The No. 17 NC State men’s basketball team will look to continue its exceptional season when it travels to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to face Wake Forest Tuesday in what will be the first of two games between the teams this season.
The Wolfpack (14-2, 2-1 ACC) will enter the game after having won eight of its last nine games, while the Demon Deacons (7-8, 0-3 ACC) will be seeking their first conference win of the season.
This Wake Forest team is a long ways away from the 2016-17 team that rode current NBA forward and lottery pick John Collins to an NCAA Tournament appearance. In its 5th year under Danny Manning, the team has struggled mightily. Losses to Houston Baptist, Saint Joseph’s, Richmond and Gardner-Webb have caused Wake Forest to plummet to 161 in the Kenpom rankings, the worst mark in the ACC and third-worst among Power Five schools.
The main problem with the squad is its defense, especially in the paint. With all but one of their forwards being freshmen or sophomores, the Demon Deacons rank a lowly 241st in defensive efficiency and are giving up 74.7 points per game, which puts them at 257th in the nation in that category. Opponents are shooting 46 percent against Wake this season and the team has given up an average of 85 points per game in ACC play while losing by double digits in all three conference games thus far.
Against the high-powered, fast-paced offense of NC State and head coach Kevin Keatts that has averaged nearly 89 points per game this season, the Demon Deacons may face another high-scoring contest if they don’t tighten up on the defensive end of the court.
It’s not as if this Wake team is lacking talent, however; the team is just relatively young and hasn’t played well together. Junior guard Brandon Childress, the team’s leading scorer, is averaging 16.5 points per game and is shooting an excellent 44 percent from 3-point range. Freshman forward Jaylen Hoard, a consensus five-star recruit and potential NBA draft pick, has averaged 14.7 points per game, albeit on just 47 percent shooting from the floor. Isaiah Mucius and Chaundee Brown are both former four-star recruits and have contributed significantly, but the results haven’t been there collectively.
The Demon Deacons actually played close with top-ranked Duke in the first half, but the lack of interior defense led to a 22-point loss. The team is capable of playing good teams tight, but defense, especially in the second half, has been a problem.
One thing Wake Forest does well is rebound, which could create some problems come Tuesday, as the Wolfpack’s depth down low is thin with graduate forward Wyatt Walker and redshirt sophomore forward DJ Funderburk manning the paint most of the time. Wake is 44th-best in the nation in rebounding rate and averages 37.5 rebounds per game. NC State, to its credit, has also been solid on the boards this season, grabbing 40.4 rebounds per game.
NC State hasn’t shot the 3 well in conference play and is averaging just 33 percent from beyond the arc, a step down from the nearly 40 percent it has shot from deep on the regular season. Against a beleaguered Wake Forest team, look for the Wolfpack to get its shooting back on track and take advantage of a defense that hasn’t performed well this season.
Keatts said junior point guard Markell Johnson, who exited the team’s win over Pittsburgh Saturday with a hip injury, would be a game-time decision. If he can’t go, sophomores Braxton Beverly and Blake Harris will need to carry the load in that spot.
The game will tip off at 8 p.m. at Lawrence Joel Coliseum and can be seen on Raycom Sports Network.
