Pack Hits Road to Face #14 Florida State

The NC State men's basketball team (14-10, 3-8 ACC) travels to Tallahassee, Fla., to face #14/15 Florida State (20-4, 8-3 ACC) on Wednesday evening. The game is scheduled to tipoff at 7 p.m. ET.

The game will be televised on ESPN2 with Karl Ravech and LaPhonso Ellis on the call.

Fans can also listen to the game on the Wolfpack Sports Network with Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes calling the action.

Pack Tracks
- NC State fell to Miami, 84-79, Saturday afternoon at PNC Arena. Dennis Smith, Jr., led the Pack with 31 points (10-15 FGs, 5-8 3-pt FGs) and added nine assists. Terry Henderson contributed 21 points after hitting 5-of-6 three-pointers in the game.
- Dennis Smith, Jr., was named ACC Freshman of the Week for the third time this season on Monday. Smith opened the week with his second triple-double of the season, scoring 13 points, passing out 15 assists and grabbing 11 rebounds vs. Syracuse. He is just the fourth player in ACC history to record two triple-doubles in a single-season and is the first player in ACC history to register both triple-doubles against an ACC opponent.
- Dennis Smith, Jr., is averaging 19.2 points per game and 6.96 assists per game. His points per game average would be the highest for an ACC freshman since Maryland's Joe Smith averaged 19.4 ppg., in the 1993-94 season. His assists per game average would be the highest for an ACC freshman since Georgia Tech's Kenny Anderson averaged 8.1 apg., in the 1990-91 season.
- In the last five games, junior forward Abdul-Malik Abu is averaging 16.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per contest. He is shooting 61.4 percent from the field (35-of-57) and has shot at least 60 percent from the field in four of the five games.

Noting NC State
- Ted Kapita's double-double at Duke made him the sixth NC State player to record a double-double this season. Abdul-Malik Abu (4), Dennis Smith (3), Torin Dorn (2), BeeJay Anya (1) and Omer Yurtseven (1) have also recorded double-doubles this season. The six players with a double-double ties for the most in the ACC with Florida State, UNC-Chapel Hill and Syracuse.
- With at least nine games still left in the season, freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., is already in the top-5 in numerous NC State freshman categories. He has 53 steals on the season, second-most by an NC State freshman (Chris Corchiani - 61). He has scored 461 points this season to move into second place in the NC State record for most points scored by a freshman (Brandon Costner - 605).
- After being outrebounded in five of the first seven games of the season, the Pack has outrebounded its opponents in 10 of its last 17 games.
- The Pack has had more assists than turnovers in 17 of its 24 games this season.  NC State is 12-5 when it has more assists than turnovers this season.
- Inside the numbers: Two stats that are a good predictor of the result for NC State - rebounding and opponent field goal percentage. The Pack is 9-3 this season when it outrebounds its opponent, but just 5-7 when the opponent wins the battle on the boards. This season when NC State holds its opponent to 45
percent shooting or worse from the field, the Pack is 10-1. NC State is 4-9 if its opponent shoots over 45 percent from the field.
- In the Pack's 14 wins this season, opponents are shooting 39.2 percent from the field (355-906) and averaging to score 70.3 points per game. In the Pack's 10 losses, opponents are shooting 50.2 percent (318-634) and averaging 91 points per game.
- Freshman guard Dennis Smith, Jr., has led NC State in scoring in 10 of the last 15 games, in assists 13 of the last 15 games and had led the team in steals in the 14 previous of the last 15 games.
- Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., has 11 20-point games this season. The most for a freshman in ACC history is 19 by Kenny Anderson in the 1989-90 season. Last year, Duke's Brandon Ingram had 14 and Florida State's Dwayne Bacon had 12.
- Smith is one of 12 players named to the midseason watch list for the Wayman Tisdale Award (national freshman of the year) and is one of 10 players named as a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award (best point guard in the country).

Balanced Scoring Attack
            NC State has had five or more players reach double figures in scoring in seven games this season. Last season in 33 games, NC State only had three games where five players reached double figures in scoring. The Pack had five players reach double-figures vs. Georgia Southern (Nov. 11), St. Francis Brooklyn (Nov. 13), Fairfield (Dec. 18), Wake Forest (Jan. 21) and Syracuse (Feb. 1) and had six players in double figures in the win over Appalachian State (Dec. 15) and Rider (Dec. 28). In the Jan. 4 win over Virginia Tech, NC State had three players (Dennis Smith, Jr., Terry Henderson & Abdul-Malik Abu) score 20+ points. The Pack has had five different players lead the team in scoring this season: Abdul-Malik Abu, Torin Dorn, Terry Henderson, Maverick Rowan and Dennis Smith, Jr. Through 24 games this season, the Pack has five players averaging in double figures.

Smith Sets PNC Arena Assists Record
Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., set a PNC Arena record on Wednesday, Dec. 28 when he passed out 16 assists in the Pack's 99-71 win over Rider. The 16 assists broke the previous record of 13 which was held by NC State's Lorenzo Brown (vs. Duke on 1/12/13) and UNC-Chapel Hill's Kendall Marshall (vs. NC State on 2/21/12). The 16 assists are the most in a single-game by an NCAA DI player this season.

More on Smith's Triple-Doubles
- Prior to this season, NC State had only one triple-double in school history. (Julius Hodge - 11pts/12reb/10ast - vs. North Carolina A&T on 12/14/02).
- Smith is the fourth player in ACC history to record multiple triple-doubles in a season, but he is the first player in ACC history to register both of his triple-doubles against ACC opponents.
- Smith is the 7th freshmen in ACC history to record a triple-double. He is the only one of the seven freshmen to register his triple-double against an ACC opponent.
- He is the only player in NCAA DI to have multiple triple-doubles this season.

Getting Their First Run with the Pack
            Counting Terry Henderson (who only played the first six minutes of the season last year before being injured and lost for the year), 68.5% of the minutes (3321 of 4850 minutes) played for NC State this season have been by players that did not play for the Wolfpack last season. Not counting Henderson, the Pack has had seven players make their NC State debut this season, including five freshmen. The five freshmen have played 1960 minutes this season, 40.4% of the total minutes played on the year. The freshmen class accounts for the highest percentage of minutes played this season for NC State.

One of Top-Scoring Trios in ACC
            Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., senior Terry Henderson and junior Abdul-Malik Abu combine to form one of the top-scoring trios in the ACC. The trio combines to average 45.8 points per game. Overall, Dorn, Henderson and Smith have combined to score 1,100 points this season, which is 56.5% of the points scored by NC State this year.

Top Scoring Trios in ACC
Pittsburgh - Jamel Artis (20.7), Michael Young (20.4), Cameron Johnson (11.8)           52.9     68.2%
Duke - Luke Kennard (20.2), Grayson Allen (15.6), Amile Jefferson (11.9)        47.7     54.4%
NC State - Dennis Smith, Jr. (19.2), Terry Henderson (14.6), Malik Abu (12.0)  45.8     56.5%

Freshmen Running the Show
            Freshman point guards Dennis Smith, Jr., and Markell Johnson run the show for the Wolfpack this season. The two players combined have 213 assists and 100 turnovers in 1290 minutes of action this season. The two combine to average just 1 turnover every 12.9 minutes. Johnson (55 assists/24 turnovers) has a 2.29 assist-to-turnover ratio, while Smith (167 assists/76 turnovers) has a 2.23 assist-to-turnover ratio. The two players combine to have a 2.13 assist-to-turnover ratio. Through 24 games, NC State is averaging 81.2 points per game and shooting 48.1% from the field. The Pack ranks fifth in the ACC in both stat categories. The two freshmen also rank 1st (Smith - 53) and 2nd (Johnson - 22) on the team in steals.

Smith Aiming to be Second Freshman in ACC History
            Two months into the season, freshman guard Dennis Smith, Jr., is on pace to become just the second freshman in ACC history to lead the league in both assists and steals. Smith currently ranks first in the ACC in assists (6.96) and tied first in steals (2.21). In the 2013-14 season, Tyler Ennis of Syracuse became the first freshman in ACC history to lead the league in both categories. Ennis averaged 5.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game in his rookie year for Syracuse. Since the 1972-73 season, seven freshmen have led the ACC in assists and since 1977-78 three freshmen have led the league in steals.

ACC Freshman of the Week Three Times
            Dennis Smith, Jr., has been named ACC Freshman of the Week three times this season (Dec. 19, Jan. 9 and Feb. 6).
            He was named Freshman of the Week on Dec. 19 after averaged 19.5 points, 7.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals in two Wolfpack wins the previous week. For the week, Smith was 11-for-18 (.611) from the field, including 6-for-9 (.667) from 3-point range.
            He was named Freshman of the Week on Jan. 9 after recording the first triple-double in ACC history by a freshman against an ACC opponent. Smith had 27 points, a career-high 11 rebounds and 11 assists in NC State's 104-78 win over 21st-ranked Virginia Tech. It was the second triple-double in NC State history.
            Smith was named Freshman of the Week for a third time after registering his second triple-double of the season in the game against Syracuse. He added a 31-point performance later in the week against Miami to secure the honor.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Abdul-Malik Abu

BeeJay Anya

Torin Dorn

Terry Henderson

Markell Johnson

Ted Kapita

Maverick Rowan

Dennis Smith, Jr.

Omer Yurtseven