Pack Plays at Stanford on Saturday

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NC State Game Notes | Stanford Game Notes

STANFORD, Calif. – The NC State men's basketball team completes its two game road trip to California when it plays at Stanford on Saturday evening.

Tipoff against the Cardinal is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and the game will be televised on the ACC Network. NC State fans can also listen to Matt Chazanow and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Tracks
- The Pack dropped the first game of its west coast road trip, falling to Cal, 74-62, on Wednesday night.
- NC State trailed 58-54 with eight minutes to play after a Trey Parker field goal, but the Pack would only make one field goal over the next seven minutes which allowed Cal to break open the game with a 14-3 run.
- Marcus Hill broke his mini-scoring slump with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting against the Golden Bears. Hill had scored in double figures in 12 consecutive games before scoring just four against Duke and eight against Clemson last week. The Rockford, Ill., native leads the Pack in scoring at 12.9 points per game and ranks eighth in the ACC in field goal percentage at 48.3 percent. Hill is second on the team with 43 assists and has a 1.95 assist-to-turnover ratio (43-to-22). The NC State senior also leads the team in rebounding in conference action, averaging 5.4 rebounds a contest.
- Dontrez Styles entered the game against Cal, averaging 21 points per game and shooting 61.5 percent from the field in the previous two games, but was held to just six points on 3-of-16 shooting against the Golden Bears. Styles still is averaging 16 points per game and has made 10-of-16 three-pointers (62.5%) in the last three games. Despite the off shooting night, Styles still led NC State with 10 rebounds and two blocks.
- Senior guard Jayden Taylor had one steal against Cal and now has 17 in the last eight games (2.1 per game). He's had two or more steals in six of the last eight games and now ranks 11th in the ACC in steals, averaging 1.5 per game.
- Ben Middlebrooks ranks third in the ACC in blocks at 1.6 per game. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native has 34 blocks this season which already mark the most he's ever had in a single season. Coming into this season, Middlebrooks had multiple blocked shots in nine of 101 career games, but has already had nine multiple block games this season.
- NC State had a season-low five turnovers against Cal. The Pack has now had single digit turnovers in six of its last eight games and 12 overall this season. NC State leads the ACC and ranks 12th in the NCAA in fewest turnovers per game (9.4). NC State is aiming for a fourth straight season ranked as one of the nation's best teams in valuing the basketball. The Pack finished 12th in the NCAA last season in turnovers, seventh in 2022-23 and 16th in 2023-24.

Saturday Storylines
- Saturday's game marks the return of NC State grad guard Michael O'Connell to Maples Pavilion. O'Connell played three seasons for Stanford from 2020-23. He scored 558 points (6.3 per game) and passed out 285 assists (2.9 per game) while starting 76 of 89 games he played in a Cardinal uniform. O'Connell graduated from Stanford in three years with a degree in Economics.
- Pack needs to get back to having a balanced offensive attack. The Cal game marked the second consecutive game where only one NC State player scored in double figures. Last Saturday against Clemson, Dontrez Styles (24 points) was the only NC State player to score in double figures while Marcus Hill (20 points) was the only Pack player in double figures in Wednesday night's loss to Cal. NC State hasn't won a game this season when its had only one or two players in double figures. When the Pack has had a balanced scoring attack with four or more players in double figures this season it is 7-0.
- Finish out close games. Wednesday's game at Cal was the Pack's 11th ACC game of the season and marked the 10th time in those 11 contests that NC State has held a second half lead. NC State has now led in the second half in eight of its nine conference losses this season.
- Trey Parker is making the most of an increased role lately as he has scored 30 points in the last three games and is shooting 52 percent (13-of-25) from the field during that span. Before the last three games, Parker had only scored 14 points in a 12-game stretch from Dec. 4 vs. Texas through Jan. 25 vs. SMU.
- Get Ben Middlebrooks back on track offensively: The NC State senior scored in double figures in 10 of the first 17 games he played this season, but has only scored 10 points total on 3-of-13 shooting in the last four outings. In the last four games, NC State has been outscored in the paint by 52 points (132-to-80).
- One of NC State's calling cards in the Kevin Keatts era is turning opponent's turnovers into points. In the Pack's nine wins this season, it is averaging 19.3 points per game off opponents turnovers and has outscored the opponents in points off turnovers by 102 points. In the Pack's 13 losses it averages just 10.9 points off opponent turnovers and has outscored its opponents in points off turnovers by just seven points (142-to-135). NC State has only scored nine points off opponent turnovers in the last two games. The nine points off turnovers is the fewest in the Kevin Keatts era in back-to-back games.

NC State series with Stanford
- Saturday will be the third all-time meeting between NC State and Stanford and the all-time series is tied at one.
- The two programs played a non-conference home-and-home series in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons with Stanford winning at home in the 2011-12 season and NC State winning at home in the 2012-13 season.
- Last Meeting (Dec. 18, 2012): 25th-ranked NC State beat Stanford, 88-79, behind 24 points from Lorenzo Brown. Brown scored 18 of his game-high 24 points in the second half. NC State held a five-point halftime advantage but broke the game open midway through the second half when it scored on six straight possessions and eight of nine overall to build a 17-point lead. Scott Wood chipped in 17 points for the Pack while Richard Howell had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

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Players Mentioned

Marcus Hill

Ben Middlebrooks

Michael O'Connell

Trey Parker

Dontrez Styles

Jayden Taylor