When: Tuesday January 27 – 7:00 PM
Where: Lenovo Center
TV: ESPNU
Opponent: Syracuse Orange Men
Prediction – KenPom (KP) / Bart Torvik (BT): NC State 81-71 / NC State 81-72
Wolfpack Snapshot:
- Record: 14-6, 5-2
- Rankings: KP #26, BT #28
- NET: 27 (Q1: 1-4, Q2: 6-1, Q3: 3-1, Q4: 4-0) – 5th highest NET in the ACC
Wolfpack Season So Far:
Coach Wade from Thursday night radio show: (also in Pulse of the Pack podcast – S2E22)
Crowd Question: What’s something about [you] coaching at NC State that outsiders don’t fully appreciate yet?
“We haven’t won as much as we’re gonna win yet. I don’t think they’re ready for how rowdy we’re gonna be
when we win. We’ve got to be a little bit quiet right now because we’re not quite where we want to be. But in the next year or two, we’re gonna be, I think people are going to be like, “Where did all of these people come from? Who are they?”“
What’s On the Line?
MUST WIN GAME: Syracuse slipped to NET 79, so fell just below the cutoff of 75 to a Q3 game on the back of losing 3 consecutive ACC games. That will do it to you.
Ironically, if they win this game, it’ll likely move them up to be a Q2 win. But if the Pack wins, only a Q3 win.
Wolfpack Player Notes:
- Scottie Ebube – ankle
- Jerry Deng – Officially announced Monday as a redshirt for this season
Opponent Overview:
Syracuse was voted 9th in the ACC in preseason voting
Jimmy B’s handpicked successor and former Syracuse point guard, head coach Adrian ‘Red’ Autry, is in his third season and has yet to break through into postseason play. This is generally considered his most talented team, but the ACC is much stronger this season so results might still be wanting.
Coach Autrey returned his best two players, JJ Starling (who received ACC preseason honors) and their highest ranked recruit since ‘Melo Anthony, 6’9” sophomore Donnie Freeman. Beyond that he brought in five freshmen headlined by Top 50 players forward Sadiq White and ‘Melo’s boy Kiyan Anthony, and six transfers, most from P4 schools; Nait George and Ibrahim Souare from Georgia Tech, Nate Kingz from Oregon State, Tyler Betsy from Cincinnati, William Kyle from UCLA, plus Bryce Zephir from Montana State.
Opponent Snapshot:
- Record: 12-8, 3-4
- Rankings: KP #74, BT #68
- NET: 79 (Q1: 1-3, Q2: 1-3, Q3: 2-2, Q4: 8-0) – 13th highest NET in the ACC
Their Season So Far:
Miami just beat them 85-76 at Syracuse Saturday. Miami shot 61%/54%/80% and out rebounded the Orange 37-21. Cuse forced 16 (11 steals) turnovers and only committed 6 but Miami started hot and led the entire game.
Player Notes
- JJ Starling was voted to the All-ACC 2nd team, and received 2 votes for Preseason POY
- Naithan George is 6th in the ACC in assists (right behind Copeland)
- William Kyle III leads the ACC in blocked shots
What to watch for:
- NCS – Trends to watch
- Williams – Watch out for foul trouble (again) – He is going to have to guard sophomore 6’9” Freeman, their leading scorer (18.8 ppg) and one of their best rebounders (7.2 rpg). It’s possible that Sagnia gets more court time to attempt to slow him down with his size and absorb some of DW’s potential fouls.
- Ebube – Need him back for this one, Cuse has a lot of bigs
- McNeil – 5/9 (55%) from 3PT against Pitt was his best in ACC play.
- NCS – weakness – guarding 3PT – Cuse is averaging 8 made 3PT per game and has had 3 (of 7) ACC games in which they made 10 or 11. They average 20.7 attempts.
- NCS – record watch – McNeil has 63 made 3PT shots after 20 games. He’s averaging 3.15 per game, tracking for 97.6 in the regular season. DJ Horne’s record is 105 (88 reg. season, 17 post season (9 games)).
- SYR – strength – shooting – ranked 4th in FG% and 3rd in 3PT% in ACC play
- SYR – weakness – turnovers – ranked 2nd in ACC for most turnovers committed per game
- SYR – strength – blocked shots – ranked 2nd in the ACC in ACC play, 7th in the country (see ‘size’)
- SYR – strength – Size – Six players 6’8” or better. 4 average 16+ mins per game.
Prediction:
The Wolfpack will struggle rebounding the ball again, but the defense comes to play slowing Syracuse’s shooting. The home rims are friendly and the Wolfpack wins 80-69.
