10 questions for NC State basketball as they take on Lees-McRae tonight in exhibition

NC State opens the basketball season with a tune-up against Lees-McRae tonight at 7pm at the PNC.

The game isn’t streamed, so there’s no way to watch it online, but parking and tickets are free, so there really isn’t lot of great excuses for not making it out there to root on the Pack.

If you can’t make it, you can listen on the radio (in Raleigh, the Wolfpack Sports Network airs on 101.5 FM).

What you can expect

Lees McRae is a middle-of-the-road D-2 team. They were 15-14 last season, They beat the #10 D2 team (Chowan) but lost twice to UNC-Pembroke to give you an idea. They will rely mostly on 6’8 senior Drew Gardner, but this is a team that is going to be overmatched by NC State.

For NC State, there are a ton of unanswered questions. This is mostly a new basketball team from last year, so you have to wonder how they will mesh and what type of chemistry they’ll have. However, they did get an off-season trip to the Bahamas to get a head start.

It’s worth noting that Louisville was beaten in their exhibition game by D-2 Lenoir-Rhyne (a team that was 10-18 on the season last year), so it’s not like an ACC with a ton of new talent can’t be beaten by a D-2 team. That said, I wouldn’t expect it to be close in this one.

NC State actually is a pretty versatile team and Keatts is going to have a lot of matchup options. For us, watching how he pairs guys together and changes to his system will be things we’re looking for.

Here are the questions we want answers to…

1. How much zone will they play?
2. Will he primarily stick with DJ Burns in the middle?
3. What role does Mahorcic and Dowuona play?
4. Do they go big and press all the time, or do they go small at times?
5. What is Breon Pass’s role?
6. Is Jarkell Joiner the type of PG that can lead this team and create for his teammates?
7. Is Jack Clark an upgrade over Jericole Hellems?
8. Who is the backup 2 guard behind Smith?
9. Do we finally see NC State dump the ball down to the block on offense?
10. Can Casey Morsell be a trusted scorer this season?

We’ll find out a lot tonight, even though the score will likely end up being lopsided.