Pack Closes Non-Conference with Neutral Site Game against Ole Miss

Sunday, December 21

Greensboro, NC

1 PM

NC State

Ole Miss

Pack Closes Non-Conference with Neutral Site Game against Ole Miss

12/20/2025 10:36:00 AM | Men's Basketball

ESPN | Live Scoring | Tickets

NC State Game Notes | Ole Miss Game Notes

RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team (8-4) closes the non-conference portion of its schedule on Sunday when it faces Ole Miss (7-4) in the First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C.

Tipoff against the Rebels is scheduled for 1 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN. NC State fans can also listen to Matt Chazanow and Chucky Brown call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Notes
- NC State defeated Texas Southern, 108-72, on Wednesday night in its final non-conference home game.
- NC State sophomore guard Paul McNeil, Jr., scored a career-high 47 points, making a school-record and ACC-tying record of 11 three-pointers in the win. McNeil, Jr.'s final stat line was 12-of-18 shooting, 11-of-17 from three and 12-of-12 from the foul line. He also added a career-high 10 rebounds as he posted his first career double-double.
- McNeil, Jr., came out of the gate hot as he made his first five three-point attempts (all in the first five minutes of the game, his fifth three of the game came with 15:09 remaining in the first half and gave NC State a 22-7 lead.) McNeil went into halftime with 26 points, the most points in a single game for an NC State player since TJ Warren had 26 points in the second half of the Pack's win at Pitt on March 3, 2014.
- McNeil, Jr.'s 47 points are tied with Sammy Ranzino (Jan. 23, 1951 vs. Virginia Tech) for the fifth-most points in a single game in program history and are the most by an ACC player since Rodney Monroe – NC State's all-time leading scorer – had 48 against Georgia Tech on Jan. 13, 1991.
- McNeil, Jr., broke the school record for three-pointers made that had stood since Dec. 21, 1989 when Rodney Monroe made nine against UNC Asheville. He now shares the ACC record for three-pointers in a game with Georgia Tech's Dennis Scott (Dec. 28, 1988) and Wake Forest's Craig Dawson (Feb. 13, 2002).
- Ven-Allen Lubin played a season-low 17 minutes against Texas Southern and scored just seven points as he snapped his streak of eight consecutive games in double figures. He finished the game 3-of-4 from the field and has not shot over 50 percent from the field in every game this season. For the season, Lubin leads the ACC and ranks seventh in the NCAA in field goal percentage at 67.4 percent.
- Quadir Copeland passed out nine assists in 18 minutes of action on Wednesday night. Over the last six games, Copeland is averaging 16.7 points, 6.5 assists, and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 58.3 percent (35-of-60) from the field. The Philadelphia, Pa., has led the Pack in scoring in three of the last six games, in assists in five of the last six games and in steals in three of the last six games.

Sunday Storylines
- No stranger to Greensboro: With the ACC Tournament routinely being played in Greensboro, as well as making trips to Greensboro to play UNCG, NC State knows the 78-mile route from campus to First Horizon Coliseum well. But Sunday's game will be unique as it will be the Pack's first non-conference regular season game in Greensboro - that isn't against UNCG - since the Pack played seventh-ranked UCLA on Dec. 29, 1993. That game was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1974 NCAA semifinal game between the schools where NC State and David Thompson beat UCLA and Bill Walton in double overtime (snapping the Bruins streak of seven consecutive national championships) on the way to the Pack's first national title.
- Paul McNeil, Jr.'s 47 points on Wednesday were the second-most by a Division I player this season. Ironically, the player that has the most points by an NCAA DI player this season (Radford's Dennis Parker, Jr.) was teammates with McNeil, Jr., last season at NC State. Parker, Jr., signed with NC State out of high school and spent two years with the Pack before transferring to Radford this past offseason.
- NC State ranks 32nd in the most recent NET rankings through games of December 19. NC State's average opponent NET rank though 12 games is 143 which ranks as the second toughest of any ACC team. Six of the Pack's first 12 games this season are currently Q1 or Q2 games. That's tied for the most Q1/Q2 games of any ACC team and the Pack's five Q1 games currently tie with Duke for the most of any ACC team. NC State will add one more Q2 game on Sunday against Ole Miss. The ACC has positioned itself well in non-conference play this season. The conference has 12 teams ranked in the top-64 of the most recent rankings, the most of any conference. The Big 12, Big Ten and SEC all have 11 teams in the top-64. As of the current NET rankings, NC State will have nine Q1 and three Q2 opportunities in conference action.
- Ven has been unstoppable in second half of games this season: A missed shot midway through the second half against Liberty last Wednesday snapped a streak of 24 consecutive made second half field goals for Ven-Allen Lubin. His streak started with two makes against Boise State in the second half on Nov. 25, the next day he was 6-6 against Texas in the second half, he then went 3-3 at Auburn, 9-9 against UNC Asheville and made his first four second half field goal attempts against Liberty before finally missing a second half shot. In 12 games this season, Lubin is shooting 79.6 percent (39-of-49) from the field in the second half. He's also made 14-of-his-16 free throw attempts in the final 20 minutes of games this season which means his second half shooting splits are 79.6/50/87.5.
- Second Half Pack: NC State is averaging 48.4 points and shooting 53.8 percent from the field in the second half of its 12 games this season. In addition to Lubin's second half efforts mentioned above, Quadir Copeland has also been fantastic in the second half as he's shot 63.0 percent (29-of-46) in the second half of games this season. Overall the Pack's top five scorers in the second half (Quadir Copeland, Darrion Williams, Ven-Allen Lubin, Paul McNeil, Jr., and Tre Holloman) combine to shoot 58.3 percent from the field in the second half, including 50 percent (51-of-102) from three-point range.
- The season is only a third of the way through, but with a current 1.78 assist-to-turnover ratio, the Pack is on pace to post the best single-season mark in program history. NC State has had more turnovers than assists just once this season (VCU) and has recorded an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.0 or better in six games. The Pack currently ranks second in the ACC and 19th in the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio.
- Win the Boards, win the game? The Pack is 7-0 when it outrebounds its opponent and 1-4 when it is outrebounded this season.

NC State series with Ole Miss
- Sunday will be the fifth meeting all-time between the two programs in a series that dates back almost 100 years.
- The two programs met in back-to-back seasons in the Southern Conference Tournament in Atlanta in 1928 and 1929. The two teams then didn't meet for over 70 years until the Pack beat Ole Miss at home in the 2000 NIT.
- Last Meeting (November 28, 2023): Ole Miss defeated NC State, 72-52, in Oxford in a game played as part of the ACC-SEC Challenge. The Rebels jumped out to a 17-5 lead and although the Pack was able to cut the deficit to 20-17 with a 12-3 run, NC State was never able to get in front. Ole Miss led by eight at halftime, scored the first five points of the second half and the Pack never got back within single digits. Ben Middlebrooks led the Pack with 13 points and 11 rebounds.