Wolfpack’s Funderburk gets his game into gear in win against Hurricanes
Given the way his season started, D.J. Funderburk has come a long way to put himself in position where N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts thinks the big man is worthy of a reward. And yet the impact of his suspension still lingers, albeit only on the court now.
Funderburk was in the starting lineup against Miami on Wednesday after a string of double-figure performances off the bench, playing alongside Manny Bates in what is essentially the Wolfpack’s big lineup. His 19 points – and it should have been at least 25 – were a major factor in an 80-63 win that was also N.C. State’s most balanced offensive performance of the year.
Essentially, this is what Keatts has been hoping to get from Funderburk all along, only to see him derailed by the two-game suspension to open the season after Funderburk drove out of a campus garage with parking boots still attached to his car. (How many remains a matter of some dispute.) Funderburk’s absence was noted in the Wolfpack’s disappointing opening loss to Georgia Tech and his lengthy ban from team activities left him behind the curve physically.
Only now is he starting to get to the point where Keatts is comfortable playing him extended minutes, and even then, his performance doesn’t always allow it. A week ago, Keatts joked that Funderburk “improved” with one assist and no turnovers against Notre Dame, which shows how low the bar had been.
“I used to tell the assistant coaches all the time, ‘Man, he’s just not in great shape,’ ” Keatts said. “I think he’s been getting in the gym, putting some extra reps in and getting in better shape. Early in the season, I didn’t think he could play for stretches. ... He missed a lot of time because he was suspended. I didn’t let him be around the program and that hurt his conditioning.”
So Wednesday, on the heels of 14 points in the Clemson loss and 16 points in the Notre Dame win and 18 points in the Virginia Tech loss, Keatts felt empowered to let Funderburk loose. By playing him at power forward, it created a first-half mismatch inside that left Miami struggling to adjust; when the Hurricanes went small in the second half, Funderburk got the majority of the playing time over Bates. He earned it.
Even after his first 3-pointer in ACC play, the crazy thing is Funderburk probably left six easy points on the floor, twice failing to finish through light contact and bricking what would have been an exclamation-point alley-oop at the end of the first half. When an old-school hook shot took a hard bounce off the back of the rim high into the air and through the hoop, Funderburk pumped his fist like he’d hit a game-winner.
It’s more than obvious by now how little margin the Wolfpack has for error, a circumstance heavily underlined not only by the way Markell Johnson’s performance acts as a sort of basketball barometer but the way N.C. State struggled without C.J. Bryce — and how well everyone played with Bryce back in the lineup Wednesday. With Bryce, more pieces were in the right places, and that includes Funderburk, who only now is starting to measure up to the expectations the Wolfpack had for him after last season — and make amends for his transgressions.
“Just trying to stay focused on and off the court,” Funderburk said. “When I do that, sky’s the limit.”
He exited to applause with four minutes to play Wednesday, the Wolfpack up 18, everything right with the world, at least for the moment.
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 10:12 PM.
