When: Saturday, December 14th – 3:15 p.m

Where: Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence Kansas

TV: ESPN

Opponent: Kansas Jayhawks (Big 12 Conference)

Prediction – KenPom (KP) / Bart Torvik (BT): Jayhawks 78-65 / Jayhawks 77-64

Wolf Pack Snapshot: KP #78, BT #80, NET 109

Wolfpack season so far: 7-3 / 1-0

NC State has earned two 10-point victories, but neither was bragging rights. ACC wins are certainly a positive thing, but FSU was projected to finish 15th in the league and it was a home game. And then Coppin State (NET 363) was expected to be an easy win, but they led the game in the first 12+ minutes and pushed us much harder than they should have. That 10-point win should have been 30.

After the first third of the season, let’s compare the Pack to the rest of the ACC. So far the offense is struggling, but the defense is playing pretty well.

• Offensive – 12th in ACC, FG% 8th in ACC, 3PT% 15th in ACC, 3PT ranked 17th in ACC, FT% 16th in ACC, team rebounds ranked 15th in ACC
• Defense – 5th in ACC, Opp FG% 9th in ACC, Opp 3PT% 1st in ACC, turnover margin 1st in ACC, blocked shots 3rd in ACC
• Rebounding – So far we have outrebounded 36.2 to 34.4 per game. The better teams dominate the boards. Purdue +10, BYU +13, Texas +7.

Player trends:

• Dontrez Styles – 3 straight games with his highest points of the season
• Marcus Hill – The last three games have been three of his four highest finishes this season
• Huntley-Hatfieldd – Scored single-digit points in 3 of the last 4 games – the only time this season
• Michael O’Connell – He has 10 turnovers this season, 6 in the last three games. TX and CSU were his worst shooting games of the season
• Dennis Parker, Jr. – He finally appears to be back and playing his best since last February

Wolfpack Players Notes:

• Mike James was born on October 30th. knee surgery, doctors (under!) estimated recovery time of 3-4 weeks.

Opponent overview:

Kansas was ranked No. 1 in the preseason^st in the B12 this season and were AP preseason No. 1.

They are coming off a “disappointing” 23-11/10-8 season in which they lost in League One^st round of their conference tournament against Cincinnati and at 21 against Gonzaga in the 2nd round^nd round of the NCAAT.

Coach Self became KU’s winningest coach early in the season with his win over Michigan State. He surpassed legend Phog Allen’s previous record of 590 wins.

The Jayhawks return starter graduate center Hunter Dickinson (You’ll hear that name again)Grad guard Dajuan Harris, Jr. and senior forward KJ Adams.

Coach Self embraced the portal and excelled, bringing in six transfers. AJ Storr was Wisconsin’s star last season, averaging 16.8 ppg. Zeke Mayo is a hometown boy transferring back from South Dakota State, where he led the team in points and assists and finished second^nd in boards. Six-foot-two shooting guard Rylan Griffen was a starter on the Alabama Final Four team. They also added former Wolfpack player Shakeel Moore (Miss St, NC State), Noah Shelby (Rice) and David Coit (Northern Ill).

And of course, the freshman class isn’t too shabby. Coach Self signed Hunter Dickinson’s understudy, 5-star center Flory Bidunga (247’s #13) and 4-star top-50 guard Rakease Passmore.

Your season so far: (7-2) KP #11, BT #8, NET 18

KenPom has it with the 16th^Th toughest non-conference schedule.

So far, they’ve picked up quality wins against UNC (+3), Michigan State (+8) and Duke (+3). In addition to defeating Howard (+30), UNCW (+18), Oakland (+21) and Furman (+35).

They have suffered consecutive road losses to Creighton (-13) in the Big East/Big 12 battle and Missouri (-9).

• After the Creighton game, Coach Self stated: “I thought we did some good things considering we weren’t very good, and they were really good.”
• In the postgame press statement after Missouri Coach Self speculated, “I think it was probably a combination of them being good and us not being good. “

And that’s the kind of analysis that put Coach Self in the Hall of Fame.

Player notes

• Hunter Dickinson was named to the AP Preseason All-American team; Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year; decided unanimously 1^st Team All-Big 12
• This is Hunter Dickinson’s fifth season, third at Michigan. He started 131 of 136 games.
• Hunter Dickinson scored 28 points against Michigan St and had 15 rebounds against UNCW
• Dajuan Harris, Jr. was elected at 2^nd Team All-Big 12

The Wolf Pack visits Lawrence Kansas

NC State has played Kansas 13 times. The first game was in December 1958, when Kansas reached the Final Four. The 1958-1959 AP preseason poll had NC State ranked No. 5 and Kansas ranked No. 7. Coach Everett Case’s Wolfpack went to (3-year) Allen Fieldhouse and defeated coach Dick Harp’s Jayhawks 66-63. The good guys haven’t won since.

Based on current NET ratings, we have six Q1 opportunities, one neutral, two home and three away this season. Purdue was first, Kansas is second. (plus Duke-Away, Clemson-Home, UNC-Away, Pitt-Home).

Question: When is the best time to beat Kansas?

1. On their home court? No, they only lost one home game last season – in a disappointing campaign – and they don’t plan on losing any more.
2. When they return home after successive road damages? No, that doesn’t sound right.
3. What if they are missing their star? No, Hunter Dickinson is fine, thanks for asking.
4. Will they overlook the pack for their next opponent? No, Brown is in town.