NC State Basketball: 3 keys for the ACC opener vs. Miami

On Thursday the NC State Basketball travels to Miami to face the Hurricanes in their conference opener. What does the Wolfpack need to do to get a road win? Here are 3 keys to victory.

The Miami Hurricanes welcome the No. 18 NC State Basketball to the Watsco Center on Thursday night for the ACC opener for both clubs.

Kevin Keatts’ Wolfpack have a gaudy 12-1 record but the reason they aren’t ranked higher than they are is that they have played one of the easiest schedules in the sport. Their only loss was to Wisconsin by four points and until their 68-61 win over No. 7 Auburn on Dec. 19, their best win was against a Vanderbilt team that had lost one of its key players in freshman Darius Garland.

This isn’t to say N.C. State isn’t a good team, they are, it’s just that we won’t know how good they are until league play.

Senior guard Torin Dorn leads the team in scoring (15.1) and rebounding (6.5) and his backcourt mate Markell Johnson is the team’s leading assist man, dishing out 4.2 per game while shooting 52.6% from the field and 41.4% from beyond the arc. N.C. State is currently a top-eight offense, a top-50 defense, as well as forcing 19.23 turnovers per game, but again, the question is, how much of this is a product of their schedule?

The 8-4 Hurricanes have seen nothing but streaks during their non-conference schedule, they began the year with five straight wins, but then followed that up with the four losses, to Seton Hall, Rutgers, Yale, and Penn, the first three of those by a total of nine points. Since then, Jim Larranaga’s squad has reeled off three straight wins.

This is the beginning of the real story of N.C. State’s 2018-19 season. Here are three keys for the Wolfpack to get off to a good start against Miami.