The NC State men’s basketball team has a prime opportunity to get back into the win column on Wednesday, Jan. 27 against an underperforming Wake Forest squad. The game, scheduled to be played in Raleigh, is the first meeting between these two teams this season and will prove vital to establishing a tone for the rest of the season..
While Wake Forest is having a worse season up to this point at 4-6 on the year and 1-6 in conference, NC State has been on a downhill slide themselves over the past couple of weeks.
After starting 6-1, it seemed as if the Pack had a great opportunity to fight for a top-seven ACC spot, having proved its legitimacy with a win against a talented UNC team on Dec. 22, 2020. Things quickly took a turn for the worse, however, with NC State managing to not post a single win in the new calendar year.
NC State has suffered a couple of heartbreakingly close losses, including an OT loss to then No. 19 Clemson Tigers and a 59-64 loss to the University of Miami. The Pack has also experienced its share of not-so-close losses, including an abysmal performance leading to a Florida State blowout with a final score of 73-105.
In its most recent loss, NC State fell to UNC in their rematch from earlier in the season. With a final score of 76-86, the Tar Heels were clearly determined to produce a different outcome than that of the matchup earlier in the season. As has been the story in most of their losses so far this year, NC State was outshot from the field 47% (31-66) to 54.4% (37-68).
While these numbers don’t show quite the discrepancy in field goal percentage as was seen in the blowout against FSU, where NC State shot 44.4% (28-63) to Florida State’s 70.7% (41-58), they certainly reinforce the issue the Pack is suffering from. If head coach Kevin Keatts and his squad are to snap their four-game losing skid, they’re going to have to contain the shooters of Wake Forest early and often.
While NC State’s start through 11 games hasn’t been anything to write home about, Wake Forest’s has been worse. Currently sitting with a .400 win percentage overall and .143 in the conference, the Demon Deacons are on track to make little to no improvement from last season. This can’t be blamed entirely on team performance, however, as the Demon Deacons have faced a season riddled with COVID-19 concerns, much like NC State.
Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes came forward to the press about the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak within his program before its game against VMI slated for Dec. 21, 2020, was canceled. Before this matchup was set to take place, Wake had been forced to cancel or reschedule all but one of its games in December. A postponement of its game versus Syracuse, originally scheduled for Dec. 30, 2020, would be its last, managing to play its first game in December on the last day of the month.
As coronavirus cases continue to expand in college basketball programs around the country, it is becoming increasingly obvious how important early-season games are to a team’s success. Wake Forest is a prime example, much like NC State, of what is to be expected when a team is thrown into the fire that is ACC play in a limited season leading up to that point. A win against NC State could be just what this Wake team needs to establish a baseline for success moving forward.
The Demon Deacons have also had a poor track record since the start of the new year, winning their first game of 2021 on Saturday, Jan. 23 against a talented Pittsburgh team. Their schedule in the new year has certainly been more challenging than the Pack’s, however, facing a four-game streak against top-25 programs Virginia, Duke, Louisville and Virginia Tech.
In the limited season they have managed to play so far, the Wake Forest roster has shown glimpses of what it can be. With five players averaging double-digit points, the Demon Deacons are no stranger to moving the ball around.
Junior guard Daivien Williamson is currently leading Wake’s scoring brigade with 12.7 points per game on .457 (43-94) shooting. The combination of junior Isaiah Mucius and sophomore Ismael Massoud at the forward position is also integral to Wake’s offensive scheme with both players averaging over 10 ppg in their 10 games played.
Coming out of Raleigh with a win is not something that Wake Forest has been able to do regularly. With a 55-23 home record all-time, NC State is historically the dominant team when playing in Raleigh. With an all-time record of 92-71, the Pack has gotten the better of Wake over the course of history and have continued to do so over the past couple of seasons where it has gotten on a three-game win streak.
A plus one in the win column would mean a lot to both of these programs. For NC State, it could be the difference between having an opportunity to fight for a top-half spot in the ACC or underperforming for the level of talent that is currently on the roster. For Wake Forest, a win in Raleigh could be exactly what the Deacons need to jump start their season, trying to fight their way out of the last place spot in the ACC that they claimed a season ago.
Time will tell who wants it more on Jan. 27, in a matchup that is truly a must-win for either team. The game is set to tip off at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ACC Network and in the WatchESPN app. For more updates on this game or any other sports NC State-related, be sure to follow @TechSports on Twitter.
