Pack Looks to Bounce Back with Game at Louisville Saturday

NC State Game Notes

RALEIGH – The NC State men's basketball team (11-4, 3-1 ACC) looks to bounce back from its first ACC loss of the season Saturday when it plays at Louisville.

Tipoff at the KFC Yum! Center is scheduled for noon and the game will be televised on The CW. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Notes
- NC State, which was off to its best start in ACC play since the 2012-13 season at 3-0, dropped its first conference game of the season Wednesday night, falling to rival UNC, 67-54.
- Despite never getting on track offensively, NC State was only down 48-46 with a little over 10 minutes remaining, but the Pack only made three field goals the rest of the game as a 19-4 UNC run over the next six minutes gave the Tar Heels a 67-50 lead with 4:00 to go.
- All nine NC State players that played against UNC scored on Wednesday night, but only Casey Morsell (12 points) and DJ Burns, Jr. (11) reached double figures. Despite an off-shooting night, DJ Horne grabbed a career-high nine rebounds and led NC State with four assists. Michael O'Connell came off-the-bench and added a game-high three steals.
- NC State set season-lows in field goals made (18), field goal percentage (27.3%), three-point field goals made (2) and three-point field goal percentage (10.0%) against the Tar Heels. Despite forcing 13 North Carolina turnovers, NC State only had eight points off turnovers which was the fewest for the Pack since Dec. 2.
- Michael O'Connell had his turnover-less streak snapped in the final minutes of the game against UNC. O'Connell had been on a five-game streak with zero turnovers and had gone nearly a month since last committing a turnover (Dec. 12 vs. UT Martin). The Stanford transfer has now passed out 19 assists with just one turnover in the Pack's last five games.
- NC State committed 10 turnovers against 13 UNC turnovers. The Pack has now had fewer turnovers than its opponents in 13 of 15 games this season. NC State has a +5.2 turnover margin on the season which ranks eighth in the NCAA.

Saturday Storylines
- NC State has won its first two ACC road games for the first time since the 2010-11 season. A win on Saturday would be the first time since the 2001-02 team that the Pack won its first three ACC road games. A win on Saturday would also give NC State its longest road win streak since the Pack won five straight conference road wins to end the 2020-21 regular season.
- Dating back to last season, NC State has won eight of its last 10 ACC games played in the month of January. The Pack won six of its seven ACC games last January and two of three this January.
- Whose day will it be? NC State has had six different players lead the team in scoring this season, including five different players in the last four games (Dennis Parker, Jr., and Jayden Taylor tied for team-high honors with each scoring 15 points in the win over Virginia last Saturday). This season, only once has NC State had the same leading scorer in back-to-back games.
- It's not just points - the Pack also has had three different players lead the team in assists and three different players lead the team in rebounds in its last three outings. NC State's ability to have different players step up on different days has made the Pack the only team in the ACC that doesn't have an individual scorer in the top-20 of the conference, an individual rebounder in the top-20 of the conference or an individual in the ACC's top-15 in assists.
- Get back to scoring off turnovers: In the last two games, NC State has only scored 17 total points off opponent turnovers. In the six games previous to the last two, the Pack was averaging 19.5 points per game off opponent turnovers.
- ACC foes have limited the Pack's transition points: In 11 non-conference games this season, NC State averaged 17.1 fast break points per game but that number has been cut nearly in half in ACC play where the Pack averages just 9.5 fast break point an outing in four conference games. NC State scored 16 fast break points in the win over Boston College in December but has just 22 fast break points total in its last three outings.
- Casey Morsell scored the 1,000th point of his collegiate career in Wednesday's game at UNC. Morsell has scored 788 points in an NC State uniform. With at least 17 guaranteed games remaining, Morsell needs to average 12.4 points per the rest of the season to become the 57th member of NC State's 1,000-point club.
- Dennis Parker, Jr., grabbing hold of starting four-man role. DJ Burns, DJ Horne, Casey Morsell and Jayden Taylor have started every game this season, but the four-man role in the starting lineup has changed hands a few times. Mohamed Diarra started the first five games before giving way to Parker for one game and then Ben Middlebrooks started two consecutive games before Parker, Jr., moved back into the starting lineup for the UT Martin game on Dec. 12. Parker, Jr., has started every game since then and is averaging 8.7 points 6.0 rebounds per game over the last seven outings as a starter.
- Ben Middlebrooks carving out a role. Over the last five games, the junior transfer from Clemson, is playing 15.6 minutes per game off the bench and is averaging 6.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in a backup role behind DJ Burns, Jr. Middlebrooks has been efficient offensively, shooting 57.9% (11-of-19) from the field during the four game stretch.

NC State Series with Louisville
- Saturday will be the 27th all-time meeting between the two programs. Louisville leads the all-time series, 14-12.
- Kevin Keatts is 3-3 against the Cardinals as head coach of the Pack and has led NC State to two consecutive wins in the series.
- Last Meeting (Dec. 22, 2022): NC State defeated Louisville, 76-64, inside PNC Arena for its first ACC win of the 2022-23 season. The Pack's lead was 31-30 early in the second half when it went on a 17-0 run to put the game out of reach. DJ Burns led NC State in scoring with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

Pack Looks to Bounce Back with Game at Louisville Saturday

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Players Mentioned

DJ Burns, Jr.

Mohamed Diarra

DJ Horne

Ben Middlebrooks

Casey Morsell

Michael O'Connell

Dennis Parker, Jr.

Jayden Taylor