NC State hopes to end road woes at Miami
N.C. State at Miami
When: 4:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: BankUnited Center, Coral Gables, Fla.
TV/Radio: Fox Sports Carolinas, 101.5-WRAL
Projected starting lineups
NC State (11-2, 0-0 ACC)
G Dennis Smith Jr. 18.9 ppg, 6.3 apg
G Terry Henderson 16.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg
G Torin Dorn 14.9 ppg, 6.5 rpg
F Abdul-Malik Abu 11.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg
F Omer Yurtseven 11.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg
Miami (10-2, 0-0 ACC)
G Ja’Quan Newton 15.3 ppg, 4.2 apg
G Davon Reed 14.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg
G Bruce Brown 10.5 ppg, 7.3 rpg
F Kamari Murphy 7.0 ppg, 7.8 rpg
F Dewan Huell 7.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg
Three things to know
▪ N.C. State only played one true road game during nonconference play, an 88-74 loss at Illinois on Nov. 29. The Wolfpack has lost its past six straight road games and went 1-8 on the road in ACC play last season.
Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried said he hopes his team learned from its first road experience of the season.
“I thought we got rattled at Illinois and we played panicky,” Gottfried said. “We’ve got to do a better job playing through all that stuff in our second opportunity on the road.”
▪ Miami won 27 games last season and made the Sweet 16 but veteran coach Jim Larranaga had to replace its top two players, wing Sheldon McClellan and point guard Angel Rodriguez.
Junior guard Ja’Quan Newton has stepped up as the primary scorer (15.3 points per game) while freshmen Bruce Brown and Dewan Huell have provided new blood in the lineup.
Miami went 10-2 outside the ACC with its best wins coming against Stanford and George Washington
▪ Miami has become primarily a zone team which should benefit N.C. State. Guards Terry Henderson, Dennis Smith Jr. and Maverick Rowan should be able to get good outside looks and freshman forward Omer Yurtseven could be a problem in the high post for the Canes.
Joe Giglio
This story was originally published December 30, 2016 at 4:54 PM with the headline "NC State hopes to end road woes at Miami."