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This episode goes into the big success for this week, such as NC States upset win over G-Tech, the Womens basketball opener and the debut of NCSU in the ACC 2025 tournament. 

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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.

Logan Brumley: Hello and welcome to WKNC official sports podcast in the Den.

Logan Brumley: Today we're going to be going over the ACC Soccer tournament for the men's that is going to be starting tonight.

Logan Brumley: We're going to be going over the Miami football upcoming game and Georgia Tech's season saving upset against Georgia Tech and we'll finish up by looking over last night's women's basketball win against Tennessee and what they have coming up next.

Logan Brumley: So get your headphones on.

Logan Brumley: Let's get straight to it.

Logan Brumley: So we're going to start with the men's soccer Wednesday evening is going to be NC State's first postseason game playing against 14 seed Louisville.

Logan Brumley: NC State finished third in conference standings behind Virginia and Stanford.

Logan Brumley: NC State managed to exceed way beyond their expectations having been expected to be eighth in the conference stand ins according to the media votes, preseason media votes and rankings.

Logan Brumley: This is likely due to the stellar offensive performance of Donovan Phillips with his 15 goals in 15 games making him one of the nation's best shot producers and a likely Major League Soccer player.

Logan Brumley: I mean just last year he was drafted to the Colorado Rapids, but he opted to stay, which is a smart move as he could find his way into being a top 10 pick.

Logan Brumley: Some other notable contributors were conference assist leaders Taig Healy and Riley Maloney, our goalie Logan Erb and the defensive front led by Markovich and McClain.

Logan Brumley: That has made the workload easy for Erb.

Logan Brumley: So this is a very strong team and this is one of NC State's best opportunities for a national championship yet.

Logan Brumley: But of course all you can do in the postseason is just face who you have directly in front of you.

Logan Brumley: And for NC State, that is Louisville.

Logan Brumley: Louisville is not a team we faced off against yet, but as the 14th best in the 16 team conference the worry is minimal.

Logan Brumley: We just haven't faced them yet.

Logan Brumley: So it is going to be a sort of a new look.

Logan Brumley: Louisville does have upset potential since they have a 1-1-2 record against teams that were ranked well facing them.

Logan Brumley: I think their win was against Duke.

Logan Brumley: I don't have that in front of me on who they were able to beat, but I do believe it was Duke.

Logan Brumley: Most of the wins have come from solid performances by their preseason all ACC goalie Alex Stefankopf.

Logan Brumley: He's had seven shutout games including two ties, but he averages one goal given up per game and has a 76 save percentage which is about top five in the conference.

Logan Brumley: But it's nothing as exceptional as the conference was expecting from him.

Logan Brumley: With that being said, the offense for Louisville is the weakest part of this team overall.

Logan Brumley: Most of their wins have come from 1-0 and they have three games where they scored more than one goal.

Logan Brumley: However, two of them are kind of like your season openers against like low level division one, high level Division two teams.

Logan Brumley: So I mean you can't really count those.

Logan Brumley: They have a score margin of 0.2 which is 1.2 goals per game compared to one goal given up compared to NC State's 2.06 which is like 23 times the amount.

Logan Brumley: The only players on the team with three goals, two assists and a greater than 1/3 shot in goal percentage are Michael Lee and Chase Vasquez.

Logan Brumley: Most of the offense is kind of scurried between, you know, their midfielders and four to really have too many dominant stats but are able to produce at least once or twice during this season.

Logan Brumley: This should be an easy game for NC State as long as they can get the offense back to churning and get back to the highest of their highest this season in like early mid October.

Logan Brumley: Coming off a one one tie against Syracuse on Halloween does kind of hurt the confidence of what this team can do because I mean, you know how it is with these teams.

Logan Brumley: It doesn't matter what you do for the first - like in the NBA, it doesn't really matter what you do in those 82 games.

Logan Brumley: It really just matters what you do for each series.

Logan Brumley: And I think that it's going to rely on can Philip show up because in that last game Taig Healy and Drew Lovelace were able to get shots produced.

Logan Brumley: But it seems like whenever Phillips goes quiet, so does the rest of the team and hopefully that is not a formula that can be exploited.

Logan Brumley: That's something that NC State will have to prove throughout this ACC tournament that yes, Phillips is awesome, he's super dominant, but can they win offensively without him?

Logan Brumley: Defensively I feel like the warriors for NC State is very minimal.

Logan Brumley: It's just can the offense step up and create a gap rather than having to try to keep the opposing offenses down, if that makes sense.

Logan Brumley: Can they be dominant both sides of the ball consistently?

Logan Brumley: So it's just time to stop coasting and get ready to give the opponents some trouble.

Logan Brumley: NC State, I think even if they lose this game they are very likely to make the NCAA tournament, but a loss in the opening round would really hurt the season because they could probably sneak their way into having home field advantage for a good chunk of the postseason.

Logan Brumley: I do not know how the seedings work for to postseason.

Logan Brumley: That's something I probably should have researched beforehand.

Logan Brumley: But just as long as they don't disappoint, they could have a top national seed and be able to even host I think a regional.

Logan Brumley: If they win tonight at 6pm that's kickoff.

Logan Brumley: They'll play the winner of Syracuse/Virginia Tech.

Logan Brumley: They just tied Syracuse but have not played Virginia Tech this season.

Logan Brumley: So I guess that's kind of a brief overview.

Logan Brumley: Do I think that they can win out?

Logan Brumley: They should be able to win out.

Logan Brumley: I mean I can't imagine a reality where they would lose.

Logan Brumley: See, UNC is hosting a tournament that's close enough to home advantage.

Logan Brumley: Okay.

Logan Brumley: So it's looking like they'll.

Logan Brumley: They'll beat Louisville.

Logan Brumley: They'll probably be Virginia Tech/Syracuse.

Logan Brumley: I guess it's just a matter of can they beat Virginia or Stanford.

Logan Brumley: And that is where the question marks occur.

Logan Brumley: Do I think they'll be able to maybe not Virginia.

Logan Brumley: I think they can make the final.

Logan Brumley: Whether or not they win is kind of questionable, but I will make sure to stay updated with each game.

Logan Brumley: The final is on Sunday, November 16th.

Logan Brumley: I think selection day is either that same day or a couple days afterwards.

Logan Brumley: And we will just have to go from there.

Logan Brumley: All right, so that's.

Logan Brumley: That concludes our first segment.

Logan Brumley: I will be going into the football game up next.

Logan Brumley: Look at that.

Logan Brumley: I'm telling you NC State just saved their football season.

Logan Brumley: One more win until bowl eligibility.

Logan Brumley: And even though I do not believe that they are ranked and they probably will not this season just because they have some questionable performances, some questionable games, I think that, I mean NC State could probably play spoiler.

Logan Brumley: I think the ACC is kind of facing a larger issue where it is starting to get itself into the category of where the PAC12 was that last few years where it's like it's just kind of whoever's the top dog kind of gets beaten by.

Logan Brumley: It's always going to be like a next man up until the postseason.

Logan Brumley: In which case that postseason contender is going to be so week that it kills the legitimate of the conference.

Logan Brumley: I think that would be something I'll probably go into later this, you know, this winter once the football season kind of winds down.

Logan Brumley: But it was like first it was Clemson, then it was Miami, then it was Georgia Tech and now it's Virginia who is the highest ranked team in our conference.

Logan Brumley: I'm hope this is why Notre Dame should have came in when they had the chance.

Logan Brumley: I know they have the NBC tying and they will never let go of that but if Notre Dame did go into the acc, they would probably dominate every year and right now they're sent a tenth.

Logan Brumley: It would look better for the conference, but oh well, I digress.

Logan Brumley: We're going to be going to face off against a NCAA tournament hopeful in Carson.

Logan Brumley: Back in Miami Florida right now they're sitting at 18th which is the third highest ranked ACC team behind of course Georgia Tech at 17, Virginia 14.

Logan Brumley: And they are coming off a tough loss.

Logan Brumley: I will mention just real Quickly, just some MVPs.

Logan Brumley: C.J.

Logan Brumley: bailey had a great game with 340 yards, two touchdowns, 75% completion percentage.

Logan Brumley: Jaden Scott, he had 196 yard performance with I think two touchdowns on his own, which is really good.

Logan Brumley: I did not check the injury report.

Logan Brumley: I did not know the Hollywood Smothers was going to be out in a game and so was Justin Joly.

Logan Brumley: But the backups came in and produced really well.

Logan Brumley: Cody Hardy got himself a touchdown, two touchdowns actually.

Logan Brumley: And Jayden Scott also got himself two touchdowns.

Logan Brumley: So awesome.

Logan Brumley: That was really great just to kind of just destroy Georgia Tech's offensive production.

Logan Brumley: Forcing the pass.

Logan Brumley: They got an interception out of it for Caden Fordham while Georgia Tech was still able to get the yards they were able to.

Logan Brumley: They still gave up about 35, 36 points in that game, which is still not great.

Logan Brumley: It kind of sucks.

Logan Brumley: NC State does need to have a dominant offensive performance if they even want a chance at beaten another team.

Logan Brumley: But I mean a win, some win.

Logan Brumley: Beating the top 10 team is always really good.

Logan Brumley: Scoring 45 points in the top 10 team is really good.

Logan Brumley: I mean NC State consistently does have one of the top offenses when it actually wants to.

Logan Brumley: I'm happy with the win, happy with Kaden Fordham, happy with the offensive line, not really putting too much pressure, not really any fumbles given up.

Logan Brumley: It's just this was a great performance for NC State.

Logan Brumley: They executed every way they needed to.

Logan Brumley: Kanoa Finishette actually did well kicking.

Logan Brumley: So maybe we actually do have a kicker now and I mean can't really complain about a big wind.

Logan Brumley: Even though there are still holes you can poke at it.

Logan Brumley: The big question is whether Miami can poke through those holes.

Logan Brumley: They are coming off a two consecutive losses I believe to Louisville and SMU.

Logan Brumley: Both of them are kind of middle ground ACC teams that do get some top 25 looks.

Logan Brumley: Oh shoot.

Logan Brumley: Louisville.

Logan Brumley: I did not.

Logan Brumley: I completely forgot Louisville's there.

Logan Brumley: Yeah, they're 15th.

Logan Brumley: I guess that is a quality win.

Logan Brumley: And then SMU is getting some votes.

Logan Brumley: Okay, so Miami's fourth in the rankings that kind of feels like they are really pushing themselves out of the NCAA tournament.

Logan Brumley: But I mean a big win against NC State could probably help them try to at least jump Georgia Tech and try to get to where Louisville is right now.

Logan Brumley: See, Carson Beck's Heisman run is over.

Logan Brumley: I'll say that.

Logan Brumley: I mean, the past three weeks Carson Beck has thrown three touchdowns and six interceptions.

Logan Brumley: I mean, he's always struggled in Georgia when put under big pressure and somehow the ACC has been able to really highlight that well.

Logan Brumley: Even with a solid offensive line performance, Beck still makes crucial mistakes by forcing the ball downfield.

Logan Brumley: He's trying to get to the NFL.

Logan Brumley: Miami is just a springboard for the NFL now after he cheated on his girlfriend.

Logan Brumley: But I mean, it's funny, he's just, it's not working out for him.

Logan Brumley: He's the only quarterback I can think of recent memory who was a projected first round pick twice and then ended the season not even draftable.

Logan Brumley: I mean the first time was that last year with Georgia where he got injured in the SEC championship game and decided to come to Miami and now it's just because he sucks.

Logan Brumley: They do have some great receivers though that are really going to give our passing defense and run for their money with CJ Daniels and Malachi Toney with their projected, I think top 10 NFL draft pick this year on the offensive line.

Logan Brumley: Francis mauigoa this is the kind of game where Carson Beck can prove that he's not a terrible quarterback.

Logan Brumley: I think he will be able to play lights out.

Logan Brumley: I think that just having two great, I think they're both outside receivers would be really helpful with determining what they could do.

Logan Brumley: I think it's just there's a lot of ways you can exploit this passing defense and I'm using my train of thought here.

Logan Brumley: Beck is given every opportunity to succeed and it's going to be all up to how can he do well to help bring Miami Florida over this huddle like he couldn't do with SMU?

Logan Brumley: Because I think NC State is just right below SMU's territory, at least when it comes to conference and fighting the rushing offense for Miami is not really super crazy.

Logan Brumley: I think this will be another rushing offense that NC State should be able to stifle.

Logan Brumley: I keep going back and forth on whether or not NC State's rushing defense can actually stop opponents.

Logan Brumley: They could stop scoring, but they can't stop yards.

Logan Brumley: I mean Mark Fletcher, the running back for Miami, he should be able to drive the ball, does have 4.2 yards per carry.

Logan Brumley: And Miami Florida, they have a lot of running backs and they get a lot of rushing touchdowns.

Logan Brumley: I think it's like a 4 to 3 ratio of rushing touchdown to passing touchdowns.

Logan Brumley: With Carson Beck and Mark Fletcher, I mean the best shot they have a winning is just keep when it's down to the, what's it called, red zone.

Logan Brumley: Just don't force Carson back.

Logan Brumley: Just force Carson Beck to throw, don't give the ball to Mark Fletcher.

Logan Brumley: Try to.

Logan Brumley: I don't care what they do kind of leading up to it, I'd rather them have three than seven.

Logan Brumley: That's kind of a reality you have to accept with this NC State defense.

Logan Brumley: But what is important is actually being able to prevent rushing touchdowns and force Carson Beck to have to throw on third and goal, you know, third and 10 at the 15 yard line because there maybe they can put some pressure, maybe create some mistakes, create some stops and get the 3 instead of the 7 where then NC State could probably go get the 7 to make up for it.

Logan Brumley: That's the only way I can see NC State win with the kind offense that Miami Florida has set up for themselves.

Logan Brumley: Just another kind of quick look.

Logan Brumley: I'll look at the defense real quick.

Logan Brumley: I mean this is another really strong rushing defense.

Logan Brumley: You know I don't think that Smothers had too great of a rushing performance against Pitt.

Logan Brumley: Let's see.

Logan Brumley: Yeah, I mean they got, they gave up a couple fumbles.

Logan Brumley: Hollywood Smothers didn't really play too great.

Logan Brumley: He's been kind of fault during these past few games.

Logan Brumley: I'm desperate to see something really good out of Smothers.

Logan Brumley: I'm hoping that he can have a great performance and a great comeback.

Logan Brumley: Let me check the see if he's going to be healthy.

Logan Brumley: I think that might be a game time decision but I mean he is still one of the top running backs in the conference and I'm hoping that him coming back will be able to get something going.

Logan Brumley: I mean if not, I mean Jayden Scott didn't look too bad.

Logan Brumley: Maybe he's going to have himself a couple big game run and maybe he can make up for the lack of reduction for Smothers.

Logan Brumley: But there's still the kind of dual thing with Bailey and whoever the running back is at the time and of course Will Wilson.

Logan Brumley: That's not something I think Miami really has and it is an extra factor that I think wild teams have kind of starting to adjust to.

Logan Brumley: It was something that was part of NC State's strong suit early on and it is something that could come back.

Logan Brumley: I feel Like I would bet the over on, you know, C.J.

Logan Brumley: bailey rushing touchdown of like half one.

Logan Brumley: I mean this.

Logan Brumley: But they have a real strong.

Logan Brumley: I mean they only give up 77 yards per game and about 2.6 yards per carry.

Logan Brumley: I just hope that this offensive line can handle Miami Florida's defensive line and that we won't see a performance like it was with Pitt where Pitt has a really strong defensive line and it just messed up C.J.

Logan Brumley: bailey in this rushing game beyond any sort of redeeming quality.

Logan Brumley: But I will also look at the passing defense for Miami Florida.

Logan Brumley: I feel like it is not too terrible either.

Logan Brumley: Hold on, I'm trying to get it to load.

Logan Brumley: Okay, yeah, we'll get into the stats.

Logan Brumley: You could definitely argue that Miami does have a strong secondary.

Logan Brumley: They have only like a 6.2 yards per pass.

Logan Brumley: They have given up.

Logan Brumley: I mean they've taken seven interceptions, only given up nine touchdowns, about 205 passing yards a game, which is all top five when it comes to passing defense.

Logan Brumley: So yeah, I think that NC State is going to have some trouble getting the ball going.

Logan Brumley: Especially if Joly is still going to be out.

Logan Brumley: But I have to believe NC State does have enough strong receivers that it would be a step down for Miami Florida's passing defense that C.J.

Logan Brumley: Bailey could probably get himself a couple touchdowns.

Logan Brumley: However, I do worry that if it's gonna come time for CJ Bailey to be clutch, he does not have that clutch gene just yet.

Logan Brumley: That will be something that I think we'll have to see with this game and into the future.

Logan Brumley: I would love to see what C.J.

Logan Brumley: bailey can do just being a team leader and being kind of having that IT factor as a quarterback.

Logan Brumley: Because if he has that IT factor and he has that experience and he has that success, he could pull off the upset similar to what Kevin Jennings did last week with smu.

Logan Brumley: He's still the starting quarterback, right?

Logan Brumley: Yeah, because.

Logan Brumley: Yeah, yeah, I got him confused with Tanner Mordecai for some reason, but I digress.

Logan Brumley: Miami Florida has a strong defense.

Logan Brumley: They don't even give up 60% passing efficiency compared to NC State who has like a 64.

Logan Brumley: It's not great.

Logan Brumley: I would love to see.

Logan Brumley: I would love to see what Miami can do with their defensive efficiency and how NC State can offset it and get the win.

Logan Brumley: But I think that expecting a win is going to be a little bit too much.

Logan Brumley: I think this is going to be a loss.

Logan Brumley: I would say that Carson Beck is probably going to be playing lights out.

Logan Brumley: He's going to have a game where he could kind of shake off this last week.

Logan Brumley: I think that Mark Fletcher will probably get a touchdown on the ground.

Logan Brumley: And I think that the final score, if I had to guess, would probably be like 41 to 31.

Logan Brumley: Sure.

Logan Brumley: All right, coming up next, women's basketball.

Logan Brumley: Well, NC State opens their season with a top 10 win.

Logan Brumley: They had their season opener in Greensboro.

Logan Brumley: The battle of in the bro against the Tennessee Volunteers, where they came out and they were able to squeak by with the win.

Logan Brumley: And Tennessee put up a really strong matchup.

Logan Brumley: Let's see.

Logan Brumley: I mean, it was like a fairy kind of back and forth.

Logan Brumley: Even in that last minute.

Logan Brumley: There was about like four lead changes for Pierre.

Logan Brumley: She came up with the fast break and then clutched up by Samurai Jones on the three throw.

Logan Brumley: And I mean, Tennessee went as much as 10 points before NC State was able to take the lead and win the game.

Logan Brumley: There were multiple players on the team who scored big chunks of points.

Logan Brumley: Just look at Tilda Trygger, who's kind of solidified herself as the other kind of big four to compliment Khamil Pierre.

Logan Brumley: She got herself 19 points, two steals and two blocks on her own Pierre.

Logan Brumley: She's kind of taking up the role as number one player, even over Zoe Brooks, in my opinion, 21 points, 14 rebounds, and the game MVP.

Logan Brumley: Three steals, too.

Logan Brumley: See Qadence Samuels.

Logan Brumley: The UConn transferred into play too hot with only 12% shooting.

Logan Brumley: So there will likely be a deaf player who come up and play better in the future.

Logan Brumley: I think the other starting four with Brooks, Jones, Pierre, Trygger are all really strong players and they're all really strong contributors.

Logan Brumley: So he, Brooks, dang, five assists and then a freshman coming in Destiny.

Logan Brumley: Kaishi Lunan was able to get some good scoring in I think NC State.

Logan Brumley: Defensively, they're able to kind of stifle the production of maybe not Talisha Cooper, who is a WNBA prospect, but they were able to definitely stop Janiyah Barker.

Logan Brumley: And I mean, and she stay had a really strong performance in this game.

Logan Brumley: I mean, this is Pierre's 46 career double trigger.

Logan Brumley: In her sophomore debut, she played really well.

Logan Brumley: I mean, there were multiple players who got doubles.

Logan Brumley: I mean, just look at Zoe Brooks, Wolfpack.

Logan Brumley: They lead with the assist, the steals, everything went right for this game to get the win.

Logan Brumley: And while there were some streaks where it's like, oh, boy.

Logan Brumley: I mean, you know that coming up 10 points and it was just like a really close.

Logan Brumley: It was a really close victory.

Logan Brumley: It's a really intense matchup.

Logan Brumley: It was really Fun to watch and I am.

Logan Brumley: Overall I'm really happy with this debut.

Logan Brumley: This is a really strong SEC team.

Logan Brumley: This is a very strong top 10 win.

Logan Brumley: And head into this weekend, I think that the confidence for NC State is going to be riding really high.

Logan Brumley: They executed everything perfectly.

Logan Brumley: USC, they're ranked 18th, but they are going to be without JuJu Watkins, their star player.

Logan Brumley: I think she tore her ACL if I remember correctly.

Logan Brumley: She.

Logan Brumley: I think she was supposed to be draft eligible this year, but not anymore.

Logan Brumley: And they did lose a couple of other good stars.

Logan Brumley: They lost their center.

Logan Brumley: I think they lost Kiki Irifain to the draft and I mean I don't know who else can really step up and replace them.

Logan Brumley: I mean they did blow the heck out of New Mexico State.

Logan Brumley: So it's really hard to kind of figure out who is their top dogs.

Logan Brumley: Their biggest offensive producer was Kara Dunn.

Logan Brumley: 12 points, six offensive rebounds.

Logan Brumley: They have two players with four assists, Jazzy Davidson and Malia Samuels.

Logan Brumley: Defensively they weren't really too strong.

Logan Brumley: Kara Dunn had eight rebounds total with.

Logan Brumley: It's really hard to tell how good a basketball team is based on their low tier basketball team blowout wins.

Logan Brumley: And I think the only reason USC is 18th is because of the positive momentum from last year being in the final four.

Logan Brumley: Losing three of their top producers is definitely going to hurt them.

Logan Brumley: And I don't think that they really picked up any big transfers.

Logan Brumley: Not that I can think of.

Logan Brumley: Let me check real quick.

Logan Brumley: Sorry.

Logan Brumley: This is all kind of fresh coming in.

Logan Brumley: This is like literally off of the top of my head.

Logan Brumley: Yeah, we got Kara Dunn from Georgia Tech.

Logan Brumley: She's been decent enough in this game.

Logan Brumley: She's probably gonna have to be the star player.

Logan Brumley: She's got to be the head of the backcourt.

Logan Brumley: Can she take.

Logan Brumley: Can she beat Zoe Brooks?

Logan Brumley: I doubt it.

Logan Brumley: I don't think that she was even able to win when they played against each other last year.

Logan Brumley: I think Georgia Tech and NC State played and I remember NC State winning.

Logan Brumley: It's just that there is in my opinion that they didn't even have a strong enough performance despite blowing out New Mexico State.

Logan Brumley: And I don't really think a win is going to be possible.

Logan Brumley: I think that NC State will have two top 25 wins head into their next top 25 opponent who I'll be reviewing next week with TCU and hat I think it's Hannah Delgado.

Logan Brumley: They got some this big name transfer, Olivia Miles.

Logan Brumley: But that's really all I have to time I have for today.

Logan Brumley: Hope you enjoyed today's episode and go pack.