NC State
Austin Peay
Pack Opens Season Monday Night against Austin Peay
11/6/2022 11:49:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Game will tipoff inside PNC Arena at 8 PM
NC State Game Notes | ACC Network Extra | Live Stats | Tickets
RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team opens the regular season Monday night when it hosts Austin Peay at PNC Arena.
Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game will be televised on ACC Network Extra with Evan Budrovich and NC State great Chris Corchiani on the call. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call all action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.
Pack Tracks
- NC State opens its 113th season of basketball Monday evening when it hosts Austin Peay.
- The Pack completed its preseason Wednesday night with a 107-59 win over Lees-McRae. The Pack was led by sophomore guard Terquavion Smith who had game-highs in points (18), assists (7) and steals (4) in 25 minutes of action. NC State had a balanced scoring attack as six players scored in double figures and 14 of the 15 members of the team scored in the game. The Pac's other preseason tune-up was a closed scrimmage against Davidson on Saturday, Oct. 22.
- NC State returns three starters from last season in Terquavion Smith, Casey Morsell and Ebenezer Dowuona. Smith is one of the top returnees in college basketball. The Greenville, N.C. native averaged 16.3 points per game last season and became the first freshman to lead the ACC in three-pointers made (96) since Duke's J.J. Redick led the conference as a rookie in the 2002-03 season.
- The Pack also returns sophomores Breon Pass and Ernest Ross who both saw action last season
- As many as eight players could see their first career action in an NC State uniform on Monday. The Pack brought in four graduate transfers (D.J. Burns, Jack Clark, Jarkel Joiner and Dusan Mahorcic), added three freshmen to the roster (KJ Keatts, Jordan Snell and LJ Thomas) and while not new to the roster, Greg Gantt sat out all of last season recovering from an injury and has not appeared in an official game for NC State.
 Noting Austin Peay
- Austin Peay returns its top-two scorers from last season. The Govs top returner is sophomore Elijah Hutchins-Everett, who was the 2021-22 OVC Freshman of the Year last season, after averaging 12.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game last season.
- Also back for AP is Caleb Stone-Caldwell, a Concord, N.C., native. Stone-Caldwell averaged 11.4 points per game last season.
- Former Duke men's basketball player and long-time assistant coach Nate James is in his second season as head coach of Austin Peay. James played at Duke from 1996-2001 and was an assistant on Duke's staff from 2008-21.
- The Governors switched conferences in the offseason and are playing their first season as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference after being in the Ohio Valley Conference since 1962. Austin Peay was selected ninth out of 14 teams in the ASUN Preseason Poll.
 Monday Storylines
- The Pack has won 27 of its last 28 home-openers when played against a non-conference opponent.
- NC State has a 36-2 record against non-conference opponents in regular season home games under head coach Kevin Keatts.
- Last season, NC State never had Greg Gantt available all year and Manny Bates was injured for the season less than a minute into the season-opener. Other injuries occurred throughout the season and by the end of the season, NC State only had eight scholarship players and 10 players total healthy. Monday night, all 15 players on NC State's roster are healthy and able to play.Â
- Valuing the basketball: NC State has only turned it over an average of 10 times per game last season. That was the lowest turnover average of the Keatts era and ranked third in the ACC. The 322 turnovers NC State committed last season are the fewest in a full season in program history. (The fewest turnovers ever committed by NC State in a season is 321 by the 2020-21 team but that team played 25 games, seven fewer than last season's team.)
NC State - Austin Peay Series
- Monday will mark the second meeting all-time between the two programs. NC State won the only previous meeting, 66-59, on Nov. 21, 2009 in Dayton Beach, Fla.
- NC State is 25-2 all-time against current members of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
