be guys like Casey Morsell who pick up the slack, as Terquavion Smith, Thomas Allen and Breon Pass aren’t likely to rack up many boards this year.

If NC State can do these things, they’ll walk away with a big win tonight to open the season.