Spooky Potentials

This episode goes into three topics with three different stakes - How the football program can recover in their bye week, what our basketball program may look like after a complete refresh, and our women's soccer last two weeks as they try to focus on getting a strong end and maybe an NCAA run.

In The Den is a podcast produced by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2, student-run radio from NC State University. Like what you hear? Consider supporting it with a gift to the WKNC Enhancement Fund. Visit our podcast page to hear more and follow us on all social media platforms @WKNC881. Thanks for listening.

★ Support this podcast ★

Creators and Guests

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.

SpookyPotentials.mp3
Meeting created at: 13th Oct, 2026 - 3:36 PM

00:00
Logan Brumley
Hello and welcome to WKNC's official sports podcast. In the Den. We got ourselves three big topics today. We're going to be talking about the last weekend's Wake Forest football game ,heading. to their bye week. We'll talk about the home finale for this women's soccer team against Syracuse and the stakes involved in that. And we're going to talk about the upcoming men's basketball season as exhibitions are beginning to kick off. So, get your headphones on and let's get straight to it. Well, so remember last week when I said that NC State season seems salvageable. There's a little bit more hesitation to that now. You know, fun fact at the beginning of the season Dave Dorean mentioned it was gonna be it wasn't gonna be an if, but a when.

00:56
Logan Brumley
NC State would win 10 games. And the last time they've won 10 games was in 2002 way before Dorean showed up -that possibility is now out of the question. Now they've got there I mean it's possible, but they've gotten their third loss of the season, and it was something like very insane. I know Wake Forest had slight odds with Vegas, but wolfpack have been 101 in the last two years with home games. Home crowds are always electric and against an in-state rival that shouldn't be too different. But you've seen the score. After coming out with a 14-10 lead early in the second quarter they went to not score another point and lost 38:14 for the now newest one of seasons had. I mean you could probably argue the Vanderbilt loss was pretty low. You could argue the Virginia blowout was pretty low.

01:57
Logan Brumley
But it just keeps getting worse and worse. Some of the good if I had to say that we had good for 14 points of overall offense would be that CJ Bailey is still not terrible. Let's see he's now 6 all time in quarterback passing yards after getting 241 yards in this game. The receiving core feels pretty fleshed out. Douglas Preston has that tight end spot locked. Kenan Jackson still leading wide receiver and with Jojo Trader out, Chance Robinson became a pretty solid number two option in this game. Would that be the future? Maybe. But you know Preston Jackson Trader, there's a solid receiver core here. And then the last good I said was that Davion Gause, he's pretty good at receiving the ball as the running back but the running game has been terrible.

03:03
Logan Brumley
With Duke Scott gone the offensive line hasn't really been given him much to do. I mean there's talent just no execution. I think McCoy and I think it was like a net, like 25 rushing yards against them in this game. Let me double check. But regardless, it was just an abysmal rushing game. It was time and Duke Scott was supposed to be a pretty good running back but the running game on this team is just a non factor. 15 Net rushing yards and were supposed to be like a top tier rushing offense. The offensive line, they gave up three sacks. Bailey keeps having pressure on him that just kind of, I mean he started with I believe 16 completions and since then it's like 12/23. He went like 50% on passing for the rest of the game. Will Wilson, of course he gets himself.

04:07
Logan Brumley
He's still pretty good, but he didn't really run the defense lifeless. Their two receivers, Hernandez and Foley for Wake Forest got two touchdowns and 273 yards between them. It's to the point where if an opposing team has more than one good receiver, we are just in big trouble. The rushing defense is okay. They were able to make some big stops but. But I mean still two rushing touchdowns given up by Gio Lopez and Deuce Lawrence on 114 total yards. It's not great. I have offensive MVP for the game being Keenan Jackson with his 61 yards. Defensive MVP I would probably give it to, probably would go to Popo Gire since he is still the Whedon tackler in the ACC and maybe he could build himself a NFL roster resume with that we could see. I'm not sure though.

05:15
Logan Brumley
I'm not too strongly confident in saying that, but possibility. I'm hoping that this bye week they will address locker room intensity and especially with the defense, just try to get some life in this defense. Maybe they could turn out something, get the offensive line to better. Outside of Teague Anderson, there's worries that Dorean's starting to lose the locker room. I've heard a little bit of murmur about that, but you know he's on the hot seat. I don't know if coach's hot seat does have him ranked high or not, but he's definitely got to be up there. I don't think he's done enough to save this season for him and he just needs to put more and more effort on.

05:58
Logan Brumley
However, I mean with Scott and Trader them potentially coming back, heading to face off against 2 and 4 Stanford, they could probably pull something out. I mean if I look at the rest of their schedule, I know I've done this before, but let's see. They could be callahome. I think That's a possibility. They could be 5 and 3 by week 10. Wait, yeah. Or yeah, 5 and 3 by week 10 and then they'll lose to Duke at home 5 and 4. They should beat Syracuse at home 6 and 4. But I think they lose against Florida State and UNC, they're going to go 6 and 6. I might get them fired and they're probably going to get a bowl game against a pretty good mid major conference, maybe a Big 12 team.

06:51
Logan Brumley
It's just like, I mean, we've seen this script, we've seen this film, we don't really like it. I mean, I don't know, I just hope that something happens in this week that can kind of get some life back in this program. But you know, we have jobs on the line now for it and we have guys who are definitely fringe transfer players if we don't get something together. Moving on to the next segment. I don't really have a great transition. Women's soccer, they're going to be having their home finale against Syracuse coming off of another loss, this time in pink. They hosted Pitt but lost one to nothing. Women's soccer team struggled to get some offense going, only getting four shots on goals the entire game, like on 10 shots.

07:46
Logan Brumley
It was a career game for Martin-Esteban as she notched six saves but gave up a goal in the 67 minute against Desiree Reed. The defense didn't give her any help with of course, seven shots and goal given up. I think slightly more shots overall than NC State did. So I mean, we have a lot of veteran defenders, but we don't have like a lot of like productivity on the defense, which is frustrating. But we have good goalies and really great goalie depth. So I mean, we should be, if we had offense generated, maybe we could have gotten something. Erica Roberts was the only like offensive person that really showed up. I mean, she got two of the four shots on goals.

08:34
Logan Brumley
I mean, if we want to give out wins, you know, they gave up no yellow red cards, only five fouls to pit six, and they usually give up more fouls. So that's a bright spot. Their strong start has essentially been stifled. They sit at nine points in the conference record, which is about 12. And usually your top six teams in women's soccer make the tournament. And if you don't make the tournament, your chances of like making the NCAA tournament are not that great. Unless if you have a really good track record.

09:13
Logan Brumley
I mean, I will say about nine ACC teams made it to the NCAA tournament last year so there's a chance that NC State could be a shoe in but I think they would need a really strong finish to the season and I mean they got to have a hot streak and they have a tough out of conference or away schedule to finish the season. They have to go on the road for Duke and I believe it was Stanford which are just two ridiculous powerhouses. Thankfully they do have pound Syracuse at home which are not really efficient teams and Syracuse is going to be there senior night opponent. This could be a chance for them to get a hot streak or at least go 2 and 2 but have a strong enough showing that they can maybe make the tournament. We'll have to see.

10:17
Logan Brumley
Syracuse comes in with a 1-5 record which is second worst in the conference behind Southern methods. Their only conference win was against Pitt but their last win before that was all the way in August when the season was opening up. One thing Syracuse has going for them is a worthy battle tested goalie Maya Naimoli who leads the ACC in saves with 58 and the second in save percentage at 79.4. Despite that they've given up about 1.23 goals a game which is tied for the most in conference. So I'm hoping that means a guaranteed goal for NC State and hopefully it's just gonna we're gonna have more of an opportunity to just you know, rejuvenate it with a really bad defense.

11:06
Logan Brumley
And Syracuse and Cal are the only teams in ACC that average less than a goal per game only getting about 10 in 13 games so no offense either. I think Esteban is going to have a really good time dealing with these two and I want to say these are two easy wins but I just don't know if it's easy. I just think it's going to be like strong showings from those are going to be really good for resume building. They do have do pretty good offensive like midfielders Abby Incorvia has three goals and three assists and Vicky Jones has three goals as well. However they do get only a few shots up getting about 5050 on shots and goals produced.

11:54
Logan Brumley
I mean there is a good offense and room for failure for NC State if they aren't careful but as long as NC State's offense shows life and as Martin-Esteban continues productivity I believe they'll be fine. I believe they can win this game and I believe that the race for a chance in the ACC not the ACC tournament I don't think they're going to get in but maybe have a chance to get into the NCAA Tournament again. Those Stanford, I mean Syracuse Cal wins, Stanford, Duke, maybe a tie, maybe some close win losses. Just something needs to happen in these next four games for the committee to be able to look at NC State and say, hey, you deserve to be there over an SEC team, over a Big Ten team.

12:41
Logan Brumley
This is going to be like the hardest stretch of this season and it's going to be really hard for this team to be able to get a spot if they are lacking as they have been in the past few weeks. I just don't know where we are and I don't know what are we doing. Jade Bordelo, she needs to come back to life offensively. The defense needs to help Esteban more. I kind of lost my rant there. I will say it was it is going to be a seniors night so I'll shout out all of the seniors. For the women's soccer squad, we have Ellie Breach, Alex Moore on defense, Carly Montgomery defense, Mackenzie Smith on defense, Rosalia Liu on defense and Yuna Aoki on defense.

13:33
Logan Brumley
Some of the offensive players who are going to be going Jade Bordeleau, Sophie Hernandez, Erica Roberts and Mary Francis-Symmes. So best of luck to all these players with their future career endeavors and have a good game this Thursday. All right, I'm going to finish up with my basketball preview again, no good transitions. Our men's basketball program will beginning their preseason around this weekend. I figured this would be the best opportunity to leave an open segment to go deep into this upcoming season, especially as our fall sports are starting to wind down. In case you don't remember, Will Wade fled for NC State to coach at lsu, a team that only has four players on a roster.

14:28
Logan Brumley
Rumors said that he had one foot out the door since January, which soiled a pretty good season for a program that could have been the sixth seed but fell to the 11th. Got demolished by Texas, if I'm remembering correctly. And that was it. They died with a whimper. And the best way for NC State to move ahead was to look into the past. Justin Gainey is a former men's basketball team captain. He's been with NC State for four years with the squad. They made the NIT tournament a few times, conference tournaments a few times. He has been a very important cog to the early 2000s of men's basketball. I believe it's early 2000s - correction, 1996 to 2000. His pro career in France was in the early 2000s. Where was I going?

15:28
Logan Brumley
He also had some experience with being an assistant coach to a lot of notable head coaches. Herb Sendak over in Santa Clara and most recently spent in a about five years as the assistant and associate head coach for Rick Barnes at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. In his six years at Tennessee helped guide him to conference championship, five NCAA appearances, including three consecutive Elite Eight and two Sweet 16 appearances and 11 players drafted into NBA. And that's not included in his time at Arizona where he had I think like two or three extra players who got drafted when their coach was where's their coach at this time? With former Arizona coach and current Texas head coach ironically Sean Miller, I think. Yeah. So I mean this home has always been with the Wolfpack. He's mentioned it before.

16:42
Logan Brumley
This match feels like it was made in heaven essentially. He comes in needing to fix a roster that bled out in the transfer portal. Only three players returning. Paul McNeil Jr., ZyMicah Wilkins who was a recruit last year and Ven-Allen Luin. who had some questions about eligibility but was ultimately granted and he'll be here. I heard some rumors that Darrion Williams also qualified, but he chose to go back to Texas Tech. I don't know why people have seen some stuff saying that he's back when he isn't, but with the ability to start from scratch, NC State was able to look at their inexperienced head coach and just pulled in like this.

17:26
Logan Brumley
I'm assuming this underdog kind of story and they were to get a top 50 recruitment class with about eight coming in transfers and two freshmen, most notably Kingston Witty who is from the area. It's one of KenPom's defensive darlings. The defense is going to be a high priority for this NC State squad. There's an emphasis on protecting the paint, forcing rebounds, at least in defensive rebounds. And with Finn Allen on the squad, he's been a really good rebounder and I expect him to have another great rebound in season under this system. We have a lot of guards coming in that project to be more physical and hopefully they can keep up against some bigger defenders.

18:11
Logan Brumley
If we have to cycle him through against wings or maybe even a Ford, this defense is going to be less reactionary as it has been in the past and it's going to be the we're going to have more defensive playmaking, we're going to have more defensive play going, more forcing opportunities for mistakes rather than forcing mistakes themselves. I mean I don't think anyone they've gotten in the transfer portal is like elite defensive prospects, but I do think they have a lot of defensive potential on this roster and some really good rebounding bigs. I'll mention them in a bit. On the offensive side, Gainey hired longtime assistant head coach Anthony Goins from Georgia. He had led Georgia top five NCAA offenses and several NCAA berths with Georgia, Clemson, Boston College. He's been around the block.

19:06
Logan Brumley
His coaching style involves tons of ball movement and perimeter shooting, making sure to stay high pace. I think this was like about 15 seconds per offensive possession in order to overwhelm opponents in adjustments. I'd love to see how the highly skilled offensive guards we collected will fit in. I mean we have a good handful that I think would be really good contributors. Adams Whitty, Preston Edmond, Christian Hammond, Robert Jerkovich, who is a big who I think was projected for being a really good shooter. Paul McNeil Jr. Coming back, really good offensive shooter. There's a lot of these players do have concern in shooting splits, but maybe with the film if one of the better offensive minds in the games they could jump start that success. Am I concerned about Goings becoming a head coach? Honestly? Maybe, but we'll see. We'll see.

20:02
Logan Brumley
I do have my projected depth chart which is kind of inspired. Off of CBS and some other sources I've seen point guard most likely be Preston Edmead, a sophomore transfer from Hofstra. Shooting guard likely Christian Hammond a senior transfer from Santa Clara. Paul McNeil Jr. Returning Fen Allen Wubin return, both of those taken forwards and Kyle hall transfer from I meant Kyle Evans from UC Irvine with Darius Adams, Robert Jerkovich, RJ Keane as the bench rotation. Coming in who could be really good. How's your schedule look? What are their opportunities? 3 Out of their 12 out of conference opponents made the NCAA tournament last year. They're going to be part of Baha Mahr tournament where they could play Wisconsin. If they beat Murray State, they're going to host Troy, who made the tournament as conference champion.

21:03
Logan Brumley
I believe their ACC SEC challenge is South Carolina. They had the bad boy Moyers against Tennessee, which I think would be fun to see. I mean I don't know if they're going to win all of these games, but there's a good chance that they could go 500 or above in their out of conference schedule. In conference, six of them made the NCAA tournament. They're going to start off pretty easy to have some wider players, but they have three consecutive games to finish the season against Louisville, Virginia and Duke. They have home away series versus UNC and Cal, but they face everyone else in the conference at least once, which I think is normal I don't know why HomeAway Cal but home away UNC makes sense and I think UNC supposed to be in the out of conference schedule in part.

21:51
Logan Brumley
That's going to be an exciting game. Matt Abel is a traitor. Early bracketology show them getting a 12 seed and being 8th in the ACC which I think is a believable stand in seed. I think their ceiling is that maybe they could be a top six team if everything clicks right away but their floor is that I could see them making it an nit run. I could. They could be worse than the conference maybe. But there's a lot of talented players that if everything clicks and everything connects early on we're going to have a really good season with this roster. But of course make sure to come by and check out the NC State men's basketball squad. But that's all I have for this episode. Hope you have a good day and go pack.

Transcribed by https://fireflies.ai/