Winter Plays

This episode goes in depth on some of the biggest upcoming sports events, such as Womens Basketball vs TCU, the upcoming NCAA Tourney for mens soccer, and the upcoming womens gymnastics season!

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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.

00:00
Logan Brumley
Hello and welcome to WKNC's official sports podcast in the Den. Today we're going to be going over Sunday's women's basketball game against tcu. We'll be going over how things are looking like for NC State and the men's NCAA Tournament, which they should be able to make in. And we'll be going over the gymnastics schedule release that should come out this week. I'd also like to clarify that last week was our Miami football preview. I did not realize that there was a bye week, so make sure to check that out on the WKNC website. But regardless, get your headphones on and let's get straight to it. So NC going to open up with a brief recap of the USC game. This previous Sunday, NC State lost to USC by just one point.

00:56
Logan Brumley
Despite a strong game overall, NC State just couldn't close it when it mattered as USC was able to lead a comeback down five points with a minute and a half left, including several key missed shots by I think both Jones and Pierre. At the end of the game, NC State should have won, but losing a turnover game and not getting the big come like being able to stave off the comeback like they did against Tennessee was definitely a killer for them in this game. Also, USC's freshman star Jazzy Davidson really showed out so good for her. See, another frustrating thing is that NC State they only dropped in 10 but USC, I mean thinking about it now, it kind of makes sense that USC was jumped over NC State, but I don't know, I feel kind of icky about that.

02:02
Logan Brumley
NC State had some decent performers so we broke snatched 24 points and six assists. Tilda Bhatia got herself 11 rebounds, as did Camille Pierre and her 2011 double performance. I like Devin Quigley, our freshman scoring nine off the bench. NC happy with the production so far. I just hope to see things get closed out. I mean it's only been two serious contenders and of course main that was yesterday. I won't really go too deep into that one. I think that this TCU game at Sunday will be more important, but if I had to give a player of the game, probably Zoe Brooks, she's our best player and she's been playing like it so far. So let's do our brief look at TCU.

03:00
Logan Brumley
Let's see, while football kicks off Sunday at 1, the Lady PAC would tip off against TCU and potential WNBA lottery pick Olivia Miles. She should have been one last year, but my guess is she probably stayed back for some serious nil money. But this is her last hurrah and it's with the TCU Horned Frogs. The team is sitting on number 17 in the nation. This is their first serious contender and they're hoping to make a big splash with a win. It is still way too early to determine the strengths and weaknesses for this TCU roster and their star players. However, there are some matchups I think will be State to watch. Camille Pierre and Kennedy Basham and in the smaller amount, Toto Bhatia. While against weaker opponents. Basham has been a block producer for the team throughout her four years with the team.

03:57
Logan Brumley
She's averaging four blocks a game this year, which is the most among any power forward team player and she can dish out some blocks against big name opponents. Last year having gotten six in her loss against Big 12 opponent Iowa State. They would go on to be the seventh, no the 11th seed in the NCAA tournament and against the number 24 ranked at the time, Oklahoma State, who got upset by the Jackrabbits in the NCAA tournament last year. So to have a really strong defensive center, the big question is can Camille Pierre handle that? I do believe she would, but I think it'll be a fun matchup to see how Pierre is able to work against someone who is a really strong block producer and a smaller sort of sample size.

04:55
Logan Brumley
Silva is their lead and rebounder and she's also a pretty big center power forward player. I think the rebound game of Bhatia and Silva will also be something to look out for I think. I mean they're both seeing them both try to reach for the ball would be something that's very State to see and I think whoever can win the paint in the post should be able to win the game overall. However, of course you have to note Olivia Miles. She's shooting a 68% field goal accuracy so far. However, she does have five turnovers a game against lower level competition and whoever matches up against her defensively can have the opportunity to capitalize off of it. They just need to and I haven't really seen a strong performance from our guards defensively. It'll be State to see how that matchup works.

05:52
Logan Brumley
NC assuming it's going to be Brooks since I think she's pretty much the lead in stealer among the guards on our roster. However, NC State has never really been a big block, no a steel producing team. I mean losing both Asia James and Sinai Rivers really doesn't help that much. Losing Madison Haynes, I think she was a big steel producer as well. So North Carolina State's Definitely going to have to try to develop a strong defensive identity if they want to stop tcu. Is it likely? I believe it could be. I mean, it would just kind of matter. Even then, if they're able to stop Olivia Miles, they still have to stop her strong number two guard, Donovan Hunter, who shoots just as well as she does.

06:52
Logan Brumley
And it's something I have to look out for because I think that Hunter, Miles, whoever has the stronger defensive workload with, they could just pass it to each other. They could pass it in deep and they have a lot of opportunities to create scores. I think NC State's defense really just kind of. They really just need to make sure that they can do just enough that their offense doesn't have to do too much. That makes sense. And I think that would be something very important to watch in that game against. Against tcu, who do I think will win? I will probably say TCU might have the slight advantage just because I have a little bit more faith in what they can do with kicking it out or digging in to create some scoring opportunities.

07:57
Logan Brumley
I think if NC State can win a turnover game, they'll have it locked down. But after what happened with usc, NC not super confident about that. And of course we need to see a big step up in the guard performance. Defensively, I really don't have a big player to watch. I expect a 20 plus point game for Donovan Hunter. I would like to see Pierre get some more steals and blocks. I kind of have that as like a little prediction because I mean Basham and Silva are not strong offensive players. So I think that she will be able to eat up defensively which I think will help out big time and see what else. The only like player that NC like really about on this roster right now is Kaden Samuels. In 30 minutes a game, she's scoring like 6, 3, 1.

08:59
Logan Brumley
While the sixth woman, Devin, quickly, she is in the amount of time that she has, I feel like she's outdoing Kaden Samuels. And I think unless if she can step up, I think the roles will eventually swap and I think it will be State to see what quickly can do from a starting role. Of course, not right now it's a little early, but that would be something that is worth watching seeing how Westmore utilizes the production kind of comparison that they have. If I had to guess the score, 8380. TCU still watch it. Still roofer NC State as you can. All right, coming up, I will talk about the men's soccer loss to Syracuse and what that could mean for NC State heading into the NCAA Tournament. Alright, so just kind of like a little fun fact.

10:01
Logan Brumley
NC State has only given up four goals in the entire regular season against Syracuse they gave up three after knocking the Sox off Louisville in round one. The same thing happened in NC State. We was in 03 to the six seed Syracuse. However, I will say this ACC men's tournament is very upset heavy with about five of the 12 games so far being upsets. If you just purely look at the seed inside having number 12 Cal in the semifinals. So that'll be State against Louisville. All you need to know is that Louisville had three shots compared to NC State's 21 shots which came out to three goals. Bhatia players Carlos Santa Maria and Thomas Lemill notched goals while Drew Wilflace got one too. It's a comfortable feeling.

10:58
Logan Brumley
No doubt Def Pieces are able to contribute to the success of the team even in a very small role in a very low tier conference opponent. I wouldn't expect Santa Maria Ramil to show up big time in the tournament. I just think that the future is in good hands if these two come to step up the plate when you know Donovan Phillips goes to the mls Bhatia had a really easy rest game having zero shots on goals to deal with. I think maybe one actually one or zero, which I mean that rest game he really kind of had to wake up with the Syracuse game, which he did not. The last time NC State was blown out like this was actually fun fad against Syracuse two years ago when they went to Syracuse and Syracuse won the national championship that year.

11:57
Logan Brumley
NTCA was still able to produce shots but had to deal with a dominant run from Syracuse goalie Thomas Hutt. He had a perfect 100% accuracy and saved 10 shots, four of them coming from Tag Healy. Syracuse's goal producer duo Fomese and Sambo Barno both notched goals and they are expected to churn their way to the conference finals if they can keep up the momentum. I don't think a loss to Syracuse should be as upsetting as it sounds on paper. Yes, it's disappointing, but yes, it's inconsequential. There's no trend or experience that would make me worry about a potential cold. I think this was just an off game, probably looking past the opponent.

12:48
Logan Brumley
But now they have a lot of time to get themselves ready for the NCAA Tournament, which they should make in because they've been ranked top 10 pretty much all season at this point and they have about I don't want to say 36 but close to that number. Amount of like what's it called, the opposite of automatic qualifiers like wild card spots. This may have cost NC State the ability to have a buy because how it works it's each regional has like six teams and it'd be like two on by four play and then they kind of like how the NFL used to be when they had six team playoffs. See NC State of course I have plenty of time to rest up. Hopefully NC State will be able to tune up with some practicing. I think.

13:53
Logan Brumley
Of course, you know this isn't a game to worry about. I think NC State's defense is very strong. I think their offense is really good. I would say this kind of hurts the optimism of them winning the national championship. However, NC not in freakout mode honestly. I think it's just an ugly loss. They're going to shake it off and they're going to play well. So the official, let's see what's it called. The official bracket reveal is Next Thursday the 20th. I could probably do something for it. Just kind of doing like a reaction to it with a. I don't want to say a blog but I'll figure it out. There'll be. You'll get something from me about it. I'll do some scouting for it and NC State to see when T State can do. I hope them the best.

15:01
Logan Brumley
I think they'll do just fine though. All right, that was a sort of kind of a rushed thing. This is going to be kind of a shorter episode but we are going to move on to our final segment for today, the gymnastics preview schedule release and just some of the top players to look out for. All right, time to start the volleyball coverage. This was meant to do a couple months ago but only recently did the schedule actually come out. So at the end of the regular season NC State was ranked 20th with a 1110 record and 4. 2 under conference. The ranking makes them third in the conference behind Cal and Stanford, both of who are gymnastics powerhouse teams. They're also third in the Southeast overall behind Florida and Georgia.

16:02
Logan Brumley
You know Cal and Stanford out west so technically they wouldn't be in it. Their team is 19th in fault, 23rd in bars, 29th for beam and 20th for four floor all American. Let's see Chloe Negrete. She has graduated but some of the high scorers and top returners would be Caroline Folk who is our best bar performer and our second best beam producer and Ashley Knight who is the de facto Leader of the vault and floor. They are going to be the ones who are going to carry this roster into next year. It will be exciting to see what we can get from them. And some notable freshmen to look out for. Our top recruits are Emerson Fisk, a freshman from Florida and Autumn Rodin who is also a. Who is from Columbus, Ohio. Let me see what I specialize in actually.

17:21
Logan Brumley
Well, I mean I do a little bit of everything but Autumn Roden, she is a two time Ohio State vault champion and Fisk is a bars champion in the regional. So I mean we're kind of building on our strengths with the bar and floor. I would like to see more from the beam produce and I think woos and the gret is going to be a big kind of issue there. However, Catherine, I mean Caroline Volk, she did do pretty well in the beam so I think her having a big step up would be really beneficial. Behind her. Let's see. I mean Brooks Mead could probably do more. She's just behind in this high score and overall score rankings. El Hadrick is another player who sort of a good producer on the floor and bars.

18:33
Logan Brumley
NC State is a very productive quality team when it comes to gymnastics, especially as of late where they. They did make the regionals last year but they lost to Florida and Oregon so State don't play them this year. However, they do have an State schedule coming up. They have a couple homes in a ways with UNC and Auburn. Let's see, they also have a road trip with COW and pit late January. The Auburn one spread out throughout the season in the Metroplex Challenge they host unc, Auburn, Boise State. They have one at Ohio State as well. Ohio State sort of good with gymnastics where they play. Penn State too. Their tournament qualifier is with Virginia at the Reynolds Coliseum. The ACC championships.

19:45
Logan Brumley
What they should be able to qualify for is in Greensboro, you know, as it usually is, which would be late March, then April would be the regionals and all that would say NC very excited for the home away series with unc. That'll be something to watch out for. The Auburn homeaway will also be State to see. I think this is a good schedule. The toughest opponent will probably be home with Stanford because of course Stanford's a powerhouse. But seeing what they can do with their first All American in a long time with Negrete being gone, having Ashley Knight and Caroline Folk kind of the front load for this team, it's something to definitely watch out for.

20:39
Logan Brumley
But I do have faith that this NC State team will be able to get back to what it was, and I have no doubt that they will be able to make a splash in the ACC and regionals. Championship aspirations I wouldn't get too excited for, honestly, but that's really all I had to say. Just make sure to come out and support the women's gymnastics team. Their first event is the exhibition this December 20th. Who do they play? Not sure who they play, but make sure to come for that. Keep an eye on them throughout the season. They are not in Oklahoma, but they can definitely make a splash in the Southeast. And that's all I have for today. Sorry, it's a really short episode, kind of going through some of the smaller teams, smaller opponents, and make sure to come by next episode.

21:41
Logan Brumley
Have a good day and go pack.