N.C . State (13-5, 2-1 ACC) will take on Boston College (7-10, 2-1 ACC) on Thursday at the RBC Center in what will be the 12th meeting between the two teams.
The Pack, who thumped Wake Forest on Saturday for the largest margin of victory in the program’s history since 1954, will be looking to take their third conference win of the season against the Eagles, who have won their last two games by a combined margin of just four points.
Despite being 3-8 in the all-time series, the Pack has won the last two fixtures at the RBC Center, however the last time the two teams met, it was the Eagles who triumphed in a 75-66 game at Chestnut Hill.
Coach Mark Gottfried , who in his career has never coached against BC, felt their opponents are not the same players that they were at the start of the season while giving due respect to his opposing number.
“You have to remember, he’s starting four freshmen,” Gottfried said. “So they’re much different now and really in the last few weeks than they were early. When you watch tape of them and watch some of the early games, you can almost throw those out.”
It’s a different team. I think he’s (Steve Donahue) an excellent coach.”
Gottfried felt junior forward Scott Wood, who is leads the league in field goal percentage at 43% and 3-point field goals made to go along with the 51 consecutive free throws he has made, was one of the best shooters he had ever coached.
“I don’t think I’ve had anybody this far,” Gottfried said. “I had Mo Williams, who went on quite a streak at Alabama at one point. But Scott is phenomenal.”
He’s the best foul shooter I’ve been around.”
Senior C.J. Williams has been one of the pivotal players for the Pack this season. Williams said that the team has a solid strategy in place to tackle the Eagles.
“They play four guys at one time that can all shoot the three, so we want to close out on their shooters you know,” Williams said. “They also can dribble drive pretty well, so we want to keep them in front of us without giving them open shot and then if we cut that out, then we just have to box out and rebound.”
Williams felt the Pack , who won just 15 games last season and have already won 13 this season, is on the right track this season to achieve a greater goal.
“It feels good, we are winning a lot of games right now, we are definitely headed in the right direction,” Williams said. “We want to go to the NCAA tournament this year and that’s our main goal because once we get to the tournament, anything can happen.”
Williams, who averages 12.2 points a game, which is almost the triple of what he achieved last year, felt a lot of it was due to the amount of hard work he has put in behind the scenes.
“This year, I feel like I am in a lot better shape,” Williams said. “I don’t know if its due to my work ethic or anything but I feel like I definitely built my body better to play longer in the games this year and that’s allowed me to continue to help my team.”
All I really want to do is to win games.”
The tip-off has been set at 8 p.m. with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.
