NC State
UNCG
Pack Returns to PNC Arena to Host UNCG
12/15/2017 1:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NC State looks to improve to 9-2 on the season
RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's
The game will begin at noon and will be televised locally on FOX Sports South with Wes Durham and Mike Gminski on the call.
The game will also be shown on FOX Sports Florida, FOX Sports Midwest, YES, NBC Sports Washington, NESN, AT&T Sportsnet Pittsburgh, SportsTime Ohio, FOX Sports Detroit, FOX Sports North Plus, FOX Sports Southwest, FOX Sports Arizona, FOX Sports West, AT&T Sportsnet Las Vegas, AT&T Sportsnet, Rocky Mtn, Root Sports Northwest
Fans can also listen on the Wolfpack Sports Network with Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes calling the action.
Tickets for the game at PNC Arena are still available and can be bought online at GoPack.com/BuyTickets or by calling the ticket office at (919) 865-1510.
Bridge II Sports will host a Wheelchair Basketball Exhibition during halftime of the game. Ten elite and 'up and coming' players from National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) teams including the Bridge II Sports Junior Thunder, the adult Triangle Thunder and the Charlotte Rollin' Hornets will take the court to showcase the fast, competitive and skilled sport of wheelchair basketball.
Pack Tracks
- NC State defeated UMKC, 88-69, Saturday in the annual Heritage Game played at Reynolds Coliseum. The win marked the 20th consecutive non-conference home win for the Pack, a streak that dates back to Dec. 1, 2015.
- Junior guard Torin Dorn led the Pack with 22 points and a career-high 17 rebounds for his second consecutive double-double. Sophomore guard Markell Johnson added a career-high 17 points and tied his career-high with four steals. Freshman guard Braxton Beverly had 12 points and seven assists.
- Dorn has recorded double-digit rebounds in three consecutive games and has registered a double-double in two consecutive games. Over the last three games, Dorn is averaging 14.7 points and 13.0 rebounds per game.
- Beverly leads the ACC with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.71. Through the first five games, Beverly had just seven assists against four turnovers, but as he has gotten more comfortable directing the NC State offense his assists have risen. Beverly has 19 assists and just three turnovers in the last three games for the Pack. For the season, he is averaging 1 turnover for every 30.4 minutes played.
NC State-UNCG Series
- Saturday's meeting marks the 10th meeting all-time between the two programs
- The Pack has an all-time record of 9-0 against UNCG.
- NC State won the last meeting between the two programs, 58-52, on Dec. 22, 2015.
Bench Production
- NC State's bench is averaging to score 26.4 points per game this season. The Pack's bench has outscored the opponents bench, 264-162 this year.
- NC State's bench has outscored the opponents bench in eight of 10 games this season.
- In the win over No. 2 Arizona at the Battle 4 Atlantis, NC State's bench outscored Arizona's, 39-6. Braxton Beverly had 20 points off-the-bench for the Pack in the win, while Omer Yurtseven had 11 points and a team-best nine rebounds.
- In the game against Northern Iowa, NC State's bench outscored the Panther's, 30-2. Yurtseven led the team in points (17) and rebounds (13) in the game against UNI.
- In the most recent outing against Penn State, NC State's bench outscored the Nittany Lions, 39-9. The Pack's bench consisting of Yurtseven, Sam Hunt and Lavar Batts, Jr., combined to shoot 12-for-15 from the field (80 percent), including 9-for-10 from three-point range.
- In the last six outings, NC State's bench is shooting 51.6 percent (64-for-124) from the field, including 43.5 percent (20-for-46) from three-point range.
Constant Defensive Pressure leading to Opponent Turnovers
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts came to Raleigh promising that his program would pressure the opponents full court and create turnovers. Through seven games his inaugural Wolfpack team is living up to his promise.
-The Pack has forced four of its 10 opponents this season into 20+-turnovers. The last NC State team to force opponents into 20 or more turnovers four times in a season was the 2009-10 team. The last seven NC State teams (2010-11 team through 2016-17 team) only twice forced opponents into 20 turnovers (2010-11 team forced East Carolina into 20 turnovers on 11/18/10 and 2016-17 team forced Virginia Tech into 20 turnovers on 1/4/17). In Keatts first four games at NC State, his teams forced opponents into 21 (VMI), 24 (Charleston Southern), 27 (Bryant) and 22 (Presbyterian) turnovers.
-The 27 turnovers NC State forced Bryant into on Nov. 14 are the most turnovers the Pack has forced an opponent to commit since Mount St. Mary's had 27 on Nov. 22, 2002.
-In the first four games this season, the Pack forced its opponents into more turnovers than made field goals.
-In 10 games, the Pack has forced 175 turnovers. The 17.5 turnovers forced per game ranks tied for 29th in NCAA Dl and are the most forced turnovers by a team from the ACC.
-NC State recorded 14 steals in Tuesday's win over Bryant. It's the most steals in a game for NC State since the Pack had 16 steals in a win over Boston College on Jan. 19, 2012. It was a 192 game span between 14+-steal games for the Pack. NC State has 87 steals in 10 games this season, a mark that ranks third in the ACC and 26th overall in NCAA DI.
Winning the Turnover Battle
Not only have the Pack been forcing turnovers, but they have been protecting the basketball, too. NC State has had 10 or fewer turnovers in four of its 10 games this season.
-The Pack is +46 in turnover margin. Pack has forced 175 turnovers and only turned it over themselves 129 times. +46 turnover margin is tied for the 12th-best TO margin in NCAA Dl this season and is the best in the ACC. Virginia at +37 turnover margin is the second-best in the ACC.
-Major turnaround from last year's team. Last season, NC State finished the season -67 in turnover margin, including -14 mark in non-conference games.
Healthy Freeman Becoming an Offensive Force
NC State senior Lennard Freeman had offseason leg surgery prior to the 2015-16 season and after playing through pain that season, elected to have offseason leg surgery again prior to the 2016-17 season and sat out the year to recover. Now fully healthy, Freeman has started his senior season with an offensive outburst.
-A career 3.6 points per game average coming into the season, Freeman has reset his career-high three times this season and is averaging 12.3 points per game through nine games. He opened the year with 15 points against VMI, had 20 against Bryant and then had 23 in the Pack's win against Presbyterian.
-Freeman is shooting a team-best 71.4 percent from the field this season. Freeman would lead the ACC in field goal percentage, but falls just short of the minimum number of field goal makes to rank among ACC leaders. To be listed you have to average 5 made field goals per game, Freeman has made 45 field goals in 10 games.
-The senior is connecting on 80.5 percent of his foul shots (33-of-4)1. The Washington D.C. native, entered this season a career 47.9 percent free throw shooter.
-In 103 career games coming into this season, Freeman had only scored in double figures six times, he's scored in double figures in 6 of 10 games this season.
-Has already scored 123 points this season, more than he scored in his entire junior season in 2015-16 season (107 points). The most points Freeman has scored in a season was 141 as a freshman in 2013-14.
-The game against Presbyterian on November 16 was the 107th career game in an NC State uniform for Freeman. It was the first time in those 107 games that Freeman led NC State in scoring. Freeman led the Pack in scoring for the second time in his career with 19 points in a 103-71 win over South Carolina State on Dec. 2.
-Freeman, who entered this season as a player best known for doing the gritty things that don't show up in the box score, has also set career-highs with three steals and three blocks this season, both set against Presbyterian.
Noting NC State's Returning and Lost
-Senior forward Abdul-Malik Abu is NC State's leading returning scorer (11.8 ppg.) and rebounder (7.0 rpg.). The Boston, Mass., native has led NC State in rebounding the last two seasons and is aiming to be the first NC State player to lead the Pack in rebounding in three consecutive seasons since Todd Fuller did it from 1993-96. Abu suffered a Grade 2 MCL Sprain in October and has not played this season.
-Torin Dorn (18 starts) and Omer Yurtseven (14 starts) also return for the Pack. Dorn averaged 9.5 points & 4.6 rebounds per game last season, while Yurtseven added 5.9 points & 4.4 rebounds per game.
- NC State must replace its top three scorers from last season in Dennis Smith, Jr. (18.1), Terry Henderson (13.8) and Maverick Rowan (12.0). The Pack also lost the school's all-time shot block leader in BeeJay Anya (243 career blocks). Smith, Jr., was named the ACC Freshman of the Year, the first Pack player to accomplish this feat since Hawkeye Whitney in 1977. Smith was selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the ninth pick of the NBA Draft. Henderson, after having his appeal denied to return to NC State, went through training camp with the Charlotte Hornets and is now on the Greensboro Swarm roster in the NBA G-League. Rowan was the third overall selection of the NBA G-League draft by the Lakeland Magic.
- NC State joins Florida State and Pittsburgh as the only ACC teams to lose its top three scorers from last season.
