When: Saturday January 24 – 12:00 PM
Where: Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh
TV: ESPNU
Opponent: Pitt Panthers
Prediction – KenPom (KP) / Bart Torvik (BT): NC State 78-72 / NC State 77-71
Wolfpack Snapshot:
- Record: 13-6, 4-2
- Rankings: KP #27, BT #27
- NET: 29 (Q1: 1-5, Q2: 5-0, Q3: 3-1, Q4: 4-0) – 5th highest NET in the ACC
KenPom Adj. Efficiency: Offense ranked 34, Defense ranked 42
Wolfpack Season So Far:
Coach Wade after the Clemson game. Asked what the win said about the team.
“It’s a relief, because I didn’t know if we had it in us or not. I’m being truthful. It was good to see us have that in us and play with some
poise and execute, execute in a tough environment. It was good for us to do that.”
I think Coach Wade has established a clear pattern in these interviews. He is candid in his responses to media questions, but simultaneously each of his responses are messages to his team. The message here is, ‘based on the season so far he wasn’t confident the team would play to their potential in a very tough road game, but they did.’ The unstated message was, ‘now I expect it every game!’
What’s On the Line?
Pitt is ranked NET 120 making this a Q2 game. The Panthers are coming off a Wednesday night 3 point loss at BC, that they might have won if their starting PG Demarco Minor (9.6/3.5/3.7) hadn’t been ejected for a flagrant 2 foul in the first half.
The Latest ‘Crisis’: Wearing the STATE logo unis / wearing the Slobbering Wolf
(From the Thursday radio show )
Question:
“Coach, how much of a say do you have when it comes to wearing the 1983 throwback STATE uniforms? “
Coach Wade:
“I don’t have much of a say. I mean, I like them. We should wear them. We’ve played well in them both times we’ve worn them. I think it connects us to our past, connects to our history. I like the slobbering wolf. I actually want to wear the slobbering Wolf, but they won’t let me wear that on my jacket. I mean, look, it’s a bureaucracy like anything. So there’s so much red tape, there’s so much stuff you’ve got to go through. But I like the uniforms. Hopefully, we can bust them out maybe one more time this year. So, I’m one of those guys – this probably doesn’t surprise you – I like to ask forgiveness, not permission. We got a scathing email from the University after our first game. They were not happy. I don’t think they quite knew we were wearing the ‘STATE’ ones. I ran it by some of the higher ups in the athletics department. I don’t know if it made it further than that.“
Uniform Update for Pitt: NC State will wear black for the first time this season.
Wolfpack Player Notes:
- Scottie Ebube – ankle
- Jerry Deng – Injured (groin), no official notice from the team, but generally expected to redshirt and play elsewhere next season – he is no longer on the injury reports
Opponent Overview:
Pitt was picked by the media to finish 14th in the ACC
Coach Jeff Capel is in his eighth season; he has had 3 winning seasons at Pitt and made the NCAA tournament once (’22-’23). Many of the media mention him as a coach needing to save his job this season.
Opponent Snapshot:
- Record: 8-11, 1-5
- Rankings: KP #99, BT #109
- NET: 121 (Q1: 0-5, Q2: 1-2, Q3: 2-3, Q4: 5-1) – 16th highest NET in the ACC
Player Notes
- Freshman Roman Siulepa was rated Australia’s top player last year
- Cameron Corhen is 7th in FG% in ACC play
- Demarco Minor leads the ACC in assist / turnover ratio in ACC play
What to watch for:
- NCS – trends to watch
- Holloman started ahead of Breed and played 27 mins last game (6 pts, 1 asst, 1 stl) but he had the worst +/- on the team at -7. Breed did not play but was available.
- Able keeps improving. He had 22 minutes (6 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl) but led the team in turnovers with 3. His +/- was 6, the second highest on either team behind McNeil’s 10. CWW says he plans to play him 22-26 minutes per game going forward.
- Sagnia’s usage in ACC games is declining now that Williams’ is increasing. The last two games he had 9 and 10 minutes, only giving Lubin bench time. Against the Clemson bigs his box score was 1 turnover and 2 fouls.
- Arceneaux was coming off two very good games and expected the trend to continue. Against Clemson he only played about 13 minutes, hit his only shot (3 pt) and picked up 2 fouls.
- NCS – record watch – McNeil has 58 made 3PT shots after 19 games. He’s averaging 3.05 per game, tracking for 94.5 in the regular season. DJ Horne’s record is 105 (40 games).
- PITT – weakness – defense – last in ACC games in opponent FG%, 15th in opponent 3PT FG%
- PITT – weakness – 3PT shooting – 17th in 3PT FG%, 15th in 3PT made per game
- PITT – strength – steals – 5th in ACC games
- PITT – weakness – free throw shooting – 15th in ACC games, averaging 66.3%
- PITT – weakness – rebounding – 16th in ACC games
- PITT – strength – turnovers – 5th in ACC games, 4th in assist/turnover ratio
Prediction: The Wolfpack are road dogs! In January they are 3-0 on the road and 0-2 at home. The Panthers will be ready for a fight. Pitt is coming off back-to-back losses, a one possession road loss at BC Wednesday and a 41-point soul crusher at home administered by Louisville on Saturday.
It’s forecasted to be 14 degrees in Pittsburgh Saturday. The Pack will take the entire first half to thaw. After some halftime hot chocolate, the men in black light up the scoreboard in the second half and pull away for an 80-69 win.
