NC State focused on itself in open week ahead of Clemson
NC State men’s basketball has dropped five of its last seven games, but four of those losses have been decided by 6 points or fewer. The Wolfpack talked about closing games after its 4-point setback at Wake Forest on Saturday, and now the red and white has a week to improve in this area.
The Pack will not take the court until this coming Saturday at Clemson, which will allow NC State to self-reflect before it kicks off its final seven games in the regular season.
NC State coach Kevin Keatts pointed to looking at the Wolfpack as a whole this week, its lone seven-day stretch without a midweek contest for the rest of the season.
“We got to get a couple guys playing better,” Keatts said on Monday’s ACC coaches Zoom call. “You look at the four-game stretch that DJ Horne has had. The guy is playing really well, and we have to get a few of our guys playing better, making some shots. It’s time to work on some things defensively and offensively.”
Horne has been the engine of NC State’s offense, as of late. The Cary, N.C., native has scored more than 20 points in each of the Pack’s last four games, including a season-best 31-point outburst in the loss at Wake Forest over the weekend. He is shooting 52.3% from the field over that span.
While Horne has been the scorer, NC State’s surrounding cast has not been able to find similar production. In each of the Wolfpack’s last two losses — a combined 7-point differential — NC State scored a total of 27 points on 11-of-41 (26.8%) shooting from its other guards. Horne made 60% of his shots from the field over the past two games.
The seventh-year coach said an off week this late in the season can be “a weird week because you don’t want to overdo it, but you also want to stay sharp.”
The Wolfpack will practice on Monday and Tuesday with an off day on Wednesday before it returns to the gym on Thursday and Friday. The first two days will be spent working on what NC State needs to improve on, while the latter two will focus on game preparation for Clemson.
“I think the biggest thing is to try to work on ourselves,” Keatts said. “We’ve had two really good games that we came up a little bit short. We have to get some guys making some shots. … Probably for us, it was a good time for us to have a break. Even though we lost, we still did some good things, but it’s probably a good time for us to step back.”
For now, NC State will try to find answers. The Pack’s scoring from multiple players, not just Horne, will be critical for the red and white. After that, a Saturday evening date at Clemson, which beat No. 3 North Carolina last week, is a pivotal Quad 1 contest on the line for the Wolfpack’s NCAA at-large hopes.
