Reserve guard Alyn Breed overcame injury to play an integral role in NC State's win over UNCG

By Noah Fleischman

In the hours leading up to NC State’s primetime tipoff against UNC Greensboro on Wednesday night, Wolfpack coach Will Wade made sure to seek out redshirt senior guard Alyn Breed.

The Pack knew it was going to be playing without redshirt junior guard Terrance Arcenaux due to injury, so Breed was in line to earn minutes in the true rotation for the first time this season. While he is an experienced collegiate player between his time at Providence and McNeese, Breed hadn’t logged meaningful minutes in more than a year after suffering a season-ending knee injury last November with the Cowboys. 

Wade’s message was simple, yet an effective few words to help take some of the pressure off Breed, who he noted tends to like to hit the “grand slam” every time he’s running the show. 

“You don’t need to prove anything to me,” Wade recalled telling Breed. “I know how good you are. Just go out there and be yourself.”

Although Breed expected to play in the 110-64 win over UNCG at the Lenovo Center, his minutes skyrocketed after senior point guard Tre Holloman was ejected from the game after just 4:22 ticked off the clock. Breed, who’s in his sixth collegiate season, went from being a rotational player to help the Wolfpack’s starters get a breather to a critical ball handler for the shorthanded squad. 

While he logged just under five minutes of clean-up duty in the season-opening win over NC Central 10 days earlier, Breed didn’t look out of place as he was thrust into an integral part of the offense. Instead, he seemed cool and collected as he scored 4 points with 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 27 minutes of action. 

“It means a lot, man. I’ve been with Wade for almost two years,” Breed said. “He’s got a lot of faith in me, and I’ve got a lot of faith in him. I knew my time would come. I knew I had to step up for my teammates today, so I just made sure I went out there, played hard and did the best I could.”

As Breed helped calm the Wolfpack offense after Holloman’s ejection, while also drawing defenders on the bounce to respect his ability to drive to the rim, it signaled an important step in his recovery. He wasn’t sure if this day would ever come, at times over the past year, as Breed thought his basketball career could come to a halt due to the injury. The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder made countless trips to different specialists with dozens of rehab appointments to try to get back on the court for one final season. 

“It’s hard to keep showing up every day if you don’t ever know if you’re going to be able to play again,” Wade said. “That’s hard to do. For him to be able to do that, and to see him rewarded to play in front of this crowd and perform well, was really nice.”

As Breed has worked his way back, he’s kept a good mindset along the way. He wasn’t cleared for full basketball activities until early October, but the rest of the Wolfpack saw him grinding his way back onto the court from the day he arrived on campus. 

Senior forward Darrion Williams, who scored a career-best 32 points with 10 rebounds against UNCG, saw Breed in the Pack’s training room on the bottom floor of the Dail Basketball Center with Shawn Eddy, the Pack’s athletic trainer, nearly every single day. And as he battled his way through the injury, Williams noted that Breed never “pouted” or “felt sorry about himself.”

That paid off with his stable presence on the floor in a pinch as NC State needed another point guard to step up in just the third game of the season.

“He came in, controlled the game and got our rhythm together,” Williams said. “It felt like we played together for a little while. We still have a few things we can fix, but I think he was just being himself. That’s all we ask of him. I think he did a great job controlling the game.”

For sophomore guard Paul McNeil Jr., a sharpshooter who hit 6 three-pointers en route to a career-high 27 points Monday night, Breed’s performances in practice over the past few weeks gave him confidence that the reserve would be ready when his number was called.

“We know what AB’s capable of doing,” McNeil said. “In practice, he’s looking great. He looks phenomenal. … When he was out there on the court doing his thing, it wasn’t a surprise to us. He believes in himself, and we believe in him.”

Belief can go a long way. It’s a powerful tool that humans can channel when facing adversity, and in Breed’s case, it helped create a full-circle moment off the bench. He knew he could play at this level after the injury, but actually proving it was another task. 

And, well, he passed with flying colors. 

“He was what we needed,” Wade said with a smile afterwards. “It’s just incredible. I’m really proud of him.”