NC State Game Notes | Notre Dame Game Notes
RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men’s basketball team plays its first home game in over two weeks Wednesday night when it hosts Notre Dame at the Lenovo Center.
Tipoff against the Fighting Irish is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPNU. NC State fans can also listen to Matt Chazanow and Tony Haynes call the game on the Wolfpack Sports Network.
Pack Tracks
– NC State dropped its second consecutive game, falling to Wake Forest, 77-59, Saturday in Winston-Salem.
– The Pack entered the game against the Demon Deacons ranked fourth in the ACC in scoring defense – allowing just 66.3 points per game – but gave up a season-high 77 points to Wake Forest in the loss.
Marcus Hill led the Pack’s offensive attack against Wake Forest, finishing with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting. The senior from Rockford, Ill., has scored in double figures in seven straight games and now leads the team in scoring, averaging 12.6 points per game. Hill is shooting 50.7 percent from the field this season and is second on the team with 30 assists.
– Dontrez Styles added his first double-double of the season, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds at Wake Forest.
– Jayden Taylor is 9-of-16 (56.3%) from long range in his last four games. Taylor made 64 three-pointers and shot 36.4 percent from three-point last season, but had started this season by only shooting 25.9 percent (10-of-39) from three-point range in the Pack’s first 10 games.
– Ben Middlebrooks leads the team in blocks at 1.6 per game (2nd in the ACC) and is third on the team in steals (15), one behind team leaders Michael O’Connell and Jayden Taylor. Middlebrooks is one of three players in the ACC to have over 20 blocks and at least 15 steals this season (Clemson’s Viktor Lakhin and Florida State’s Taylor Bol Bowen are the other two players).
– Michael O’Connell leads the ACC and ranks eighth in the NCAA with a 3.86 assist-to-turnover ratio this season. O’Connell finished last season third in the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.54). His career assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.14 is the 12th best active assist-to-turnover ratio in DI. O’Connell averages to play just under 30 minutes per game and is the Pack’s primary ball handler but has had one or fewer turnovers in 11 of 14 games this season. In three ACC games this season, O’Connell is averaging one turnover for every 33 minutes played.
Wednesday Storylines
– Since the beginning of the 2022-23 season (two seasons and counting), NC State is 35-8 (.814) in home games, including a 15-7 mark against conference opponents.
– The Pack has just seven steals in its last two outings. This year’s NC State team averages 6.9 steals per game which ranks ninth in the ACC. The average and rank in the ACC would both be lows for the Kevin Keatts era. In the previous seven years under Keatts, NC State has always finished in the top-five in the league in steals, including finishing fourth three times, third (last season) once, second once and leading the ACC in steals once (2022-23 team).
– NC State continues to lead the ACC and ranks 33rd in the NCAA in turnover margin at +3.7, but the Pack has now committed more turnovers than its opponents in the last two games. Against Wake Forest on Saturday, NC State committed a season-high 13 turnovers. Under Kevin Keatts, NC State is 113-44 (72.0%) when it has fewer turnovers than its opponent, but just 24-42 (36.4%) when it has more turnovers than its opponent.
– Win the Paint, Win the Game? NC State is 8-1 this season when it scores more points in the paint than its opponent, but 0-5 when it ties or is outscored in the paint. The Pack is averaging 41.8 points in the paint in its eight wins, but just 24.6 points in the paint in its five losses. In NC State’s loss at Wake Forest, the Pack was outscored 38-20 in the paint. The 18-point margin is the most NC State has been outscored in the paint this season and the 20 paint points tied for a season-low.
– One of NC State’s calling cards in the Kevin Keatts era is turning opponent’s turnovers into points. In the Pack’s eight wins this season, it is averaging 20.6 points per game off opponents turnovers and has outscored the opponents in points off turnovers by 98 points. In the Pack’s six losses it averages just 9.2 points off opponent turnovers and has been outscored by its opponents in points off turnovers (54-to-53).
NC State series with Notre Dame
– Wednesday will be the 21st all-time meeting between NC State and Notre Dame. The series is tied at 10.
– Kevin Keatts is 6-3 against Notre Dame as head coach of NC State, including a 3-1 record in games played at the Lenovo Center.
– Last Meeting (January 3, 2024): DJ Burns, Jr., gave the Pack its only lead of the game with a game-winning basket with 0.6 seconds remaining in NC State’s 54-52 win at Notre Dame. Notre Dame had a 46-35 lead with 10:16 to play, but would only score six points the rest of the game and the Pack ended the game on an 8-0 run. Burns tied the game on lay-up with 13 seconds remaining and after an NC State foul, Notre Dame missed the front end of a one-and-one to setup Burns heroics.
– The Pack shot just 28.8 percent from the field in the win. It’s the third-lowest shooting percentage in the Kevin Keatts era and one of only four times with Keatts as head coach that the Pack has shot under 30 percent.
