NC State basketball opponent scouting report: Miami

NC State basketball will jump into full-time ACC action Wednesday evening with a road contest at Miami. The game is a 9 p.m. tipoff on ESPNU.

The Wolfpack is 7-5 for the season after dropping a surprising home loss to Wright State prior to the Christmas break. It is also 0-1 in the ACC.

Here is a rundown of what to expect from Miami.

Miami Overview

Whereas December has not been kind to NC State basketball on the court, the month has been good for Miami.

The Hurricanes were 4-3 during the opening weeks of the season, but after the calendar turned to December, Miami has reeled off five straight wins. That included an 80-75 triumph over Clemson on Dec. 4 in the ACC opener for both teams.

Miami also had a road win at Penn State to begin the month.

That leaves long-time head coach Jim Larranaga’s squad at 9-3 overall and 1-0 in the league. Larranaga needs 21 more wins to reach 700 for his career. This is his 38th season as a head coach.

The 72-year old could use a good campaign. Since going to three straight NCAA Tournaments from 2018-19, Miami had endured three consecutive losing seasons with at least 13 ACC losses in each of those years.

Larranaga had just five losing seasons in his career prior to 2019. His previous stops included long tenures at Bowling Green and George Mason, the latter where he took the team to the Final Four in 2006.

Last season reached a low point of Larranaga’s tenure in Coral Gables, with a 10-17 overall mark and a 4-15 record in the league.

Expectations were not necessarily high entering the season. The Hurricanes were picked to finish 12th in the ACC, but thus far have had the type of start to exceed that.

Rankings

NET: Miami is ranked No. 111 (out of 358 teams). NC State basketball is No. 171.

ESPN’s BPI: The Hurricanes check in at No. 94. The Wolfpack is No. 116.

KenPom.com: Miami is No. 99. The Pack is No. 113.

Three Miami Players To Watch Against NC State Basketball

Sixth-year senior guard Kameron McGusty: McGusty’s decision to return to Miami for a Super Senior year was a boost for the Hurricanes, and he is playing potentially the best basketball of his productive career.

McGusty spent two seasons at Oklahoma before transferring to Miami. He averaged 12.5 points per game in his debut season for the Canes and then 13.3 last year.

McGusty has been on a scoring binge this year with all but one game in double digits, including five games with at least 20 points. He set a career high with 29 against Lipscomb and overall is contributing 18.4 points a contest.

In four opportunities in his career to play NC State basketball, McGusty has just two points. He missed three of those contests and was held to just the two points in Raleigh in 2020.

Sixth-year senior guard Charlie Moore: This is team No. 4 for Moore.

He played his rookie year at Cal, where he averaged 12.2 points per contest. Then followed a transfer to Kansas, where he had a disappointing season after redshirting, averaging 2.9 points a game and shooting just 28.6 percent from the field.

After that, Moore transferred to DePaul. He averaged 15.5 points and 5.6 assists as a redshirt junior and last season contributed 14.4 points and 4.2 assists.

Now a Super Senior and at Miami, Moore is the Canes’ point guard and averaging 10.8 points and 3.4 assists. He is a volume shooter, averaging nearly 10 field goal attempts per game in his career.

Sophomore guard Isaiah Wong: Wong was a preseason first-team All-ACC choice after breaking out last season with an average of 17.1 points per game, one of the few bright spots in a tough year for the Hurricanes.

Wong considered his options after the season, but he elected to return for a third year with Miami.

He has more help this season and has also labored a little in his shooting, which has led to a minor decrease in his scoring output at 15.6 points a game. Wong is shooting just 27.5 percent on threes after making a combined 35.4 percent his first two years.

Wong, though, has scored in double figures in all but one games this season, and he lit up the Wolfpack for 24 points in a Miami win in Raleigh a year ago.

Three Things NC State Basketball Should Expect From Miami

1. An older team: Among the eight players who average double-digit minutes per game, three are sixth-year players and a fourth is in his fourth year of college basketball (junior forward Jordan Miller).

Wong and forward Anthony Walker are both third-year players. The only exceptions in the rotation is true freshman guard Wooga Poplar, who was selected to the preseason ACC All-Freshman Team, and his classmate and guard Bensley Joseph.

2. A perimeter-oriented team: Miami’s likely starting lineup will feature four players listed on the roster as guards and sixth-year big man Sam Waardenburg, who has attempted nearly as many three-pointers (26) as twos (35).

Miami does not live or die by the three. It has attempted 244 from beyond the arc and shoots just 32.8 percent on long range shots, but the ball will likely be handled on the perimeter offensively.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Miami averages less than 10 turnovers per game and is a strong free-throw shooting squad at 75.2 percent, which his 51st best in the country.

Of teams that have played at least 12 games this year, Miami has the fifth fewest amount of turnovers.

3. A team that does not have a strong interior presence: This does not mean that NC State should expect to win the rebounding margin or reverse its struggles against teams in the paint.

However, Miami on average is outrebounded by 3.2 boards per game, and in its three games against Power Five competition were outscored in the paint all three times.

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