NC State looking to stay unbeaten vs. Florida International | Gameday Preview and How to Watch

NC State Wolfpack vs. Florida International Panthers
Time: 9:00 PM
Location: Raleigh, NC
TV: RSN / ACCN

NC State takes on Florida International of Conference USA at 9pm in Raleigh as they look to start the season 3-0.

The Panthers are 2-0 on the season, with wins over Houston Christian and Florida National. This will be their first true test against a power 5 team. Last year they finished 15-17 on the season, finishing 2nd to last in the C-USA East division.

You can expect Florida International to be a guard-led team, with sophomore Denver Jones averaging 17.5 points per game (after avg. 12 in his freshman campaign) and freshman Arturo Dean averaging 16.5 pts per game. This is a team that is going to play fast and try to put up a lot of points.

While the guards score most of the points, their bigs aren’t anything to scoff at. The Panthers have a 7’1 junior center, Seth Pinkney, however, Pinkney is just 200lbs, so he’s going to give up 25lbs to Mahorcic and 75lbs to DJ Burns. It’s not likely he’s going to be getting great position on the block vs. a very strout NC State front line. Meanwhile the 4 position poses a little more complexity for NC State. 6’5 Nick Guadarrama will be giving up 3 inches to Jack Clark, but at 25olbs. he’ll definitely have the strength advantage.

Guadarrama transferred in this season from New Hampshire where he averaged 12 points and 5 boards last season, and while he only shot 30% from 3, he has previous seasons of 37% and 40% (so far he’s 0-6 this season). This guy is some weird hybrid that you don’t see very much in college basketball. He’s a tweener with a ton of mass and solid game both on the perimeter and on the block. This is a strange matchup that Keatts will have to figure out how to defend.

These early games are good for the Pack. Against Campbell they faced a smaller, faster big and tonight they’ll face a shorter, thicker forward. They likely won’t see either of these types of player in the ACC, but when you get to the end of the season in tournament play, its good to have a little experience against everything.

What we’re looking for:
– The main thing we want to see in this one is NC State showing the ability to defend the perimeter and not demand so much help side. That is crucial. As you saw against Campbell, when you leave college shooters open, they hit. NC State needs to challenge every shot and we’d like to see guys not overplay on help side, and hedge a little bit towards their man, trusting the on-the-ball defender to do his job.

– A little better shooting performance maybe. NC State needs Jack Clark and Casey Morsell to be consistent from downtown. These are two guys who are going to get open looks thanks to Joiner and Smith. If they can hit, things open up drastically for everyone else.

How to watch: 
This game is on RSN, which means Regional Sports Network, which in the Triangle means Bally Sports South. Your ACCN stream is going to be blacked out in most of NC, so make sure you figure out a way to get Bally. However, if you are outside NC then you might get the game on ACC Network (on the ESPN app).

To get Bally Sports South you’ll need to subscribe to Direct TV Stream, as they are the only steaming cable package that offers them according to CordCutterNews.com. Otherwise, you’ll have to go the traditional cable or satellite route and get Direct TV or Spectrum (formally Time Warner Cable). If you’re not in the Triangle area, then you’ll have to check with your local cable provider to see if you can get it.

Some people tweet that they use a VPN to get around the blackout on ACCN, but we don’t know anything about that and don’t condone doing that.