EASY WINS

Previewing NC State's Weekend basketball games and gymnastics vs heated rival UNC.

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Host

Logan Brumley

What is In The Den?

"In The Den" with host Logan Brumley covers everything from the NC State Wolfpack's NCAA, intramural and club sports. "In The Den" is a podcast from WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 at NC State University.

Logan Brumley: Hello and welcome to WKNC's official sports podcast in a den.
Logan Brumley: Today we're going to be taking a look at the prime weekend basketball matchups with the men facing Virginia Tech and a woman's facing Florida State.
Logan Brumley: And we'll finish up by going over the women's gymnastics meet against unc.
Logan Brumley: So get your headphones on and let's get straight to it.
Logan Brumley: We will start with the women's who will be playing Thursday night on the ACC Network at home against Florida State.
Logan Brumley: While they did have a strong performance against UNC overall, the fourth quarter comeback did not really happen for NC State because of a late Zamareya Jones , Khamil Pierre, she got herself another double.
Logan Brumley: Tilda Trygger had a really strong game with 11 points and let's see, seven rebounds, seven assists of course, let's see, Qadence Samuels had herself eight rebounds and coming off the bench, Destiny Lunan had herself points and two assists.
Logan Brumley: So strong game overall, but a really heartbreaking loss late in the game.
Logan Brumley: It'll be interesting to see how they can perform against Florida State coming up this Thursday.
Logan Brumley: Florida State, they aren't really having too great of a season.
Logan Brumley: They're coming off a blowout loss against Clemson.
Logan Brumley: They are 2-8 in the conference as of now with a 7-15 overall record.
Logan Brumley: So they are strongly sitting outside the ACC tournament, much less the NCAA tournament.
Logan Brumley: They're very strong shooting shot producing team ranking near the last end.
Logan Brumley: Team shooting splits though, but they do have a lot of playmakers that create shot opportunities.
Logan Brumley: So Sole Williams, Jasmine Shavers, Emma Risch, they're all above 1/3 3 point accuracy.
Logan Brumley: And on the inside they have Pania Davis and Avery Treadwell who are very solid rebounders.
Logan Brumley: They're able to keep up with the majority of their opponents.
Logan Brumley: They have a zero rebound differential which says that they are able to get the rebounds.
Logan Brumley: They are.
Logan Brumley: I think they're a little bit higher on the offense, defensive rebound and the offensive, let's see.
Logan Brumley: So big thing to know, they're 38-32,-75 and shooting the whole team.
Logan Brumley: Of course they have some strong shooters.
Logan Brumley: Pania Davis is a pretty good scorer on the inside.
Logan Brumley: She's really helped boost up the team's overall field goal accuracy.
Logan Brumley: Of course, I mean being a big traditional center really helps in that matter.
Logan Brumley: The team's also one of the lowest assist contributors.
Logan Brumley: They rely a lot on their spacing and playmaking.
Logan Brumley: So what I mean is basically just it's almost like most obsessions.
Logan Brumley: Just give it to one of them.
Logan Brumley: Let them try to Create the points rather than trying to do it as a team effort.
Logan Brumley: And it hasn't really worked for them too far.
Logan Brumley: They're in a lot of low scoring games because of that over reliance on playmaking shooting.
Logan Brumley: As long as Florida State doesn't get a hot hand, which is possible.
Logan Brumley: They did do that against Virginia, which put them into double overtime.
Logan Brumley: They would go on to, if I recall correctly, lose that game.
Logan Brumley: But NC State should be able to have the work cut out for them.
Logan Brumley: They have.
Logan Brumley: NC State just has the better defensive play and the better defensive centers to work with.
Logan Brumley: Of course, I think Trygger will definitely be able to put strong work in the, you know, in the paint against what's her name, the center Pania Davis.
Logan Brumley: And I think Khamil Pierre with her defensive rebound is going to really help to turn the tide for NC State and help them be a winner defensively.
Logan Brumley: There's really not much to note with this Florida State squad.
Logan Brumley: They're physical, they do all ball defense.
Logan Brumley: They are pretty disciplined for relying on all ball defense and man coverage.
Logan Brumley: However, they are one of the lowest when it comes to steals, defensive rebounds, and they have a really bad turnover takeaway ratio.
Logan Brumley: The only real notable defensive player they have on the roster is of course their center, Pania Davis when it comes to producing blocks.
Logan Brumley: But when you get a player who is an elite inside scorer like Khamil Pierre, that will definitely cause some trouble.
Logan Brumley: And on the outside defense, there's just.
Logan Brumley: I think it just takes a really skilled athletic player to be able to trip them up, force mistakes and get to scoring.
Logan Brumley: I think the big thing that this NC State women's program can watch out for, maybe Florida State could have the advantage if they try to draw out fouls.
Logan Brumley: NC State is a team that can get into foul trouble sometimes and I think that if Florida State kind of leans on that, they could potentially find their way into sneaking a win.
Logan Brumley: But I would not strongly.
Logan Brumley: We count on it.
Logan Brumley: I would say this is a very easy win for North Carolina State.
Logan Brumley: I think that it will strongly help them be able to build their resume.
Logan Brumley: Looking to see where they have if they've moved.
Logan Brumley: I think they're still listed at eighth.
Logan Brumley: NC State.
Logan Brumley: See or six.
Logan Brumley: Okay.
Logan Brumley: Yeah, they're dropped down to six.
Logan Brumley: This was just released earlier.
Logan Brumley: The women's bracketology for the [Florida] State's not even considered.
Logan Brumley: Hopefully with this win against Florida State, they can be able to finish out strong with their nearly impossible road trip.
Logan Brumley: Now that I'm looking at it, they got Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Duke, all on the road.
Logan Brumley: You know, best of Luck to the woman pack but this game should be a shoot in.
Logan Brumley: All right, coming up next, men's basketball Virginia Tech.
Logan Brumley: All right, so the bracketologies were just updated as of recording and NC State men's has not moved from number eight which is, you know that's not too bad if you look at what they've done.
Logan Brumley: They blew out Wake Forest and Syracuse so they're doing what they should.
Logan Brumley: They haven't really given a strong performance to justify being able to, you know, be higher than they need to.
Logan Brumley: However, they do have a very strong.
Logan Brumley: I apologize.
Logan Brumley: They have a very strong late season stretch that includes 1, 2, 3, 4 ranked teams and I think that they can get a couple of solid wins in that first quadrant.
Logan Brumley: They could potentially move up.
Logan Brumley: See they will be they would have played SMU by the time this is published not as of time of recording and they will be playing Virginia Tech.
Logan Brumley: Virginia Tech they are.
Logan Brumley: They are 16-7, 5-5 in a conference.
Logan Brumley: They are the official first team out after being an 11 seed last week in the Lunardi bracketology.
Logan Brumley: They are coming off a very abysmal like what three and three in their last six games and they're trying to build upon their resume to secure spot heading through the month of February and I think a win here and even a win next week against number 22 Clemson could help them push over that edge.
Logan Brumley: So Virginia Tech has argue the bigger thing to fight for with this game.
Logan Brumley: Virginia Tech has been dealing with injuries.
Logan Brumley: Only two of the players have played every game compared to NC State's five.
Logan Brumley: Of course all five starters see Amani Hansberry.
Logan Brumley: That is the name to watch on Virginia Tech's roster.
Logan Brumley: He is the lifeblood of this team leading the team in points, rebounds, blocks Neoklis Avdalas who's an early second round draft pick projection He's a really great ball distributor.
Logan Brumley: He's freshman the week several times.
Logan Brumley: He's not going to win freshman of the year of course it's going to Duke but he's definitely a very strong respectable runner up.
Logan Brumley: They play a similar style to NC State heavy the ball movement to matchings and transition ball.
Logan Brumley: I mean you can kind of see it with how much they try to distribute the ball.
Logan Brumley: At least four of their players have high assist rates and generally a pretty low turnover rate overall.
Logan Brumley: Unless if you consider look at their defense with their rebounding they are ranked near the bottom including NC State and total overall rebounding.
Logan Brumley: They have Amani Hansberry on the outside who helps but of course on the inside of the Center Gerdak, he is not producing a rebound like you'd expect from a college basketball center which is really not have been helpful for this team.
Logan Brumley: But you know like I said they're similar in the NC State territory.
Logan Brumley: I think that it will be interesting to see what Virginia Tech does trying to match up against like I expect Van Allen-Lubin on the inside to be able to really eat up the rebounds.
Logan Brumley: I mean Darrion Williams also gets some reps so I'm not particularly worried about what NC State can do when it comes to getting the ball back.
Logan Brumley: However, Virginia Tech can be efficient in Other Ways of Turnovers. Ben Hammond is second in the ACC when it comes to steals which for a very turnover heavy NC State squad could cause a problem if you know Quadir Copeland is not very careful with the ball in this game.
Logan Brumley: Usually you know you want to be very kind of wary in general but they have three players including the return in Tower Johnson who are all block contributors who I mean not block steal contributors who can take that ball away.
Logan Brumley: So make sure that I mean NC State has to play really smart that they're really kind of show that they can gel together in order to keep the momentum going.
Logan Brumley: Toby Lalo off The bench with 1.7 blocks could be a big very worrisome, you know inside scoring threat for this team, especially when you consider that all of their starters have at least half a block or more.
Logan Brumley: So you're definitely going to see at least like four or five blocks in this game.
Logan Brumley: And if Virginia Tech can't capitalize off of the solid score in front of team with CJ then shut hands Barry, it could spell trouble for NC State.
Logan Brumley: I do think that taking a look at Virginia Tech's offense, it's not elite.
Logan Brumley: Their three point shooting is questionable.
Logan Brumley: Outside of Ben Hammond and Jaden Shutt, they are one of the best shot makers within the perimeter, although their accuracy overall is iffy.
Logan Brumley: Of course Christian Gerdak in the paint as the center Imani Hansberry makes half his shots overall and has a 36% shooting accuracy so make sure to watch out for that.
Logan Brumley: And Ben Hammond is close to a 40-50-90 season so this might be something where it's almost going to be like a not necessarily a shoot off.
Logan Brumley: It could also become a steal off.
Logan Brumley: Of course you're looking at Copeland who is a steal producer Matt Abel While Virginia Tech is more efficient than NC State with second chance scoring opportunities, they is obviously a still in the negative interval when it comes to turnovers overall and a Lot of that does come from of course their biggest ball handlers Avdalas.
Logan Brumley: He's had a big problem with turnovers but produces enough assists.
Logan Brumley: That's like a two to one assist turnover ratio.
Logan Brumley: I mean if you look at Hansberry, he's pretty close.
Logan Brumley: I think Hammond is pretty close too.
Logan Brumley: So there's definitely an opportunity for NC State to sneak off with the win as well if they're able to capitalize on points off turnover.
Logan Brumley: But Virginia Tech does have the advantage in that matter.
Logan Brumley: So it's just about playing a good clean game for NC State.
Logan Brumley: I mean, I think seeing Cordier Copeland and Ben Hammond as a matchup will be a very interesting thing to see.
Logan Brumley: I think seeing Amani Hansberry and Allen-Lubin in the post could be something to look out for.
Logan Brumley: Virginia Tech's Tyler Johnson is returning.
Logan Brumley: He is one of the stealproducers.
Logan Brumley: He is a.
Logan Brumley: He's not really much of a scorer.
Logan Brumley: He only scores nine points per game, but is an effective defender that I think that Darion Williams would need to watch out for.
Logan Brumley: I think that would be the big matchups to look for in this game.
Logan Brumley: I think NC State should win on a much more competent, well put together team, but an upset would not be crazy surprising.
Logan Brumley: All right, so to finish off we're going to talk about gymnastics.
Logan Brumley: North Carolina State is ranked at number 22 with a 2-2 record.
Logan Brumley: They're coming off a weekend win against number 29 Pitt, but have had a loss against 20 Cal and a win against 14 Clemson.
Logan Brumley: This is their highest ranked opponent yet as UNC is currently ranked 12th in the country with strong performers in national and regional rankings.
Logan Brumley: One thing that UNC has at NC State does not is all around athletes.
Logan Brumley: Sydney Seabrooks is 20th all around and Gwen Fink is seventh all around.
Logan Brumley: But there are of course four different kind of like I guess matchups.
Logan Brumley: If you look at it, that could tip either way.
Logan Brumley: So we'll start with volt with a.988 average.
Logan Brumley: Kaya Forbes of the UNC is the top overall but Ashley Knight has a 9.925 average which could pose a strong threat.
Logan Brumley: UNC's JoJo Falhovic is also 14th in nation and could sweep out if NC State Sanaya hall and Maddie hall, they don't have those same last names.
Logan Brumley: Fudge, My apologies, I got it wrong in my notes it is Saniya Thomas and Matty hall who could.
Logan Brumley: If they have strong performances maybe NC State could come off with a win.
Logan Brumley: But I think Forbes and Valahovic being the best tandems when it comes to fault and the country could definitely put a thorn in NC State side.
Logan Brumley: If I had to tip the matchup either way I would probably go UNC.
Logan Brumley: Overall they are ninth in the nation when it comes to the vaults compared to NC State's 23rd.
Logan Brumley: NC State's also 23rd in bars with UNC at 21.
Logan Brumley: So this is a closer matchup that I think NC State could take the advantage of.
Logan Brumley: UNC's Ann Pearley Stanley has a 9.8 and of course Gwen Fink she's pretty strong in the bar.
Logan Brumley: She could be a factor.
Logan Brumley: Ellie Hadrick and Madeline Reed both at 9.85 should carry the advantage over UNC while Ava Myers and Claire Stipich are also kind of like the runner ups when it comes to bars at 9.6769 but AVA has the higher high at around 9.9 if I remember correctly.
Logan Brumley: So I think that UNC should be able to lose to NT State just because Hadrick, Reed and Myers all are pretty strong bar performers.
Logan Brumley: And unless if Fink and Steve Brooks come around to a strong performance there, NC State should be able to slip by bars.
Logan Brumley: I wouldn't say the same.
Logan Brumley: NC State's 28th compared to UNC 16th.
Logan Brumley: JoJo Valahovic leads by a wide margin compared to most others.
Logan Brumley: Sanaya Thomas could be a factor.
Logan Brumley: She has a 9.85 high which is like 0.006 below JoJo Valahovic's average.
Logan Brumley: Addison Tackett also does have a pretty high around the same as Syaniya Thomas, but JoJo kind of leads by a such a large margin.
Logan Brumley: That's kind of like all right, we'll let it go and on the floor that's another one that could be a close matchup.
Logan Brumley: Nancy State's 17th compared to UNC's 11th.
Logan Brumley: Syanya Thomas and Ellie Hadrick both at 9.8 around like 6 to 8 could dominate.
Logan Brumley: Sydney Seabrooks is nearly perfect at 9.95.
Logan Brumley: Her and Kaia Forbes could supplement enough to give him the edge.
Logan Brumley: I'm hoping not, but that's kind of what I see just looking off of the rankings, histories and scores.
Logan Brumley: Ultimately definitely make sure to watch it.
Logan Brumley: I think they're in Reynolds this weekend so if you can go support them and hope for the best, I think there's definitely a possibility, especially if the bars and the floor tip NC State's way that they could win.
Logan Brumley: But I would unfortunately not count on it.
Logan Brumley: Kind of a sad note to finish the episode on.
Logan Brumley: But that's all I have for today.
Logan Brumley: I'll let you go now.
Logan Brumley: Have a good day and go pack.