Wednesday has the potential to be a huge day for NC State Basketball. Two years ago, NC State defeated both Duke and North Carolina at home as The Pack is looking to repeat this. Hopefully State can pull out another huge win over another rival this time being The Tarheels. As I mentioned before, there is nothing better than beating North Carolina. The Duke win was incredible but a win against The Heels would be sensational.
For 21 years now I have strongly disliked the school 25 minutes down the road. The best things in life are priceless and that’s beating UNC. For 18 years now UNC has cheated continuously attempting to enhance their athletic program. 3,100 students have took “paper classes” now at Chapel Hill with the help of advisers making sure they are eligible to play. This just adds more fuel to fire on why beating a cheating school is so great. Throughout their cheating years and winning 2 basketball championships in 05 and 09 which shouldn’t even count, I am constantly reminded from UNC fans that they have won 22 of the last 24 meetings against State in basketball. Here’s to hoping that becomes 22 out of 25 tonight and kicking The Cheat’s ass at 7 PM in PNC Arena. If Carolina does win tonight which I don’t think they will, all NC State fans please avoid Walmart tomorrow where all the true UNC fans shop.
Avoid Walmart Tomorrow if The Cheats Win.
North Carolina is coming off a big time win at The Dean Dome against Louisville. Marcus Paige once again worked his magic with his scoop shot kissing off the backboard and going through the net with seconds left to up end The Cardinals 72-71. Though I have despised Carolina my whole life, I found myself not completely pulling against them their last game. As any game is hard to play in The ACC, I would not want State playing Carolina after 2 straight ACC losses.
Paige’s game winning lay-up with milliseconds left on the clock at PNC last year still haunts me. The Tarheels will be coming to Raleigh with a 12-4 record as they are 2-1 in The ACC with wins over Clemson plus Louisville and a loss to Notre Dame. Marcus Paige leads Carolina in scoring with 13.3 PPG with Kennedy Meeks in a close second with 12.8 PPG. Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks form a good front-court as the two of them average a combined 16 rebounds per game.
There are several keys to the game in which if State executes them, I like their chances at winning. First off Carolina will most likely press State. I just want to get this out there about Carolina’s press, it is a very well executed press but I think the refs let them get away with the majority of the things they do. Carolina will hack people on their press and for the most part they get away with it. Last year in PNC James Michael-McAdoo put TJ Warren in somewhat of a half nelson and there was a no call. I thought this call helped Carolina in gaining momentum at the end of the game and eventually winning. State will need to break their press consistently with few turnovers.
Call The Damn Foul Ref.
The second key to the game is stopping Paige. Although Paige has broken my heart over and over bringing Carolina back into multiple games, there is a way to slow him down from scoring frequently. I’ve watched Paige a lot and you can tell he favors going left and doesn’t like to go right. Forcing Paige to use his right hand is huge which limits his scoring and not letting him go left to the basket where he is exceptional at finishing plays.
The third main point is the bigs: Kyle Washington, Abu, Beejay Anya and LenNard Freeman need to have big games down low. Washington, Abu and Anya showed up against Duke yesterday and the same production will be needed against The Tarheels. Meeks is a great rebounder as well as one of the top outlet passers in college basketball. I grew up playing against Kennedy since I was 10 and he has always known his role. Meeks has a deadly turn around baseline jumper off his right pivot foot, the opposite move of right handed players. As much as I can’t stand Brice Johnson, he as well is one of the most underrated forwards in college basketball. Johnson can finish well at the rim and in my opinion has one of the top mid-range game in the country. Johnson can step out to 15 feet and consistently knock down that jump shot. State needs to play Johnson physically as he is not as strong as State’s big men. Limiting UNC’s offensive rebounds will be big as they can kick out to freshman Justin Jackson plus Marcus Paige who can knock down threes.
The last key to the game is stopping UNC in transition. Meeks loves getting defensive rebounds and throwing outlet passes to Paige and JP Tokoto where they are lethal in transition. UNC loves to run and gun but State will need to try and limit this to stop The Heels from gaining momentum. Limiting their transition and perimeter shots will be huge as I think State can definitely do this as shown against Duke.
Bottom line is NC State will need to play hard all 40 minutes. Trevor Lacey and Ralston Turner have been on a role during ACC play with wins over Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and Duke. Lacey has come up huge of lately and will need to keep on hitting the big shots. At times Lacey will make the contested shot over the open shot which makes him a deadly scorer. Turner has been knocking down the three at key times for The Pack and will need to keep on doing this. Kyle Washington has stepped up for The Pack in blocks, scoring plus rebounding in recent games as this has been a spark plug for The Pack. If Anya can play like he did against Okafor then State could make some noise in ACC Play. Anya looked incredible against Duke with great post moves that made me wonder where that has been the whole season. In the end I think The Pack will pull off the win against North Carolina which should not be considered a upset to some people. Wednesday night has the making to be a great night for NC State Basketball.
CJ Leslie posterizing Jackson Simmons.
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