NC State
Arizona State
Martin, NC State Head To Brooklyn For Legends Classic
11/21/2015 9:08:00 AM | Men's Basketball
| NC State (2-1) vs. Arizona State (2-1) | ||
| Date | Monday, Nov. 23 | |
| Time | 9:30 p.m. ET | |
| Location | Barclays Center – Brooklyn, N.Y. | |
| Tickets | BarclaysCenter.com | |
| Television | ESPN3/WatchESPN (Mark Jones, Kara Lawson) | |
| Radio | Wolfpack Sports Network (Gary Hahn, Tony Haynes) | |
| Game Notes | NC State | Arizona State | |
| Season Statistics | NC State | Arizona State | |
| Live Stats | GameTracker | |
| Social Media | @PackMensBball | Facebook | |
The Wolfpack is hoping a quieter Caleb Martin shooting motion will result in a louder Caleb Martin impact this season. The 6-7 sophomore has retooled his shooting mechanics, and the change has paid dividends for the Pack so far this season.
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Martin, a wing from Mocksville, N.C., came to NC State with a reputation as a lethal long-range shooter. He won an award as Oak Hill Academy's top 3-point shooter and head coach Mark Gottfried compared his game to Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors.
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However, like many freshmen, Martin saw his shooting percentages go up and down during his rookie year. While he did make 25 shots from beyond the arc, it was clear his 3-point percentage (.305) and free throw percentage (.695) could improve.
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"There was a hitch in my shot to the left side of my face. I was talking to Coach Gottfried and the coaching staff about it a lot," Martin said. "Coach G wanted me to stress getting my shot to the middle of my face so everything would be more in line."
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Martin also found his feet were landing at different times when he shot the ball, causing him to be off-balance.
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"I started working over the summer, getting my elbow in and getting the ball more to the middle of my face and landing my feet at the same time," Martin said. "A lot of it was about my form, and the more I kept doing that the more I got the hitch out and I felt there was more flow to my shot."
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Martin says he worked multiple hours nearly every day during the summer to get his new shooting motion where he wanted it to be. The work has certainly paid off, as he has been NC State's best scorer and long-range shooter in the very early part of the season.
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Martin is leading the Pack in scoring with 18.3 points per game. Martin made 11 of his first 18 shots from 3-point range and is shooting .458 from beyond the arc after three games. In the first two games of the season, Martin shot a blistering 9-for-16 from long range and had the two highest scoring games of his Wolfpack career.
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"It felt really good," Martin said of his early success. "I felt like I could shoot like that for a while. It feels a lot better, it looks better. Every time I have the ball in my hands, I feel like it's going to go in."
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THE STARTING 5Â -Â The Top 5 Storylines For This Game
1. #WOLFPACKNYCÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
In the last 13 months, the NC State men's basketball program has been no stranger to New York City. The two games in Brooklyn will be the team's third visit to the Big Apple in a little more than a year. The team took an educational sightseeing trip during the school's fall break in 2014 and then played West Virginia in Madison Square Garden last December. The educational trip included visits to Rucker Park, the Empire State Building, Amateur Night at the Apollo, Motown: The Musical, the New York Stock Exchange, the National September 11 Memorial and the American Museum of Natural History. While on the trip, the Wolfpack practiced twice at the New York Athletic Club.
2. LEGENDS CLASSICÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
NC State is making its first-ever trip to the Barclays Center, which will be the host of the 2017 and 2018 ACC Men's Basketball Tournaments. The Pack enters Monday's game after a pair of home victories in the regional rounds of the Legends Classic. After playing the Sun Devils, a potential match-up with LSU on Tuesday would be a rematch of last season's NCAA Tournament game in Pittsburgh, when the Pack edged the Tigers 66-65 on a last-second shot by BeeJay Anya. The most famous NC State-Marquette game, of course, was State's 76-64 win over Marquette in the 1974 national title game.Â
3. ARIZONA STATE MUST HAVE A GOOD SCOUTÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Under first-year coach Bobby Hurley, Arizona State figures to have a pretty good scouting report on NC State. ASU assistant coach Levi Watkins is a 2005 NC State graduate and spent two seasons on Mark Gottfried's staff from 2011-13. Watkins played in 97 games for NC State, helping the team to four straight NCAA tourney appearances and a Sweet 16 run in 2005. With Watkins on Gottfried's staff, the Wolfpack made another Sweet 16 trip in 2012.
4. 2 GAMES, 2 DAYS, 8 SCHOLARSHIP PLAYERSÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
It's no secret that the Wolfpack is thin when it comes to its number of active players, and that will make the two-game swing in Brooklyn a great challenge. Mark Gottfried right now has eight full scholarship players available to him and just 11 players in uniform overall. After losing three of its top four scorers from last season, the Wolfpack saw starting guard Terry Henderson suffer torn ligaments in his right ankle just seven minutes into the regular season.
5. RIDING WITH THE STARTERSÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
After three games, Mark Gottfried has largely rode with the most recent starting five of Cat Barber, Maverick Rowan and Caleb Martin on the perimeter and Lennard Freeman and Abdul-Malik Abu inside. That group has combined for 464 of the season's 600 minutes, meaning those five players have played 77.3 percent of NC State's possible minutes. Individually, Barber has only subbed out once when he was hit in the nose and twice late when NC State's wins were in hand. Additionally, Martin is playing 36.7 minutes after seeing just 16.6 minutes per game last year.
