NC State Basketball: 3 players that helped lead to a 7-1 record in January

Ernest Ross

The emergence of Ernest Ross in the month of January was a pleasant surprise for this Wolfpack team. NC State has been desperate all year for some scoring from their bench and over the back half of the month Ross has taken his game to a different level.

It all started with what many Wolfpack fans have now coined “The Ernest Ross Game” which was their 83-81 OT victory against Miami. Ross had his coming out party in this game where he finished with a career-high 17 points, and 9 rebounds, with 6 of those rebounds coming on the offensive end. Ross ended up scoring the game-winner on an offensive put-back with 30 seconds left.

Over his last five games, Ross has averaged 8.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in 16.8 minutes per game. This is a major jump from the 2.2 points, and 1.7 rebounds in only 9.2 minutes per game in the first 17 games of the season.

A big part of what could’ve been holding Ross back early in the season was his confidence. Ross suffered a broken foot last year that ended his season in January. Coming back from a major injury requiring surgery takes time, and someone like Ross with tons of explosiveness has to get over the mental hurdle of the injury and trust his foot again. You can now see signs that he is fully healthy, and his production on the court has gone to another level when the Wolfpack needed it the most.