NC State opens ACC play on the road hoping to avoid recent pitfalls

N.C. State dawdled through the first 16 minutes against Loyola (Md.) last Friday.

The Wolfpack was able to turn it on, and win easily, but that’s not a winning formula for ACC play, senior Torin Dorn said.

The 18th-ranked Wolfpack (12-1) opens league play on the road on Thursday (7 p.m., ESPNU) at Miami (8-4). Dorn said N.C. State can’t afford such lapses.

“You’ve got to be ready to play when you come out,” Dorn said. “If you start slow, you could be down 20-0.”

N.C. State led 33-27 with 4 minutes left in the first half against Loyola. The Wolfpack cranked up its energy and defensive pressure and won 97-64.

But Loyola, No. 293 in the KenPom rankings, is not the same caliber opponent as Miami, No. 56, and there won’t be many off nights in league play.

The road can be particularly unkind, as N.C. State learned early last season. The Wolfpack opened league play with road losses to Clemson (78-62) and Notre Dame (88-58).

“You have to be ready to play every night,” Dorn said. “It’s important that the guys that are returning impart that on our team. That we have to start out hot.”

This is the fourth straight season N.C. State will open ACC play on the road and 10th time in 15 years. The Wolfpack is just 1-8 in ACC openers on the road since 2005.

N.C. State already has had some success away from home this season. It beat Vanderbilt (80-65) and Penn State (89-78) in neutral-site games in December. It lost at Wisconsin, 79-75 on Nov. 27, but was in the game the whole way.

Even that loss, sophomore guard Braxton Beverly said, was helpful.

“We’d love to be 13-0, and we had an opportunity at 13-0, but the good thing is we learned from (the Wisconsin loss) and that makes us better in the long run,” Beverly said.

Miami, who beat N.C. State in the only matchup last season in Raleigh, enters the game on a three-game winning streak. The Hurricanes, led by sophomore guard Chris Lykes (16.6 points per game) dropped four straight (Seton Hall, Rutgers, Yale, Penn) after a 5-0 start.

N.C. State recovered from the slow start in ACC play last season to go 11-7 and reach the NCAA tournament.

Coach Kevin Keatts would like to avoid a repeat of the slow start. He said after the Loyola win on Dec. 28 that he was happy with how this team has started the season.

Dorn (15.1 ppg, 6.5 rebounds per game) and junior guard Markell Johnson (11.8 ppg, 4.2 assists per game) have stood out but it has been a true team effort with a 10-man rotation. All 10 players average more than 12 minutes per game while Dorn plays the most at 25.3 minutes per game.

“This team has grown in a lot of areas,” Keatts said. “We’ve gotten better and we’ve been able to develop our depth.”

This story was originally published January 2, 2019 at 5:03 PM.