Gameday Preview: Wolfpack Wrap Up Season In Miami – Sat March 8th 2025

 March 8, 2025 

Coral Gables, FL- The NC State men’s basketball team closes the 2024-25 season on Saturday when it takes on Miami at the Watsco Center at 12 pm. 

Both NC State and the University of Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball teams have had disastrous seasons considering the Wolfpack won the ACC tournament and made the final four a season ago. The Canes are dead in last place in the ACC with a 2-17 conference record. The silver lining for Miami is that NC State is 0-10 on the road this season, which means the Hurricanes should have a decent shot of winning their season finale. 

Two players to watch in the finale: 

Matthew Cleveland, Miami Hurricanes – In his final game at The U, the senior guard gets one last chance to show why he is the heart of the Miami offense. He leads the team with 17.1 points per game while shooting a team-high 51.5% from the field. His 

defensive play has been impressive as well, and he leads the team in blocks as a guard. 

Michael O’Connell, NC State Wolf Pack – O’Connell is coming off a team-leading 15-point game in a rare conference win for the Wolf Pack. He also leads the team with 3.6 assists per game. 

Saturday Storylines 

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. 

NC State is averaging 25.9 bench points per game in the last seven outings. NC State is now averaging 21.6 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.

Guard Michael O’Connell enters Saturday’s season-finale (and final game of his collegiate career) just 17 points shy of 1,000. O’Connell’s scoring high in two years with NC State is 16 points which he’s done three times. In 160 career games, O’Connell has scored 17 or more points in a game three times. 

Jayden Taylor is just 34 points shy of 1,500 career points, but has only scored 14 points in the last four games. Taylor is shooting just 5-of-20 (25%) from the field in the last four outings. 

Guard Ben Middlebrooks is one of seven players in the ACC that has combined for 65 or more blocks and steals this season The NC State senior leads the team in blocks with 39 and is third on the team with 27 steals. Middlebrooks has had 11 games this season where he’s finished with three blocks or three steals. 

NC State series with Miami 

Saturday will be the 31st all-time meeting between NC State and Miami. NC State leads the all-time series with the Hurricanes, 16-14. Their last meeting was on Jan 31st 2024.