Wolfpack travels to No. 13 Louisville

Apparently, the NC State men’s basketball team enjoys defying expectations. In its last five games, the conundrum season that the Wolfpack has been through is best highlighted by a refusal to accept the predictions that it has been given.

Five games ago, the Pack (14-7, 3-5 ACC) lost to a struggling Boston College team by eight points, a matchup that was in every aspect winnable. Move on from there to the 10-point home loss to Georgia Tech, the first loss in PNC Arena of the season and a game in which NC State was a nine-point favorite.

The next game came at home to Pittsburgh. This was the only time that the Wolfpack finished as expected, winning the game when projected as slight favorites over the Panthers. Up next, the team welcomed Wake Forest to PNC, a program that had lost 25 straight on the road in conference play. Once again, this should have been a win, and yet once again, it wasn’t: NC State lost 93-88.

Fast-forward to earlier this week, when the Pack limped into Cameron Indoor Stadium to face the notorious Grayson Allen and No. 18 Duke. Now this game had been written off by experts as a loss for State since college basketball season began back in November. NC State entered as 16.5 point underdogs, yet behind some incredible playmaking by freshman Dennis Smith Jr. and junior Abdul-Malik Abu, the Pack silenced the Cameron Crazies and beat Duke, 84-82.

Head coach Mark Gottfried’s team has had a season that draws parallels to Donald Trump and Monty Python in the sense that no one really knows what is going to happen next.

NC State will travel to face the No. 13 Louisville Cardinals Sunday. Just as with the Blue Devils, winning this game will be no easy task; in fact, it’s very possible that this matchup is even more difficult than the preceding one. Whether the Pack has even a fleeting chance truly depends on which team will show up to play.

As ESPN writer C.L. Brown emphasized when recapping the win over Duke, this NC State team lives and dies by the play of Smith.

When the Wolfpack rolled into Chapel Hill Jan. 9, Smith was forced to head to the bench after picking up a third foul with 10:17 remaining in the first half. The stud rode the bench for the remainder of the first half, which was already going south quickly. The result was a 33-point halftime deficit that eventually turned into a 51-point trainwreck loss.

When Smith is on the court, however, spectacular things can and do happen. Take the Virginia Tech game for example. The then-No. 21 Hokies were no match for Smith, who shredded their defense en route to the second-ever triple-double in NC State basketball history. The Pack handily dispatched of Virginia Tech, winning by 26. 

Finally, Smith recorded a career-high 32 points in the win over Duke, the most by a freshman in Cameron Indoor Stadium since 2003.

The data is obvious: when Smith is on top of his game, so is the rest of the team. That isn’t to neglect the performances of other members of the team, however. Sophomore Maverick Rowan has been shooting lights out lately, recording double figures in four of his last six games and shooting 41 percent from the 3-point line on the season.

Abu has been heating up as of late as well. The Boston native garnered 20 points and seven rebounds against Wake and came up just one board short of a double-double against the Blue Devils.

NC State will need all of its cylinders to be firing if it hopes to upset Louisville this Sunday. The Cardinals résumé so far this year includes wins over then-No. 15 Purdue, No. 7 Duke and No. 6 Kentucky. Head coach Rick Pitino’s team has lost only four times this season, all of which came to ranked opponents.

The Cards are a team that doesn’t rely on one specific star, but instead utilize numerous players that can make big contributions. On Jan. 24, Louisville had five different players score more than 10 points as they trounced Pittsburgh, 106-51.

With both sides featuring electrifying offenses, look for a high-scoring affair in the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville.

The game is set to tip-off at 1 p.m. and will be aired on the ACC Network.