Gameday Preview: NC State Travels To Chapel Hill To Take On Tar Heels

Chapel Hill, NC- North Carolina (15-11, 8-6 ACC) hosts NC State (10-15, 3-11 ACC) Wednesday night at 7 pm at the Smith Center. 

The Tar Heels have gone 9-2 in home games. North Carolina has a 7-5 record in games decided by at least 10 points. 

The Wolfpack are 3-11 in conference play. NC State has a 1-5 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer. 

North Carolina makes 47.0% of its shots from the field this season, which is 2.4 percentage points higher than NC State has allowed to its opponents (44.6%). NC State averages 69.5 points per game, 7.3 fewer points than the 76.8 North Carolina allows. 

TOP PERFORMERS: For the Tar Heels RJ Davis is shooting 32.0% from beyond the arc with 2.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Tar Heels, while averaging 17.3 points and 3.8 assists. Jackson is shooting 40.4% and averaging 11.6 points over the past 10 games. 

On the other sider for NC State, Marcus Hill is scoring 12.6 points per game with 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists for the Wolfpack. Jayden Taylor is averaging 11.1 points and 3.8 rebounds while shooting 36.2% over the past 10 games. 

Wednesday Storylines 

Dontrez Styles returns to Chapel Hill with the Wolfpack. The Kinston native started his collegiate career at North Carolina and played for the Tar Heels for two seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons) appearing in 45 career games.

NC State is 28-6 (82.4%) when it forces an opponent into 15 or more turnovers dating back to the start of the 2022-23 season. Over the last two games, NC State has forced 33 turnovers while only turning it over themselves a total of 17 times. The 33 forced turnovers in the last two games are the most for NC State in back-to-back games since the Pack forced Colgate and William & Mary into a combined 36 turnovers back in November. The Pack leads the ACC in turnover margin at +3.5 per game and ranks 26th in the NCAA. 

Ben Middlebrooks had three steals against Boston College. It marked the 10th game this season where Middlebrooks finished with three blocks or three steals. The NC State senior leads the team in blocks with 35 this season and is third on the team with 24 steals. The more active Middlebrooks is, the better it is for the Pack. NC State is 6-3 when Middlebrooks has multiple blocks in a game this season and is 4-2 when he has multiple steals in a game. 

The Pack’s leading scorer this season Marcus Hill was held to just eight points against Boston College. It was just the third time in the last 18 games that Hill was held out of double digits. The Rockford, Ill., native leads the Pack in scoring at 12.6 points per game and ranks ninth in the ACC in field goal percentage at 47.0 percent. Hill is second on the team with 46 assists and has a 1.77 assist-to-turnover ratio (46-to-26). During the game against Louisville last Wednesday, Hill surpassed 1,000 career points. He achieved the milestone in his 58th Division I game. 

NC State series with North Carolina 

Wednesday will be the 249th all-time meeting between NC State and North Carolina. UNC leads the all-time series with the Pack, 167-81. 

Last Meeting occurred on Jan. 11, 2025 where UNC scored the game-winning basket with 24 seconds remaining and then blocked NC State’s tying shot attempt at the rim to win in Raleigh, 63-61.