NC State ‘needs’ role players to continue to play well down the stretch

After NC State allowed Syracuse to score 55 points in the first half  — and eventually lost 87-83 Tuesday night even though graduate guard DJ Horne dropped a season-best 32 points — Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts and his staff talked with the team.

There were two things on the agenda: NC State needed to play better defensively and a couple other guards needed to step up to help take the scoring load off Horne. He averaged 27.5 points a contest over a six-game stretch, but the other players around him struggled to find a consistent scoring touch too. 

Keatts and company knew that needed to change with a challenging slate ahead. And, well, it did in the 81-70 win over Boston College on Saturday afternoon. 

“We felt like DJ Horne was shouldering a lot of responsibilities and other guys weren’t stepping up, especially on the perimeter,” Keatts said during the weekly ACC Zoom call Monday morning. “The thing that was really good against Boston College was we made sure we did a good job defensively, taking guys away, making it tough. … I think our guys came out with a defensive mindset and did a great job with that.”

NC State used its improved defensive effort to stifle Boston College’s two best players: forward Quinten Post and Devin McGlockton. The Pack held Post to just six points on 1-of-6 shooting, while McGlockton was limited to only 1 point on 0-of-6 shooting from the floor. 

That allowed the Wolfpack to bounce back and earn a much-needed win over the Eagles, which set up a four-game season down the stretch for the red and white. NC State, which sits 77th in the NET rankings, has a chance to improve its NCAA Tournament at-large resume over the final two weeks of the season. 

NC State has three Quad-1 opportunities down the stretch — at No. 9 North Carolina, vs. No. 10 Duke and at Pittsburgh — but it first has to handle Florida State on the road Tuesday night. 

The Wolfpack is no stranger to taking care of business on the road in conference play. It is just one of five teams in the ACC that has a record above .500 away from its home venue — North Carolina, Duke, Clemson and Pitt also hold that title. 

But what has led to the success outside of Raleigh? Keatts thought it has been the Wolfpack’s defensive focus.

“I just think we’ve got some guys that have been completely locked in,” Keatts said. “If you’re fortunate enough to get a road win in this league, they’re golden. I think one of the things we’ve been able to do is focus on the road. That’s a hard thing to do to get guys locked in. The one thing that will help you to win road games, and I think it’s helped us, is some of them have been some of our best defensive games.”

With that in mind, NC State was able to get back on the right track defensively against Boston College before it makes the trip south to Tallahassee for the Tuesday night clash with the Seminoles. 

While NC State’s defense may cause issues for Florida State, Seminoles coach Leanord Hamilton thought the Wolfpack’s duo of graduate forward DJ Burns and Horne caused problems for teams. 

The 75-year-old coach said those two “great players” force teams to dedicate a lot of their time to the duo, which could allow for NC State’s role players to hurt teams on the floor. 

That might be what Keatts wants to hear. He wants to build off the Boston College game, where he had multiple guards find success scoring the basketball. Graduate guard Casey Morsell went 5-for-9 from the field with 13 points, while junior guard Jayden Taylor had 15 points off the bench. 

NC State, which is 2-3 over its last five games, has not won when only Horne is scoring. Those two wins have come with another guard scoring at least 12 points for the red and white. The Wolfpack has been able to find that, as of late, and if it wants to close the season with a head-turning finish, it will need that on a consistent basis. 

“We’re going to need those guys to play well down the stretch,” Keatts said. “Horne had been Superman for us for six games, and we needed somebody to step up and play well with him. I thought those guys really responded.”