Glancing At NC Central

Will this meeting be more interesting than the last two? Yes!  No.  I meant no.  I feel bad for these schools, in search of the I-A pot of gold, clearly incapable of competing at this level.  Central has four wins this season, all against non-I-A opponents.  Three of those have come at the expense of church league teams, from what I can tell. 

Non-conference play for Central and others like it amounts to one hellish road trip after another.  The Eagles have lost by 30+ at UNC, Miami, and Virginia Tech.  By 23 at Indiana, by 10 at Iowa, by 12 at Air Force.  Even the likes of Youngstown State, Florida Gulf Coast, and Florida International have had little trouble dispatching them.  This is supposed to be fun, right?  Hope the paychecks have been worth it.

The Eagles have managed to turn over their opponents, even the high-major ones, on a regular basis, but that's pretty much the extent of their success this season, offensively or defensively.  It's an undersized team that is easily pushed around, one that can't rebound at either end.  Their offense is dead last in 2FG%, while their defense is third-to-last in 2FG% defense.  That deserves a congratulatory placard or something.

Leading this year's collection of suck is 6-3 guard C.J. Wilkerson, who is averaging 15.6 points per game and rarely comes off the floor.  Wilkerson is a decent outside shooter, but like the rest of the club struggles to hit anything inside the arc.  Nobody on this team can shoot, and just about everybody has turnover issues.  The only guy with an effective field goal above 46% is a lightly used reserve.  Presumably his low usage is the only thing making the appearance of an effective shooter possible.

The Pomeroy Predictor likes NC State by 30.