A rematch with our Final Four opponent
When: Thursday November 28 – 3:00 PM
Where: LionTree Arena at UC San Diego, Rady Children’s Invitational Tournament
TV: FS1
Opponent: Purdue Boilermakers (Big Ten Conference)
Prediction – KenPom (KP) / Bart Torvik (BT): KP Purdue 77-71 / BT Purdue 74-70
Wolfpack Snapshot: KP #55, BT #52
Wolfpack Season So Far: 5-0
Wolfpack Player Notes:
- Mike James had knee surgery on 10/30. Expected to miss 3-4 weeks.
- Ismaël Diouf injured an elbow during practice last week. Nothing serious, but sore. Not expected to be a long-term issue. Did not play last game. He is practicing with the team in San Diego.
Opponent Overview: 6-0, KP #14 / BT #15
The B1G writers picked Purdue to top the league and Braden Smith to be the POY.
The Boilermakers lost two-time national player of the year Zach Edey to the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, and star guard Lance Jones to pro ball in Spain. Most coaches would panic and hit the transfer portal hard, but Coach Painter simply moved two key reserves, Colvin and Heide, from last season’s team into the starting lineup. He added five freshmen and zero transfers this season.
Just so you don’t get whiplash, they do have another 7’4” white guy, Daniel Jacobsen, on the bench. He’s a freshman, hasn’t played a lot yet.
Their Season So Far:
They started their season with lopsided wins against Texas A&M – CC and Northern Kentucky followed by an 8-point win over Yale.
- #2 Alabama came to town and Purdue won 87-78. (box score) Comparing the team stats they are very close but, the Boilermakers won the FG shooting 49.2% / 56.3% 3PT to 44.4% / 31% 3PT. Shooting 56.3% from 3PT is a strong recipe for victory. Neither team turned the ball over much, but ‘Bama had 8 TO to Purdue’s 3.
- Purdue then visited #15 Marquette and lost 76-58. (box score) The stats that jump out at you is Purdue had 15 TO resulting in 18 Marquette points, and Marquette having 38 points in the paint to Purdue’s 22.
- The Boilermakers then took out their frustration on Marshall 80-45.
Player Notes:
Braden Smith is 3rd in the country in assists
Wolfpack Keys to a Win
- Guard the 3PT line – This has been a NC State strength, so far opponents are shooting 22.3% which ranks us 3rd nationally. Purdue gets about a third of their points (32.7%) from 3PT shots.
- Dominate Points in the paint – Purdue averages 31.3, the Pack 45.2. This season their highest total was 36 points in the paint versus Marshall, our lowest total was 36 points in the paint versus Colgate. KenPom has NC State averaging 60.6% of our offense coming from 2-point shots, ranking us 9th in the country. Purdue gets 45.5% from 2-point, 280th in the country.
- Rebound – To date, Purdue has not been a strong rebounding team. Take away their +12 rebound advantage in their first game against Texas A&M-CC and they are almost even (33/33.4 rpg) with their opponents on the season.