NC State basketball ready to get back into action after week-long break
After enduring a six-game losing streak, NC State basketball snapped that stretch with one of its best performances of the season by crushing Georgia Tech on the road last Tuesday, 76-61.
Then came a break, and a lengthy one at that.
NC State had last weekend off. That means when it takes the court Wednesday night for a 7 p.m. tipoff against Boston College in a game that will be televised on RSN, it will have been eight days between games for the Wolfpack.
Whether or not that’s a good thing, NC State coach Kevin Keatts noted, will not be known until around 9 p.m. Wednesday night, when the contest against the Eagles has presumably ended.
“It just depends on how we play,” Keatts said. “Obviously, if you are playing well you want to continue to play, but you need some rest. … We’ve been fortunate. We are one of the few teams that didn’t have to pause for COVID, and that’s why we were able to get the weekend off. I will know more Wednesday when we start playing in the game whether we wanted to keep playing or the rest helped us, because I don’t think coach would know that until you play. … I do know that we don’t have that much depth and our guys were tired.
“The week before we played a lot of games, so hopefully the few days we got off for rest was good. When you are playing well, and that was probably one of our most complete games on both ends of the floor, I would have rather played the next day, but I don’t know how Wednesday will be. Hopefully it’ll be great for us in our favor.”
Keatts gave the players Wednesday and Thursday off after its win in Atlanta before practicing Friday and Saturday. Sunday was another break, and NC State will use Monday and Tuesday to prepare for Boston College.
The Eagles are coached by Earl Grant, who is in his first season at BC. Prior to that, Grant spent seven seasons as the head coach at College of Charleston, where he amassed a record of 127-89 and reached the postseason twice, including winning the Colonial Athletic Association in 2018 to reach the NCAA Tournament.
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The two seasons prior to that, Keatts won the CAA Tournament at UNC Wilmington before he took the job at NC State.
Keatts noted that he is familiar with Grant from the three years that battled each other in the Colonial.
“A lot of things have changed in five years, but Earl has done a really good job with his team. … They compete and they play hard and that’s what you want when you try to come in and take over a program,” Keatts said. “I remember my first year, my first message to those guys were, ‘Hey, obviously you are going to get a new system, you are going to have a new coach. New strategies, new defense, but if you will compete and play hard, I’ll be happy.’
“We were fortunate enough to have a really good year that year. His guys are competing. They play hard. They are actually a really good basketball team because … usually in your first year it’s tough to get road wins, and they got one at Clemson and done a good job. They had a chance to almost sweep a very good Notre Dame team.”
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