The NC State men’s basketball team (20-8, 8-7 ACC) will travel to Florida to take on the Florida State Seminoles (22-6, 10-5 ACC) in a heated ACC matchup on Saturday. The Seminoles are currently No. 18 in the AP poll and are a major roadblock in the Pack getting a favorable seeding in the ACC Tournament. A win over the ‘Noles would be huge for the Pack as well as a major confidence booster nearing the end of the regular season.
The Pack is coming into the game having won four of its last five games after a brutal stretch through January and early February. The team was expected to go through growing pains as a predominantly new team with many transfers, but the roster has now bounced back in a strong way.
“[It’s] very important,” redshirt sophomore guard Devon Daniels said. “You know, I think it’s really starting to show. At the beginning of the season there were new pieces, and it was kind of hard to catch a rhythm, but now I think we’ve got it going. So, hopefully we can keep that going.”
Much like the Pack, the Seminoles are a team-oriented organization, meaning that they do not have a single go-to scorer but instead a committee of scorers. The team’s leading scorer is forward Mfiondu Kabengele, who is averaging 13.1 points, as well as 5.5 rebounds per game. Kabengele is also capable of hitting from deep, shooting 39 percent from beyond the arc.
Joining Kabengele at the apex of Florida State scorers are starting guards Terance Mann and Trent Forrest. Mann is a solid wing that leads the team in rebounding at 6.4 rebounds per game and scores 11.5 points per game. Mann is also second on the team in assists at 2.4 and shoots an amazing 46 percent from deep. Mann leads the team in minutes at 31.1, so look for Mann to have an impact for the duration of the game.
Forrest on the other hand is a defensive machine, averaging two steals per game. Ball security will be key for the Pack in order to maintain a fully controlled game. Forrest also averages nine points and leads the team with 3.8 assists per game. Being able to impact all aspects of the floor, as Forrest is able to display, is an X-factor for teams that do not have a single established star.
In order to combat this, the Pack will need to limit the amount of turnovers it lets up and allow junior guard Markell Johnson to get the team into a stable offensive rhythm. Johnson is coming off of an ACC career-high with 25 points against Wake Forest, and will look to ride the hot hand into this game.
“Markell Johnson was special,” Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “Especially in the first half. When we were struggling to score, he rose up and made a bunch of shots. I thought he was really good; he had a career-high for him in ACC play.”
Johnson and Forrest will be the most interesting matchup as Johnson averages 2.3 turnovers, which Forrest can exploit rather easily if Johnson is not careful.
Another thing to watch out for is 7-foot-4-inch Florida State forward Christ Koumadje, who leads the team in blocks at 1.6 blocks per game, is second on the team in rebounds per game at 5.7 and is tied for the lead for offensive rebounds per game at 2.1. Koumadje also leads players who get consistent minutes in defensive rating per-100 possessions at 90.4.
With the lack of overall size on the roster, Keatts will need to get creative in grabbing rebounds, as Kabengele is the other player tied with Koumadje with a strong 2.1 offensive rebounds per game. Add that to the fact that leading scorer, Kabengele, does not start, and the Pack faces a hard task of grabbing rebounds for the entirety of the game.
One option the Pack could resort to is fouling Koumadje after a rebound, as he shoots only 56.5 percent from the free-throw line, which ranks last for Florida State players receiving consistent minutes.
Johnson and sophomore guard Braxton Beverly will need to control the offense, look for holes in a great defensive lineup and not take tightly contested shots. Graduate forward Wyatt Walker and redshirt sophomore forward DJ Funderburk will need to grab rebounds and ensure that little second-chance points are given up. This was done successfully in the Wake Forest victory, and Keatts will look to repeat that success.
“We were able to get out in transition because we rebounded and shared the basketball,” Keatts said. “We made shots. We’ve played pretty well in the last three games where teams have zoned us, talking about Syracuse, Boston College and now Wake Forest. It is better to have a week off with a win opposed to a loss. We have got to take a couple of days off, and then try to stay sharp for our next opponent in Florida State.”
The Pack will need to make sure to score in bunches, particularly through redshirt senior guard Torin Dorn, redshirt junior guard C.J. Bryce and Daniels who have the capability to get hot in a short period of time.
The game is sure to be an intense defensive battle between the two teams and the Pack will need to show off its dominant offense once again to secure the conference win.
“Every win is important down the stretch,” Dorn said. “So winning as many games as possible is definitely at the utmost importance to us.”
The Wolfpack will take on Florida State in the Tucker Center in Florida on Saturday. The game will tip off at noon.
Redshirt sophomore forward DJ Funderburk looks for a pass after getting a defensive rebound against Wake Forest on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019 in PNC Arena. Funderburk had 7 rebounds and 4 blocks in the Wolfpack’s 94-74 win over the Demon Deacons.
