Pack Opens New Year with Trip to Notre Dame

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NC State Game Notes | Notre Dame Game Notes

RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball opens 2024 with a trip to Notre Dame to face the Fighting Irish on Wednesday night.

Tipoff at Purcell Pavilion is scheduled for 9 p.m. Fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Notes
- NC State defeated Detroit Mercy, 83-66, on Saturday, Dec. 22 to wrap up the non-conference portion of its 2023-24 schedule
- The Pack finished its non-conference slate with an 8-3 record. It's three losses are to teams that are a combined 33-4 this season and all three are currently ranked in the AP Top-25.
DJ Horne led the Pack with a season-high 26 points in the win. Horne was 9-of-15 from the field, including 6-of-11 from three-point range. The six three-pointers tied a career-high. The Raleigh native added a season-high-tying six rebounds and a season-high six assists in the win over the Titans.
- Horne has scored 20 or more points in four of the last six games. He's averaging 18.8 points per game in the last six games and is shooting 53.3 percent from the field. He has made 24 three-pointers in the last six games (average of 4.0 per game) and is connecting on 52.2 percent of his shots from three-point range. Through the first month of the season, Horne didn't rank among the ACC leaders in three-point shooting, but he enters 2024 ranked seventh in the ACC in three point percentage (44.3%) and third in three-pointers made per game (2.92)
- Dennis Parker, Jr., added 10 points and a team-best seven rebounds. The lone freshman on the Pack's roster, Parker, Jr., is averaging 9.5 points and 7.0 rebounds over his last four outings.
- NC State finished with a +9 turnover margin and a 21-10 advantage in points off turnovers. In the last two games, the Pack has a +21 turnover margin over its opponents and a 50-12 advantage in points off turnovers.
- NC State is now 51-7 (.879) in the Kevin Keatts era when it scores 20 or more points off turnovers. The Pack has won its last 13 games when it has at least 20 points off turnovers.

Wednesday Storylines
- A Brand New Opponent: It's not often you can say this about a conference opponent, but none of the player's on this year's Notre Dame roster played in the Pack's game against the Fighting Irish last season. In fact, only two of the 16 players on Notre Dame's roster this season have ever played against NC State. On March 3, 2021, Tony Sanders Jr., (1 minute) and Matt Zona (3 minutes) saw action against the Pack in NC State's 80-69 win over the Fighting Irish at Purcell Pavilion. NC State played 11 players in that game against Notre Dame and none of them are still on the Pack's 2023-24 roster.
- Graduate guard Michael O'Connell has passed out 11 assists (and zero turnovers) in the last two outings. He now ranks third in the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio with a 3.27 assist/turnover ratio.
- Grad Guard Casey Morsell has 984 career points and is now just 16 points shy of 1,000 for his career. If Morsell doesn't reach 1K against the Fighting Irish, the Pack's next game is Saturday when it hosts Virginia. Morsell started his college career at UVA and played two years for the Cavaliers.
- Get Jayden Taylor Back on Track: Junior guard Jayden Taylor has shot just 7-of-28 (25%), including 1-of-14 (7.1%) from three-point range in the last three games. In the five games prior, the Indianapolis, Ind., native shot 32-of-62 (51.6%) from the field and 13-of-31 (41.9%) from three-point range.
- Get out and Go: NC State is averaging 17.0 fast break points per game which ranks as the 11th-most in NCAA DI. In the Pack's nine wins it averages 19.2 fast break points per game, but that totally is nearly cut in half in its three losses, averaging just 10.3 transition points per game in defeats.
- Win the turnover battle: NC State ranks 10th in the NCAA in turnover margin at +5.3. The Pack forces its opponents into an average of 14.6 turnovers per game (60th in NCAA/3rd in ACC) while turning it over themselves an average of just 9.2 times per game (9th in NCAA/3rd in ACC). In the Kevin Keatts era, NC State is 94-36 (72.3%) when it has fewer turnovers than its opponents, 8-13 (38.1%) when it has the same amount of turnovers as its opponent and 20-33 (37.7%) when it has more turnovers than its opponent.

NC State Series with Notre Dame
- Wednesday will be the 20th all-time meeting between the two programs. Notre Dame leads the all-time series, 10-9.
- The series is tied at six games apiece since the Fighting Irish joined the ACC prior to the 2013-14 season.
- The Pack is 5-4 all-time at Purcell Pavilion and Kevin Keatts is 5-3 against Notre Dame as head coach of the Pack.
- Last Meeting (Jan. 24, 2023): NC State beat Notre Dame, 85-82, inside PNC Arena behind 28 points from Jarkel Joiner. NC State only turned the ball over two times in the win over the Fighting Irish, tying a school record for the fewest in a single game. The Pack also had just two turnovers in a win over Georgia Tech on Jan. 13, 1991.

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Players Mentioned

DJ Horne

Jarkel Joiner

Casey Morsell

Michael O'Connell

Dennis Parker, Jr.

Jayden Taylor