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NC State looking to start winning streak vs. Clemson | Breakdown, Preview, & How to Watch

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NC State Wolfpack vs. Clemson Tigers
Time: 12:00pm | Saturday, January 8th
Location: Raleigh, NC
TV: ACCNX
Ken Pom Line: Clemson -2

NC State is coming off their first ACC win and looking to make it two in a row as the Tigers come into town.

Clemson comes in at 9-5 with their only notable win over Virginia (a 17 slaughter in Charlottesville). They’ve dropped their rematch with Virginia, a game to Rutgers, Miami and #22 St. Bonaventure.

Clemson relies on two pretty versatile forwards. Their leading scorer is PJ Hall. He’s a 6’10 sophomore who is averaging 14 points per game. He’s decently athletic, had good hands, good footwork, and can pop out and shoot it (33% from 3pt range). He’s not going to beat anyone off the bounce, but he can score on the block or knock down a jumper.

Then you have Hunter Tyson, a 6’8 senior. He’s another big kid who likes to shoot it (hitting 39% of his 3s). He’s averaging 12 ppg. And while he’s not going to beat you on the block or out quick you, he’s fundamental, and a very well-rounded player who has been hot all season long.

At guard, Clemson relies on USF transfer David Collins, a 6’4 senior who, on tape is’nt all that exciting, but does put up decent numbers. He’s averaging 11.8 ppg, 7 boards and 2 assists. He’s a solid guard, he isn’t that quick, nor is he crazy athletic. He does play physical, and is a disciplined kid who doesn’t take many bad shots or make many mistakes.

Then there is Al-Amir Dawes, a 6’2 junior who, like Collins, doesn’t really wow you with anything he does, but puts up good numbers at 11 ppg. Dawes is another guy who can shoot if you leave him open.

Lastly, there is Nick Honor. NC State fans might remember him from his 21 point performance off the bench in their 74-70 OT win over the Pack last season.

To this day, that is still Nick Honors’ career high. He was eating Shakeel Moore and Thomas Allen alive in that game. Putting some size on him seems to keep him in check, and this year, that is something NC State will be able to do. Honors is averaging 10 points and 3 assists per game. He doesn’t shoot a ton from long range, but when he does, he usually hits. He’s shooting 43% from out there this year.

Keys to the game for NC State

  • Lean on Seabron. Clemson doesn’t have a single guy who can match up with him.
  • Defend the high screen. Nick Honor is going to be going off the high screen and PJ Hall is a pretty good roll man, or pick and pop guy. Honor can hit if you leave him. How good the Pack plays the high screen will dictate a lot.
  • Replicate the intensity. The NC State defense looked great against Virginia Tech and really limited their open looks. Clemson is going to shoot 3s, so State really needs to not get caught helping down on the drives. And we’ll beat the dead horse in saying, they have to keep the guards out of the lane!
  • Smart defense wins this game. While staying intense is a key, playing smart defense might be even more important in this one. Clemson doesn’t have a single guy you have lock down, they can come at you from any spot and all their guys can hit from long range. This is going to take extreme focus for NC State defensively. No getting lost, no falling asleep, your guy can score at any moment.

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Papajohn
Papajohn
1 year ago

The winning team will hit a lot of threes.

NC State Basketball

NC State’s Ebe Dowuona Enters Transfer Portal

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NC State Junior F/C Ebe Dowuona has entered the transfer portal, with two years of eligibility remaining.

This year, Ebe played in 30 games, averaging 1.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per game. As a Sophomore, after the injury to Manny Bates in the first game of the season, Dowuona went on to start in 27 of the 31 games he played in, averaging 4.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

I’m not shocked. I don’t blame Dowuona for wanting to find a place where he would get more playing time.

Nonetheless this is a hit to the Wolfpack’s front court. While he didn’t offer much on the offensive end, he continually altered shots on the defensive end.

Ernest Ross will be a Junior next year, and fans will likely get to see Freshman Isaiah Miranda for the first time after redshirting after arriving to Raleigh midseason. Greg Gantt will be a Redshirt Junior next season as well.

Other questions loom for the Wolfpack front court as well. Will DJ Burns and Jack Clark return for their final year of eligibility? Will Dusan Mahorcic be granted a medical waiver for an additional year of eligibility?

Time will tell.

We wish Ebe all the best!

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NC State Ranked in Top-25 in Men’s Basketball Attendance in 2022-23

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When it was all said and done, the NC State fans represented in 2022-23, ranking 20th amongst Division-1 teams in Men’s Basketball attendance. The Wolfpack ranked 4th in the ACC, behind UNC, Syracuse, and Virginia.

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Wolferetti: Feed me my crow. NC State lost to Creighton and I’m here to break it down (and admit I was wrong)

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I was wrong.

I thought this matchup was a good one for NC State. I watched a lot of Creighton this year and to me, they looked like a team that NC State could roll over. Let me explain why.

I knew a few things. I knew Nembhard was a PG that could get a little out of control if sped up. I knew with a little defense and physicality, Sheierman could be made uncomfortable. I knew Kalkbrenner was a good defender but was going to sink on the pick-and-roll to protect the basket.

Joiner’s pull up just wouldn’t fall

I figured that Joiner, the pull-up king would be taking that DJ Burns screen, getting to the middle, and pulling up as Kalkbrenner sank. I figured Smith would exploit this as well. Well, turns out Joiner was off and couldn’t get his pull-up game going and Smith, well yeah Smith did exploit this pretty well.

Burns didn’t look like Burns

The other thing I’d figure would happen is that I thought DJ Burns would really frustrate Kalkbrenner. If you’ve looked at games where Kalkbrenner had to face a really good, physical back-to-the-basket big man, those bigs usually had pretty good games in the scoring column.  I honestly don’t understand what happened to Burns in this one. Sure he got a few stupid early fouls, but before he even picked up a foul he looked out of it. With no double teams coming, Burns is usually calculated, slowly backing you down and hitting you with a flurry of head fakes, pump fakes or spins. If the big doesn’t bite, Burns can fade away, go with a contested hook shot, or pass out.

In this game, Burns looked sped up for some reason. The first time he got the ball he quickly backed in and threw up a hook that rattled out. Not awful, but usually you see him probe a little more. Then the next time he didn’t even look for contact, instead, he threw up a little floater that didn’t fall. While neither were awful shots, both were uncharacteristic of Burns. On top of those things, he looked absolutely gassed within minutes of coming in. My guess is that it was the altitude, but either way, it took a toll on him.

Whatever it was, it had him frustrated and he had two really bad fouls where he just shoved Kalkbrenner (he also had a phantom foul that was ridiculous). That said, it just wasn’t his night and this made NC State a lot more one-dimensional.

Casey Morsell came to play, but this NC State roster just wasn’t built to get a guy like him going, which is a shame. Jarkel Joiner was a huge reason why NC State got to where they got. His scoring ability, his speed and his toughness and leadership skill were huge. But Joiner is a scoring guard, and great basketball teams need POINT guards.

What is a point guard, and why can’t we have one?

A point guard isn’t just a guy who dribbles it down. It’s a guy who understands the games within the games. Guys who dictate pace, call plays (sets) and are essentially coaches on the floor. NC State and Kevin Keatts never had that this season, and while you can get a long way with scoring guards and good big men, you’ll never compete for anything of worth until you prioritize the skill set of a true point guard. I think that has been NC State’s problem for years, and I find it kind of insane that coach after coach falls into this idea of having a scoring guard play as a PG for more offense to get on the court.

This is no shot at Jarkel, either. The guy was one of my favorite players to watch on this team, but it just is what it is. He is a scoring guard who happens to be slotting in at PG. When you see Keatts bring in a guy whose priority is getting his guys open and dictating pace, then you can start to believe that this program may be close to arriving. Until then, sneaking into the tournament and hoping guys get hot hands is as good as it gets.

Look at Kihei Clark (Virginia’s PG). I know it’s not a great time to be talking about Clark, whose errant pass ended up losing the game for Virginia on Thursday, but look at Clark’s build.5’10, 170lbs. Look at his stats. Mid-30s shooting % from 3. Hight 70s from the FT line. The guy is nothing special when it comes to the numbers, but he’s a leader and he distributes the basketball to the right guys at the right time. Tony Bennett has started Clark for 4 years despite the fact that he’s coaching a team that is always in the running to win the ACC and won a national championship less than 5 years ago.  He could replace Clark with an elite, tall, athlete at any moment. But he doesn’t. Why? Because he understands what I’m talking about. It’s a puzzle that coaches need to put together, and one piece of that puzzle is a guy like this.

I was wrong about this game. I thought things would play out differently. They didn’t. I’m not blaming anyone in particular, but the makeup of this team vs. the makeup of teams that play deep into March are different. Maybe this is step one to getting there. We’ll have to see how the roster shapes up next season.

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VIDEO: NC State falls to Creighton 72-63 in first round of NCAA Tournament | Extended Highlights & Box Score

NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

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NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

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