NC State is coming into the NCAA Tournament on one of the biggest highs in basketball history. Only one other team entered March Madness with a five-game conference tournament win streak—the 2011 UConn Huskies.
They set a lofty precedent, as the winning continued in the NCAA’s. That Connecticut team swept all six games to take home the national title.
Can NC State keep the lightning it captured in a bottle last weekend? If any team can do it, the school that gave us the cardiac Pack of 1983 can. In order to make a deep run, however, State will need to get past a daunting series of opponents throughout the South regional.
The matchup
NC State heads to Pittsburgh as an 11-seed to face 6-seed Texas Tech. The Red Raiders have five double-figure scorers, led by Pop Isaacs (15.9 points per game). They are deadly from outside, with five shooters hitting more than 30 three-pointers on the year, three of them hitting at 40% or better. Tech is the 38th best 3-point shooting team in the country, and State has struggled at times defending the perimeter, so that may be the biggest matchup concern for the Pack.
Isaacs and senior guard Joe Toussaint both average more than 3.5 assists per game and take care of the ball. Experienced guard play is one of the keys to NCAA Tournament success, so State will need big games from their own experienced guards—seniors DJ Horne, Casey Morsell and Michael O’Connell and junior Jayden Taylor.
Familiar faces
Kerwin Walton played for UNC for two years before transferring to the Red Raiders last year. He’s doubled his scoring average, to 8.4 points per game, and Walton is knocking down nearly half (.470) of his three-point attempts.
NC State’s leading scorer, DJ Horne, was teammates with Texas Tech center Warren Washington and forward Devan Campbell when all three played at Arizona State last season. Campbell is out for the year following a December knee injury.
Health
Horne seems back to 100% after missing the first game of the ACC tourney with a hip injury. Freshman Dennis Parker didn’t travel to D.C. with the team for the tournament due to illness, but he was back with the squad to celebrate at the end of the week.
Texas Tech has had plenty of injury woes this year, losing Cambridge in December. More recently, the team has been without Darrion Williams (11.4 points, 7.5 rebounds), who hurt his ankle in the Big 12 Tournament and missed the team’s last game. Center Warren Washington has also missed the last five games with an injured foot. He’s only played 13 minutes since mid-February. Tech said Williams would be back for March Madness, but Washington is still up in the air. If the seven-footer is out, that tips the scales heavily in favor of State center DJ Burns.
Weekend plans
If State gets past Texas Tech, they’ll finish their weekend in Pittsburgh with the winner of 3-seed Kentucky and 14-seed Oakland.
Kentucky has had an up and down year but, as John Calipari’s freshmen-laden teams frequently do, the Wildcats are playing their best ball down the stretch. Their leading scorer is a senior—Antonio Reeves (20 points per game)—but Kentucky also features two of the nation’s top freshmen in Rob Dillingham (15.4 points, 3.9 assists) and Reed Sheppard, who is the nation’s top 3-point shooter, making more than half his attempts.
Kentucky is the country’s top outside-shooting team and also ranks among the leaders in two-point shot accuracy. With three seven-footers on the roster and plenty of athleticism among smaller players, Kentucky is also one of the top shot blocking teams in the country, highlighting the fact that the biggest factor behind Kentucky’s improvement is a defense that has evolved into one of the best in the SEC.
Oakland would have to spring an upset to meet state, but the team has been on a roll. After a 6-8 start, Oakland has won 17 of 20 games, including four straight.
Down the line
If State advances to the Sweet 16, they’re likely to face 2-seed Marquette in Dallas. Tyler Kolek is battling an oblique injury that has kept him out of three straight games, although the team says he’ll be ready to play in the tourney.
The other side of the bracket features top seed Houston, as well as Duke and Wisconsin.
