The Pack takes on another Big South opponent
When: Friday November 8, 7:00 PM
Where: The Lenovo Center (venue previously known as PNC Arena)
TV: ACC Network Extra
Opponent: Presbyterian Blue Hose (Big South Conference)
Predictions – KenPom (KP) / Bart Torvik (BT): KP – NC State 87-66, BT – NC State 87-65
Wolfpack Snapshot: KP #51, BT #57
Wolfpack Season So Far: 1-0
Wolfpack Player Notes:
- Mike James had knee surgery on 10/30. Expected to miss 3-4 weeks.
- Ismaël Diouf will be serving the second game of a two-game NCAA suspension for his involvement with his Canadian pro team. After which, he is 100% cleared to play.
Opponent Overview: KP #290, BT #304 – Big South voters predict the Blue Hose will finish next to last in the league this season. (edging out USC Upstate for 8th place) They are coming out of the gate fast; this will be their third game of the season. (aka week) They lost to Charlotte 88-79 on Monday and took it out on D2 Carolina Christian 120-45 Wednesday.
History – This will be the third meeting, we are 2-0. The last meeting was in 2017, Coach Keatts’ 4th game as our head coach. We won 86-68. Lennard ‘Nard’ Freeman was unstoppable, going 9-12 from the field and 5-6 from the stripe, leading the Pack with 23 points.
Coach Ferrell is in his sixth season as head coach. He was a three-year starter at PG for the Blue Hose and after graduating in 2007, began his coaching career there as an assistant. After assistant coaching stints at The Citadel, Army, and College of Charleston, he’s living the dream of a lot of coaches, he got his first head coaching job at his alma mater.
In an interview Coach Ferrell said he is excited about his team this season, he is returning talent, experience and senior leadership. He expects to start three seniors: Kobe Stewart, Jamahri Harvey, and Holly Springs native Kaleb Scott, with senior big guy Jonah Pierce as their 6th man. He is looking forward to Jaylen Peterson RS-SO returning after a redshirt season and he expects him to make a significant impact this season. (6’8” – 40” vertical) At point guard, he expects to start Big South All-Freshman team sophomore Kory Mincy.
Wolfpack First Game Takeaways:
In a preseason interview, Coach Keatts said that the goal is to start faster this season with an eye toward a better OOC record to improve our post season chances. To do that, he said more time was spent in practice doing 5-on-5 scrimmages than he has in the past. If the USC Upstate game was any indication, it appears to be working. But it was just one game against what is expected to be one of the weakest teams we play this season.
- We played as a team and ran the offense much of the game.
- Point guard – This should be a strength this season and should accelerate our early season progress. (see first bullet point) O’Connell is picking up where he left off, he was in command on the floor, frequently directing guys to their correct spots. Pass looked better than ever. Intern Trey Parker looked good with 4 assists, 2 steals, and 6 points. The three of them totaled 14 assists to only one turnover.
- Center – Middlebrooks also looked to be in mid-season form. Prior to Monday, he only had one double-double in his three-year career and his 4 blocked shots was a career high.
- Scoring – We haven’t scored 97 (or more) points since scoring 97 against Va Tech in March 2023. Coach Keatts brought in five transfers that averaged double digit scoring last season to go along with Jayden Taylor (11.2 ppg). And two of them didn’t play. Hopefully this is a positive sign.
- 3PT Shooting – We shot 33.3%, not terrible but we should improve. Last season we averaged 34.5%. Our three PGs were each an excellent 2-4. You’d expect the guys who have historically been decent 3PT shooters, Styles (1-3), Taylor (1-5), and McNeil (1-4) to improve as the season progresses.
- Free throw shooting wasn’t good – We shot 57.1% (12/21), exactly the same as last season’s first game (57.1%, 4/7). Last year we ended up at 73.3% for the season, 75.6% in conference play. (Ranked 4th in ACC play) Last season we shot a very healthy 83.3% (20/24) from the line in our second game.
A fine start to the season, let’s do it again.