Late Night with NC State Hoops: Day two brings a third shot at Clemson

There’s something going on here. Haven’t quite been able to put a finger on it, but something’s different. The only credible explanation for the way Clemson has played against NC State in basketball this season is that Brad Brownell some sort of jinxing device from Dabo.

Would it be on his person during the game, do you think? Or might he leave it in the locker room for one particularly bold State fan to find and plunder right before tip-off? Someone in the building will have to take the risks tonight and find out. Will you be that hero?

Failing such an act of courage, I suppose the Wolfpack basketball team will have to figure this out on the court. Which is doable, certainly.

There’s no big takeaway from the last meeting, what with Clemson being fully on one offensively and making every shot in sight. Kinda like State yesterday. Neither Jarkel Joiner nor Terquavion Smith played well, but I don’t think it would’ve changed the outcome if they had. Thankfully, NC State’s mainly been on the giving end of that sort of game this season.

Clemson averaged 1.1+ points per possession in both regular season games, so a good start to beating the Tigers tonight would be there. Partly the problem is that the Tigers take good care of the ball and they’ve been immune to the Pack’s defensive disruptions; if State can coax a few more mistakes out of Clemson—which had seven turnovers in the first game and 11 in the second—that would help. Also gotta keep this team off the free throw line—Clemson is shooting 82.5% at the stripe in league games. Clemson has hit 40-46 (87%) at the line against NC State.

KenPom has the Pack by two.