Your “Winning Is Good” @’Ville Open Thread

01/29/2017Wufpacker16-17 Basketball ACC & Other ACC Teams College Basketball NC State NCS Basketball256

That was fun. Really, really fun.

Like seriously, winning is fun. Let’s do it some more.

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Dennis Smith, Jr.

Dude is sick. Really sad he’s not gonna be around next year.

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Still Work To Be Done

Yeah, the Duke win was great and all. But we dug ourselves a pretty big hole leading up to it.

Yep, a win in Durham is always a good thing. It was fun.

But as far as our resume for the Dance? Our RPI jumped from the 70’s to around 60. Meh.

Our conference record is 3-5 instead of 2-6. Meh.

If we want to be playing in mid to late March, that’s not gonna cut it. (Psssst….that’s the 2nd time I’ve linked VaWolf’s awesome analyses….that means you should go read it).

Anywhoo….a couple of those that got away earlier in January are looking even a little bigger now, huh?

You know what would be a good next step which would improve both of those numbers on our resume?

Win at Louisville today.

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NC State at Louisville

Pack Heads to Louisville to Face 13th-Ranked Cardinals (GoPack.com)

Pack Tracks
– NC State won its first road game of the season Monday night as it used a 20-5 run to battle back from a nine-point deficit with 6:52 to play to win at #17/17 Duke, 84-82.
– Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., scored a career-high 32 points for the Pack and led the team in assists (6) and steals (2). Smith has now led NC State in scoring in nine of the last 12 games, led the team in assists in 10 of 12 games and has led the team in steals in 12 consecutive games.
– Freshman Ted Kapita, after not playing in the previous two games, came off-the-bench to deliver his first career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds in 19 minutes. Junior Abdul-Malik Abu feel one rebound short of a double-double with 19 points and nine rebounds. Abu shot 8-of-12 from the field.
– Overall, Abu, Kapita and Smith combined to shoot 24-of-37 (64.9%) from the field at Duke.
– Ted Kapita‘s double-double on Monday makes him the sixth NC State player to record a double-double this season. Abdul-Malik Abu (4), Dennis Smith (3), Torin Dorn (2), BeeJay Anya (1) and Omer Yurtseven (1) have also recorded double-doubles this season. Last year in 33 games, NC State had four players record a double-double Abu (14), Lennard Freeman (1), Cat Barber (1) and Cody Martin (1).

Men’s Basketball Returns Home to Host NC State Sunday Afternoon (GoCards.com)

NC State (14-7, 3-5 ACC) has won two of its last three games, including winning for the first time since 1995 at Duke with an 84-82 victory on Jan. 23. Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr. scored a career-high 32 points and added six assists, four rebounds and two steals in the game.

NC State is 27th in the nation in scoring offense (81.6 ppg) and 33rd in field goal percentage (.480). Smith leads the ACC in assists (6.6, 10th in the nation) and steals (2.2, 23rd in the nation) and is fifth in scoring (18.9 ppg). NC State is No. 59 in the RPI, No. 68 in the Sagarin Ratings and No. 74 by Ken Pomeroy through Jan. 25.

UofL has a 10-9 series edge over NC State, including a 5-2 record in games played in Louisville. The Cardinals have won the last two matchups, including a 77-72 victory in Raleigh, N.C. last season (1-7-16) when Quentin Snider led the Cardinals with 21 points, hitting a career-best 4-of-6 three-pointers.

CARD FILE

Louisville posted a collective 3.18 grade point average for the recently completed 2016 fall semester, with 11 men’s basketball student-athletes achieving a 3.0 or better GPA.

Louisville is sixth in the nation in field goal defense (.375), seventh in blocked shots (6.2 bpg) fifth in three-point field goal percentage defense (.282) and 10th in offensive rebounds per game (14.4).

Louisville has faced the nation’s toughest schedule according to the RPI through games of Jan. 25.

Louisville has won at least 17 of its first 21 games in six of the last seven seasons.

In his last eight games, Donovan Mitchell has averaged 18.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and made 24-of-55 three-pointers (.436). He scored a career-high 29 points at Pittsburgh (6-of-8 three-pointers). Mitchell is second in the ACC and is 26th in the nation in steals (2.1 per game).

Louisville has a 32-8 record in its conference home games over the last five years (.800), including an 8-1 record last season in ACC games in the KFC Yum! Center.

Louisville has a 38-17 record during the month of January over the last seven years, including a 22-8 record in the last four years.