NC State basketball will host multi-team event to begin season

NC State will open its 2020-21 season by welcoming a trio of schools to Raleigh for a multi-team event, per Jon Rothstein. Those three teams are Eastern Kentucky, Charleston Southern, and North Florida. Eastern Kentucky is coached by former Kevin Keatts assistant A.W. Hamilton.

You’ll see a lot of this from power-conference teams early in the year as they minimize travel while attempting to put these mid-major programs on equal footing in terms of testing and safety.

Normally NC State would have these three buy games scattered around the non-conference schedule—I’m assuming State will play all three visitors, which may not be the case—but that is not a practical approach this year. Better to bring them all together on one trip.

Eastern Kentucky finished last season 16-17 and No. 280 in the Pomeroy Ratings. Charleston Southern went 14-18 and finished 318th in KenPom, while North Florida was 21-12 and No. 166.

This event, plus State’s trip to the Mohegan Sun, and the Big Ten Challenge game, may be the extent of the Pack’s non-conference schedule.