The curtain has not yet closed on the NC State men’s basketball team’s 2015 NCAA Tournament run, and after fighting through two high-powered opponents, the Pack now has a date with 4-seed Louisville in the Sweet 16 Friday.
The 8-seed Wolfpack is quite familiar with Rick Pitino’s squad, having run the Cardinals out of their own gym on Valentine’s Day. The 74-65 loss was Louisville’s worst defeat at home up to that point in the season; not even Kentucky beat the Cards as bad as State did.
Despite the win earlier in the season, NC State head coach Mark Gottfried knows that Friday’s contest will not simply be a repeat of the teams’ regular season battle.
“We have a great challenge,” Gottfried said. “We have to play a team that we’ve already beat once, and that’s kind of the hurdle for us. We have to get over that hurdle and beat a team twice, a good team, and do it in the Sweet 16.”
The Pack’s win at the KFC Yum! Center came at a crucial point in its season. When Gottfried’s crew made the trip to the Bluegrass State, the team was 14-11, having dropped five of its past six contests, and was desperately trying to find a way to sneak into the Big Dance.
The rest is history. State has since won eight of its past 10 games, knocking off basketball giants such as UNC-Chapel Hill and most recently, Tourney 1-seed Villanova.
The elevated play of Anthony ‘Cat’ Barber has been a huge factor in the Pack’s recent success. The point guard has scored double digits in each of the Pack’s last eight wins, while totaling just eight points in the two losses.
Barber and the Pack’s high-volume guards will look to overcome a Louisville backcourt which has changed drastically since the teams’ last meeting.
Senior guard Chris Jones was released from the team Feb. 22 after violating team rules. In February, Barber and Jones dueled for the entire game, netting 21 and 20 points, respectively.
The ex-Cardinal has been replaced by freshman Quentin Snider, who has averaged 13 points per game in the Tournament so far. Snider and second-team all-ACC selection Terry Rozier make the Louisville backcourt a worthy opponent for State’s star guards.
“They’ve figured out how to play and play well without a guy like Jones,” Gottfried said. “I also think we’re a little bit different. I think we’re a little bit better and we’re defending really well right now.”
The true power of Louisville comes from its post play. Second team All-ACC selection Montrezl Harrell has averaged just over 15 points and nine rebounds per contest.
Harrell is the heart and soul of this Louisville team. When he doesn’t perform well, the team suffers greatly. For example, against 13-seed UC-Irvine, Harrell scored a meager eight points and grabbed only four boards, and the Cards nearly suffered a second-round upset.
“We have to slow him down,” Pack forward Abdul-Malik Abu said of Harrell. “We feel like his offensive skillset is one where if he’s comfortable, he’ll be a dangerous player. We have to do our best to lock him down.”
Against the Pack in February, the combination of Abu and Lennard Freeman limited Louisville star big man to seven points on 1-for-5 shooting. The State bigs will need to duplicate this performance in order to take down the Cards.
Thankfully, Abu and Freeman are coming off arguably their best performance of the season. Against Villanova, the duo combined for 24 points and 24 rebounds and held the Wildcats’ 6-foot-11 Daniel Ochefu to four points on 1-for-7 shooting.
It has been well documented that the Pack reaches another level of play when it has control of the interior. State is 11-2 when outscoring the other team in the painted area, which includes the team’s wins over Duke, Villanova and Louisville.
“The good news is right now, all four of those interior guys are all helping us in different ways, Gottfried said. “You have the LSU game, and you think of the spark Kyle gave us. That’s important for us.”
At this point in the Tournament, a win will not simply come down to one or two players, but the entire team. The Pack has shown that balance in its past two games, but will need another great team performance to take down the Cards and advance to the Elite Eight.
