NC State played their only preseason game on Wednesday against Lees-McRae (a D-2 school) and walked away 107-59 winners.

A lot of people are going to say that there wasn’t much you could learn from beating down a school like Lees-McRae. Their talent level is nowhere near what the Pack will face when the regular season stars. However, I tend to disagree.

This was the first time we all got to see the Pack play a real game since last season. It was the first eye test. You got to see how conditioned the guys were, their tendencies, and how they move. You got your first glimpse of how Keatts may view certain guys and how he plans on using them.

That being said, here our my 5 takeaways from the game.

1) Jarkel Joiner is a game changer

If you’ve read my pieces from last year, you know that I couldn’t stop talking about our lack of a true point guard being one of the biggest problems the team was facing. Sure, they had Cam Hayes, but to me, he was a natural 2 guard trying to fit in the PG role. Then it was the freshman Breon Pass (who wasn’t quite ready early on) and Dereon Seabron, who filled the role with scoring, but wasn’t great at getting his teammates involved.

Joiner is a breath of fresh air for me. The 5th year senior transfer from Ole Miss looked great in this one, filling the stat sheet in 27 minutes with 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. His on-the-ball defense was stellar and pressured Lees-McRae guards into mistake after mistake. He is obviously the leader of this team and his presence and style of play are going to absolutely change the way this team plays. That 1 on 1 isolation style of basketball will be gone and fans will enjoy the ball being whipped around to find the open man.

Keatts is going to love having Joiner. It gives him a coach on the floor and a guy that catches the ball and looks up the floor immediately. He had a number of long passes down the court, rewarding guys for beating their man down the floor on the break. This encourages front-court players to hustle down, knowing there is a guard looking for them after every defensive rebound.

2) Ernest Ross (and Gregg Gant) are going to allow NC State to compete against almost anyone

You’re going to be scared of this take. The easy thing to do is to throw shade at this take and tell me to pump the breaks. That’s fine. I might be early on this, but I’m not wrong.

The key for this NC State team isn’t talent. Almost everyone on the roster was a 4-star recruit or has already proven themselves at the college level. The key for NC State is going to be versatility. There are teams that they are going to out-talent, and then there are going to be a lot of teams that will be more about ‘who can exploit the mismatches better” type matchups.

NC State will likely start with Joiner, Smith, Morsell, Clark and Burns. But my fear was that Clark would get overmatched by certain opponents. Teams with those bigger, stronger 4s may give him trouble. Clark is 6’8, but he’s more of a wing than a post. Keatts likes having a 4 like this, but there are times that this small ball lineup gets overmatched with size and strength. The question was, do we have a 4 who can step up?

Ross really stood out to me the most. He was everywhere. In 12 minutes he scored 13 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. Ross was a guy who I thought was about to move into the starting lineup last season as a freshman. But then he got hurt and his season was lost.

Now he’s back and we got to see that he seems to be 100%. This is huge. This will allow NC State to go big and protect the basket against bigger opponents. Ross is going to be an elite shot blocker. You saw it last year. He has great timing, he’s quick off the floor and he has great anticipation. When you have those skills, you by default become a very good shot blocker. But he also can run the floor, score on the block, hit 3s, and guard a number of positions. He’s a star in the making and it’s great to see him recovered.

Ross playing this way allows NC State to go big, with Joiner, Smith, Clark at the 3, Ross at the 4 and Burns/Mahorcic/Dowuona at the 5. You wont lose much shooting, but you gain a lot of size and athleticism.  This type of versatility will keep you in almost every game this season.

Oh and Gantt is another guy that looked good. Not as good as Ross in my opinion, but he looks like he’s going to be able to eat minutes and provide great defense at the 4 if you need to go big and Ross needs a breather.

3. You finally have a scoring center in DJ Burns
NC State had a lot of times last season when the shots weren’t falling, and they had no way to stop the bleeding. With no frontcourt player who had reliable back to the basket skills, they were forced to isolate and drive the ball at the rim, hoping for something good to happen. That’s a great way to lose basketball games.

On Wednesday you saw a new layer for NC State. Efficient scoring from the block. Burns only played 12 minutes (and his conditioning may be a concern) but he was 4-6 from the field for 8 points. He’s got great footwork, great touch and can score from the free throw line or below. Oh, and he’s a good passer too. In the Keatts era we haven’t seen a guy like Burns before, so I’m excited. I think the addition of a solid PG and a solid offensive center is going to really change the way fans view this team.

4. Breon Pass is ready
Pass was a 4-star PG coming in last year, but he just wasn’t really college-ready out the gate. He looked fine at times, but PG is a tough position to come in a master as a true freshman. However, this is a new player this year. He’s bulked up to take contact on drives, he looks aggressive and kept the pressure on the defense the whole time he was in. Keatts is going to use him too. He played 20 minutes, scored 10 points, grabbed 4 boards, and had an assist. He’s certainly going to play a big role on this team.

5. Keatts still wants to play fast
Keatts talked a lot this offseason about playing zone. I wondered if he was bluffing, but with slower centers now in the mix, it made sense. Was he going to slow things down? Nah. If this game was any indication, he is still going to reward deflections, push for steals and for getting out and running. As for defense, it looks like he’s going to trust his guys with man-to-man.

Now this is the one that really might be more based on matchup. State could go man to man against a D2 team and out-man them at every position. Will that work in the ACC or will we see him go to zone? Who knows at this point, but the “We might be play all zone”  comment seems like it was a joke. This team obviously has been playing a lot of man to man defense. They looked good, getting steals, pressuring the ball and getting out into transition. Let’s see if that translates when they open the season on Monday?