North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Takes On New ACC Foe No. 9/8 Louisville
2/13/2015 12:00:00 AM
| NC State (14-11, 5-7) at #8/9 Louisville (20-4, 8-3) | ||
| Date | Saturday, Feb. 14 | |
| Time | 4:10 p.m. ET | |
| Location | KFC Yum! Center - Louisville, Ky. | |
| Tickets | Tickets | |
| Television | ESPN (Dave Lamont, Kara Lawson) | |
| Radio | Wolfpack Sports Network (Gary Hahn, Tony Haynes) | |
| Game Notes | NC State | Louisville | |
| Season Statistics | NC State | Louisville | |
| Live Stats | GameTracker | |
| Social Media | @PackMensBball  | Facebook  |
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The Starting 5 - The Top 5 Storylines For This Game
1. WOLFPACK STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE: 4TH
Only three teams in the country (Kansas, Missouri, UNC-Chapel Hill) have played a more challenging schedule than NC State. According to ESPN.com's Daily RPI, NC State has played the nation's fourth-toughest schedule. After 12 ACC games, NC State's conference strength of schedule is 12th in the nation. The Pack has already played nine games against the current RPI top 50, highlighted by wins over Duke and Boise State. Overall, the Wolfpack has four wins against top 80 teams (Duke, Boise State, Pitt, Louisiana Tech) and nine of NC State's 11 losses are to teams in the top 70 of the RPI.
2. OUR ACC LEGEND COULD HELP
Saturday's contest at Louisville comes 27 years and one day after the last NC State-Louisville meeting, which was played in 1988. Vinny Del Negro, who will be NC State's ACC Legend at next month's ACC Tournament, scored 29 points to lead the Wolfpack to a 101-89 win in that contest. Del Negro, who went on to play 11 seasons in the NBA, shot 8-for-11 from the floor and made 12 of his 14 foul shots. Chucky Brown, another Wolfpacker who enjoyed a successful NBA career, added 23 points. Louisville was led by Pervis Ellison's 20 points.
3. COMPETITIVE GRIND EVERY NIGHT
Win or lose, NC State has seen some razor-thin margins in ACC play. The Wolfpack is second in the conference with four losses by four or fewer points (Georgia Tech has five). The Wolfpack also recently captured an 81-80 overtime win at Georgia Tech after a buzzer beater 3-pointer by Trevor Lacey. Overall, NC State has played seven games this season that have been decided by no more than four points.
4. BIG NUMBERS FOR CAT
Mark Gottfried called Cat Barber's 23-point, 7-assist game at Georgia Tech on Jan. 31 his best game as a college player. Barber did one better in the next outing, going for a career-high 28 points at Wake Forest on Feb. 3. Over the past three games, Barber is averaging 20.7 points and 4.3 assists with just one turnover.
5. A BREAK, PLAY TWICE, ANOTHER BREAK
For much of this season, NC State had been playing a high volume of games in a short period of time. That trend has leveled out in February, with NC State benefitting from having two bye weeks. NC State has played just once in the last 11 calendar days, and went eight days in between playing Wake Forest and Virginia. In addition, NC State won't play again for seven days after Saturday's contest at Louisville.
