Gameday Preview: Wolfpack take on Pittsburgh in mid week clash

March 5, 2025

Raleigh, NC- NC State meets Pittsburgh on Wednesday night at the Lenovo Center in its final home game of the 2024-25 season.  

The Panthers entered this week sitting among a crowded middle class of ACC teams vying for seeding in the coming conference tournament. They could conceivably climb as high as ninth place, if they get some help, and earn a first-round bye — or fall to 15th place and be the last seed in the bracket. The Panthers will play two of the bottom three teams in the league standings over the next five days, starting with a trip to face the Wolfpack. 

After a miraculous run from the first day of the ACC tournament to the Final Four a year ago, NC State reloaded the roster via the transfer portal. But success has been limited with those new pieces and, as a result, NC State has come crashing back down to earth. It started 2-2 in conference play and proceeded to lose nine games in a row. The Wolfpack enter the final week seven games under .500 overall and 10 games short of an even record in conference games. 

Scoring has been a real struggle for the Wolfpack all year. Even with a trio of guards averaging 10 or more points per game, they don’t shoot 3-pointers well (32%) and their 12.5 assists per game rank 265th in all of Division I. And in league play specifically, they’ve been the second-worst offense by adjusted efficiency among ACC squads. The Wolfpack keep turnovers low and can get downhill, which will help them stay competitive if the game isn’t fast-paced. 

Wednesday Storylines

NC State will celebrate its senior class on Wednesday. The Pack has seven senior players on the roster and will also honor its four senior managers in pregame festivities. Participating in senior day will be first-year NC State players Marcus Hill, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, and Dontrez Styles. second year players Ben Middlebrooks , Michael O’Connell and Jayden Taylor and fourth year guy Breon Pass. 

This year’s NC State team is averaging 69.6 points per game and is trending to be the lowest scoring team in the eight years of the Keatts era and the lowest scoring Pack team since the 2009-10 team averaged 66.6 points per game. The previous low for the Keatts era was 72.8 points per game in the 2020-21 season. Hill is  leading this year’s team in scoring with an average of 11.7 points per game. 

NC State’s bench contributed 27 points against Georgia Tech. The Pack’s bench has provided a scoring boost in recent games. NC State is averaging 27.7 bench points per game in the last seven outings. NC State is now averaging 21.9 bench points per game this season which is the highest bench output for the Pack since the 2018-19 team averaged 29.0 bench points per game.

Get out and run: NC State is 10-3 this season when it scores 14 or more fast break points in a game, but just 1-15 if it scores 13 or less fast break points.

NC State also is finding the range from long-distance. The Pack is averaging just 6.5 made three-pointers per game this season but has now made 52 three-pointers in the last six games (8.7 per game).

NC State series with Pitt

Wednesday will be the 28th all-time meeting between NC State and Pitt.  NC  State leads the all-time series with the Panthers, 21-6. The last meeting was March 9 2024.