A look at NC State’s performance in ACC games

NC State finds itself in pretty good shape after winning three straight league games—given the relative difficulty of the first half of State’s ACC slate, being over .500 at this point is good work. The Wolfpack has played only one game against the ACC’s soft underbelly, though that’ll change on Tuesday.

Here’s a look at NC State’s performance in conference games.

State had the ACC’s worst defense last season, one that allowed 1.14 points per possession. That Wolfpack team’s FG% defense was dreadful, and it also happened to be the ACC’s worst defensive rebounding team. It’s amazing to look at the transformation.

While State has had its problems defending the paint, the trouble has been less pronounced, and opponents have made threes at a below-average rate, which helps. Turning people over while doing a great job on the defensive glass has made a huge difference.

It’s a similar story at the offensive end, where the shooting part hasn’t been there, but the turnover and rebounding categories have been impressive strengths. Turnovers in particular. Figure NC State’s three-point shooting should start rising back to at least average (which is 33.7% in D-I this year), and the Pack has shot better than 50% from two in every game of this winning streak. Still, the offense can be better and hopefully will be from here on.

But the overall picture is pretty good. If the shooting comes around, this team can take another step.