Players on the NC State men’s basketball team will have much to prove this weekend when the Wolfpack opens regular season play against Jackson State.
Last Saturday’s exhibition game against Queens University, which was open to the public, likely left the team and fans with more questions than they had going into the contest.
First, there may be changes in the player rotation, as 50 of the Pack’s 78 total points came from the State reserves. Head Coach Mark Gottfried said he would be evaluating playing time during practice this week.
“We think here in November that we know who should start, but that could change,” Gottfried said. “We had some guys coming off the bench that are hungry. They’re coming, and they’re pretty good. It’ll take a while to figure out who should start.”
Leading the way off the bench were freshmen forwards Caleb Martin and Abdul-Malik Abu, scoring 16 and 14 points respectively.
“Caleb Martin and Malik both came in the game and gave us a great offensive spark because we were struggling,” Gottfried said.
While the strong bench presence may have been the catalyst to State’s second half explosion against the Royals on Saturday, the lack of production from the Pack’s starters will pose a problem for the team in the future if not addressed.
The Pack’s starting backcourt of redshirt junior Trevor Lacey, sophomore Anthony ‘Cat’ Barber and redshirt senior Ralston Turner combined for just 16 points on Saturday.
“We didn’t come out struggling; we just came out flat,” Lacey said. “We missed a lot of shots that we should have made; we were just going through the motions, and you can’t play any game like that.”
The team will have time to fix these issues before facing any serious competition, as State’s first four games of the season will come against teams that combined for a record of 45-81 in 2014.
Jackson State will be the Pack’s first test. The Tigers hail from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which sent only conference champ Texas Southern to the NCAA Tournament last season. JSU ranked 292nd in points per game last season, and the team’s two leading scorers graduated during the offseason.
Although State should have little issue defeating the Tigers, the Pack needs to address its internal issues, or a devastating preseason loss could hurt them come tournament selection time in March.
