Pack Visits Chapel Hill to face Tar Heels Tuesday Night

RALEIGH, NC – The NC State men's basketball team (17-10, 8-8 ACC) returns to the road Tuesday when it heads down the road to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina (10-17, 3-13 ACC).

The game will tipoff at 9 p.m. and be televised on ESPN with Rece Davis, Jon Crispin and Brooke Weisbrod on the call. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Tracks
- NC State could not defeat a second consecutive top-10 foe, falling to eighth-ranked Florida State, 67-61, on Saturday afternoon.
- Junior guard Devon Daniels led the Pack with 18 points and nine rebounds against the Seminoles. Sophomore forward Jericole Hellems was the only other player to reach double figures for the Pack, finishing with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting and seven rebounds.
- Devon Daniels was named ACC Player of the Week for his efforts last week against two top-10 opponents. Daniels' scored a career-high 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds in NC State's 88-66 win over #6 Duke on Wednesday and added 18 points and nine rebounds in the loss to #8 Florida State. For the week, Daniels averaged 21.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals in two games against top-10 foes.
- Daniels has scored in double figures in 10 of the last 11 games and is averaging 15.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game over that span. In his last four outings, Daniels is averaging 20.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.
- The Pack just closed a week where it faced two consecutive top-10 opponents for the first time since Feb. 2015. The 22-point win over Duke on Wednesday was the largest for the Pack over a top-10 regular season opponent since March 7, 1959 when NC State beat #5 North Carolina, 80-56. It's also NC State's biggest margin of victory over Duke since Jan. 7, 1978 when the Pack beat the Blue Devils, 74-50.

NC State NCAA Tournament Resume
- Thru games of Sunday, Feb. 23 - NC State has a 5-4 record against Quad 1 opponents. That's the most Quad 1 wins of any team in the ACC.
- The Pack currently has a 9-7 record against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents. Only Florida State (12), Duke (10) and Louisville (10) have more Q1 and Q2 wins amongst ACC teams.
- NC State has had significant personnel issues in in six of its nine losses. Markell Johnson and D.J. Funderburk did not play in the Pack's loss to Georgia Tech on 11/5/19. C.J. Bryce missed the Pack's losses at Clemson (1/4/20) and at Virginia Tech (1/11/20). Manny Bates and Pat Andree did not play in the Pack's loss at Georgia Tech (1/25/20). Pat Andree also missed NC State's losses to North Carolina (1/27/20), at Boston College (2/16/20) and Florida State (2/22/20)
- The Pack is 12-3 this season when it has its top-eight scorers available for the game. It's 5-7 when it is missing one or more of its key players.
- NC State has five road wins this season. Tied for third-most in the ACC behind Duke (7) and Louisville (6).
- On NC State's team sheet created by the NCAA, the Pack's NET ranking of 53 is its lowest ranking. Sagarin ratings (32), KPI Sports (37), ESPN's BPI (43) and Ken Pomeroy (51) all rank the Pack higher.

Tuesday Storylines
- NC State enters Tuesday's contest 4-4 in ACC road games this season. Since Kevin Keatts became head coach of NC State prior to the 2017-18 season, he has guided the Pack to 12 ACC road wins. Only Virginia's Tony Bennett, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina's Roy Williams have more road wins in that time span. (Bennett - 21 wins; Krzyzewski - 18 wins; Williams - 14 wins)
- In five career games against North Carolina, Braxton Beverly is 16-of-26 (61.5%) from three-point range and is averaging 13.0 points per game. In his last three games against the Tar Heels, Beverly has shot 73.3% (11-of-15) from long distance.
- While rebounding margin hasn't had much of a cause-and-effect on NC State's season - the Pack is 8-5 when it outrebounds an opponent and 9-5 when it gets outrebounded this season - the Wolfpack has struggled on the boards against UNC the last few seasons. The Tar Heels have outrebounded NC State by a combined 74 rebounds in the last five games and is averaging 17.0 points per game on second chance points against the Pack over that span.
- In addition to the rebounding advantage, UNC is averaging 46.4 points in the paint in the last five games against the Pack and has made more free throws (91) than NC State has attempted (85).
- Freshman forward Manny Bates leads the ACC and ranks sixth in the NCAA with an average of 2.92 blocks per game. The Fayetteville, N.C., native leads the ACC in blocks in all games and blocks in ACC-games only. If Bates finishes the season in the lead in blocks, it would mark only the second time since 1977 that an NC State player led the ACC in blocks (Beejay Anya - 2.5 bpg) and the first time in program history an NC State player led the ACC in blocks in conference games. Bates broke the NC State-program record for most blocked shots by a freshman in just 15 games.
- The Pack has forced nine consecutive opponents into committing more turnovers than passing out assists. Only three ACC teams have managed to pass out more assists than commit turnovers against the Pack. NC State is 0-3 in those games and 8-5 against ACC teams when it forces an opponent to record more turnovers than assists. For the season, NC State opponents have 292 assists and 382 turnovers.

NC State - North Carolina Series
- UNC leads the all-time series, 159-78. The Tar Heels have a 76-24 advantage in Chapel Hill, including a 26-7 mark in the Smith Center.
- UNC won the first meeting between the two teams this season, 75-65, on 1/27. D.J. Funderburk led NC State with 18 points and eight rebounds in the loss. The Tar Heels outrebounded NC State, 42-31, and hit 10 more free throws (17) than the Pack attempted (7).

Pack Visits Chapel Hill to face Tar Heels Tuesday Night

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Players Mentioned

Pat Andree

Manny Bates

Braxton Beverly

C.J. Bryce

Devon Daniels

D.J. Funderburk

Jericole Hellems

Markell Johnson