Pack Hosts Virginia in First ACC Home Game of Season

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NC State Game Notes | Virginia Game Notes

RALEIGH, N.C. - The NC State men's basketball team (10-3, 2-0 ACC) plays its first home game in 2024 Saturday afternoon when it hosts long-time Atlantic Coast Conference foe Virginia (11-3, 2-1) inside PNC Arena.

Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the game will be televised on the ACC Network. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Notes
- NC State opened 2024 with a come-from-behind win over Notre Dame, 54-52. DJ Burns, Jr., led NC State in scoring (for the first time since the season-opening win over The Citadel on Nov. 6) with 13 points.
- The Pack took its one and only lead on a Burns, Jr., basket with 0.6 seconds remaining in the game. NC State trailed by as many as 12 points in the contest and was down 52-46 with under two minutes to play, but ended the game on an 8-0 run to get the win.
- NC State held Notre Dame to just 18 points in the second half. It's the fewest second half points allowed by the Pack since holding Clemson to 16 in the 2019 ACC Tournament.
- The final result is the second time in program history an NC State game has finished with a 54-52 final score. The other time was April 4, 1983 when the Pack won the National Championship with a 54-52 win over the Houston Cougars.
- NC State finished the game shooting just 28.8 percent from the field. It's the second-lowest shooting percentage of the Kevin Keatts era, and just the third time NC State has shot under 30 percent with Keatts.
- It's the lowest field goal percentage in a win for the Wolfpack since shooting 28.6% against Penn State on Nov. 25, 1996.
- NC State finished the game against the Fighting Irish with a season-low four turnovers. NC State now ranks fourth in the NCAA in turnovers per game, averaging just 8.8 per contest. The Pack forced 13 Notre Dame turnovers to finish the game with a +9 turnover margin and a 13-5 advantage in points off turnovers. In the last three games, the Pack has a +30 turnover margin over its opponents and a 63-17 advantage in points off turnovers.

Saturday Storylines
- NC State is 22-2 at home since the beginning of the 2022-23 season. The Pack went 8-2 in ACC home games last season and is 14-0 against non-conference teams.
- The Pack is off to a 2-0 start in the ACC for the first time since the 2020-21 season. A win on Saturday would give NC State its first 3-0 start in conference play since the 2012-13 team opened its ACC slate with three straight wins. Both of NC State's conference wins have come on the road, the last time the Pack won its first two ACC road games was the 2011-12 season.
- Grad Guard Casey Morsell has 991 career points and is now just nine points shy of 1,000 for his career. Morsell played the first two years of his career at Virginia. He scored 220 points in 53 career games at UVA from 2019-21 (4.2 ppg.). He's scored 771 points in 77 career games with the Pack (10.0 ppg.) average.
- Who wins the turnover battle? Both teams on Saturday excel at forcing their opponents into turnovers while not coughing the ball up themselves. Virginia leads all NCAA DI teams in fewest turnovers, averaging just 8.4 per game. NC State is right behind the Cavaliers, ranking fourth in the NCAA, turning it over an average of just 8.8 per game. Both teams are coming off midweek games where they didn't turn it over as the Pack only turned it over a season-best four times in the win at Notre Dame while Virginia only had three turnovers in its win over Louisville. Virginia ranks fifth in the NCAA in turnover margin at +5.71 while the Pack is one spot behind them in sixth at +5.62. In the Kevin Keatts era, NC State is 95-36 (72.5%) 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.
- Two stats the Pack has to turn around from last season's loss at Virginia - Points in the Paint and Points off Opponent Turnovers: The Cavaliers held the Pack to just 12 points in the paint in the last meeting. The 12 points in the paint tied for the second-fewest in a game in the Kevin Keatts era. This season, NC State is averaging 34 points in the paint per game and has outscored its opponents in points in the paint in 10 of 13 games. The Pack only had four points off opponent turnovers as UVA had a 17-4 advantage in points off turnovers in its win last season. The four points off turnovers ties for the second-fewest in the Keatts era.
- Graduate guard Michael O'Connell has passed out 12 assists (and zero turnovers) in the last three outings.
- Ben Middlebrooks carving out a role. The junior transfer from Clemson, is averaging 8.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in the last three outings in a backup role behind DJ Burns, Jr.
- Get out and Go: NC State is averaging 16.2 fast break points per game which ranks as the 18th-most in NCAA DI. In the Pack's 10 wins it averages 17.9 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.

NC State Series with Virginia
- Saturday will be the 155th all-time meeting between the two programs. NC State leads the all-time series, 85-69.
- Kevin Keatts is 3-5 against Virginia as head coach of NC State.
- Virginia has a 9-8 advantage in games played at PNC Arena, and despite the Pack winning the most recent matchup between the programs in Raleigh, UVA has won seven of its last eight games against the Pack inside PNC Arena.
- Last Meeting (Feb. 7, 2023): In a battle of ranked teams, eighth-ranked Virginia defeated 22nd-ranked NC State, 63-50 in Charlottesville. The Pack entered the game winners of eight of its last nine games, but scored season lows in points in the paint (12), points off turnovers (4) and fast break points (2) in falling to the Cavaliers. Terquavion Smith led the Pack with 19 points and Casey Morsell chipped in 18, the most in his career against an ACC opponent. Virginia outscored NC State in points in the paint, 32-12.

Pack Hosts Virginia in First ACC Home Game of Season

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Players Mentioned

DJ Burns, Jr.

Ben Middlebrooks

Casey Morsell

Michael O'Connell

Terquavion Smith