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ACC basketball midseason progress reports: N.C. State impresses with an almost entirely new cast (Syracuse.com)
N.C. State made the NCAA tournament a season ago with a veteran rotation, but there was no denying it was a sobering year for the Wolfpack. It was the rare occasion when they entered the season on the same plane as Duke and North Carolina, and it squandered that opportunity for a variety of reasons.
Nonetheless, the mass exodus from graduation (Richard Howell and Scott Wood), early entry to the NBA Draft (Lorenzo Brown and C.J. Leslie) and via transfer (Rodney Purvis) meant expectations plummeted for this season and rebuilding was a distinct possibility.
But a funny thing’s happened after an uneven couple weeks to open the season: N.C. State’s pretty good. Not great, and certainly not with the upside last year’s bunch possessed. But the Wolfpack has acquitted itself well and even shown an inclination to play defense, which was almost never in the script a season ago.
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Biggest disappointment: Poor foul shooting. The Wolfpack is making a meager 64.2 percent of its foul shots, and that could be a hazard for a team that looks like it will operate from the middle third of the conference. Take out freshman Lennard Freeman and N.C. State is at a more respectable 69.1 percent. Freeman is 8-for-30 at the line, which means he’ll be watching from the bench a lot when the Wolfpack nurses a small lead in the final five minutes of games.
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