The resurgent North Carolina Tar Heels (4-5) look for a third straight Atlantic Coast Conference win on Saturday evening when they visit the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (6-3), who come off a big upset victory last week.
North Carolina improved to 2-3 in the ACC last week, outlasting visiting Stanford 20-15 after taking a 20-3 lead early in the fourth quarter. Gio Lopez finished 18-of-25 for 203 yards and two touchdowns, one each to Jordan Shipp, who had five catches for 83 yards, and Davion Gause. The defense stepped up with nine sacks and forced two turnovers, with Melkart Abou Jaoude and Tyler Thompson each logging three sacks and Andrew Simpson getting two.
Wake Forest got two scores late in the first half to take a 10-6 lead and held off then-No. 14 Virginia for a 16-9 road win last week. Carlos Hernandez had the game’s only touchdown on an 88-yard punt return with 1:33 left in the second quarter before the Demon Deacons recovered a fumble to set up Connor Calvert’s 39-yard field goal less than a minute later. Calvert later converted from 50 and 49 yards in the second half. Demond Claiborne ran for 75 tough yards on 25 carries, and Dylan Hazen forced a fumble and recovered two while logging seven tackles.
The Tar Heels have won the last four meetings with Wake Forest, including a 31-24 win at home last season, and hold a 73-36-2 lead in an all-time series that dates to 1888.
This is a great college football matchup that you will not want to miss; make sure to tune in and catch all the action.
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DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) — Duke Men’s Basketball Head Coach Jon Scheyer was part of a weekly media gathering of ACC coaches.
This comes after Duke’s Kyle Filipowski appeared to be injured when students at Wake Forest stormed the court after beating the Blue Devils over the weekend.
In his post-game press conference Scheyer mentioned something needed to be done about the long-held tradition of court-storming in college basketball.
During today’s media availability Scheyer continued to say something needs to be done to protect the players when students storm the court.
“That can’t happen. Even in retrospect, you’re watching it back and there is a ton of attention on Flip (Filipowski) but if you go back and watch Jared McCain there is a student face to face with him. It’s a dangerous situation.”
He went on to say he hopes the ACC will do something to protect players right now and not wait until next season.
Scheyer said Filipowski’s status is still unknown for their next game against Louisville on Wednesday.
The Filipowski incident comes after college player Caitlin Clark ran into an eager fan who was also rushing the court after a big upset against Clark’s team.
N.C. State head coach Kevin Keatts speaks with his team during the first half of the Wolfpack’s game against Wake Forest on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Kaitlin McKeown
kmckeown@newsobserver.com
Raleigh
N.C. State basketball coach Kevin Keatts learned a hard lesson about the NET rankings and NCAA tournament rankings in 2019.
The Wolfpack was 33rd in the NET used by the NCAA selection committee to help determine the field. With a win over Clemson in the ACC Tournament, the Pack appeared to have done enough.
And then the Pack was left out. St. John’s, No. 73 in the NET, made it.
N.C. State’s nonconference strength of schedule was ranked No. 353 that season, the worst in Division I. Strength of schedule also was factored into the NET formula, not that it mattered.
The lesson learned by Keatts: schedule better or the NCAA committee can find a way to keep you out.
Here’s another way: stand 80th in the NET rankings. That’s where the Wolfpack sits after an 83-79 loss Saturday at Wake Forest.
Keatts noted Monday the Pack (15-9, 7-6 ACC) did not drop in the NET rankings despite being the loser. Wake Forest, the winner, moved down a few slots, he said.
“There’s something a little flawed with that,” Keatts said.
One thing the Wolfpack can not dodge is its 0-6 record against Quad-1 opponents. Put up an “oh-for” in that category and nothing else may not matter as far as making the NCAAs, and the Pack missed out on one Saturday at Wake.
The NET factors in both offensive and defensive efficiency, with a margin of victory component that has many coaches, including Keatts, saying it encourages teams to run up the score on weaker opponents.
“This thing has become a complete numbers game, and unfortunately I think it takes away from sportsmanship,” Keatts said. “Our games become ‘Hey, you’ve got to try to beat the heck out of people’ just to improve your NET.”
Both Keatts and his players said Saturday that the NCAA Tournament remains the goal, that Quad-1 opportunities remain on the schedule. The Pack plays at Clemson on Saturday and later has games against North Carolina and Duke. Then, there’s the ACC Tournament.
“We can still be there in March,” guard D.J. Horne said Saturday.
After a two-game ACC losing streak, Keatts said this week’s practices would be “more about us.” The Pack, he said, needed some defensive work. The extra time also could give guards Jayden Taylor and Casey Morsell some rest time and perhaps a freshness that could help solve their shooting woes in the losses to Wake Forest and Pitt.
Horne has been stringing together strong offensive games, the transfer guard putting up 20 or more points in his last four games. He had a season-high 31 points against Wake and is averaging 26.5 points over the four-game span.
Keatts said after the Wake game that Horne was playing aggressively, with a “chip on his shoulder.”
“He’s carried us the last three, four games,” Keatts said Monday. “He has played elite basketball. I do not know where we would be without him.”
Taylor had 21 points in a win over Georgia Tech but did not score in a 67-64 loss to Pitt. He then was 3-of-15 from the field at Wake Forest, missing seven of eight 3-point shots.
Morsell had seven points against the Deacons and is a combined 5-of-15 in the two losses.
Guard Michael O’Connell, who has moved into the starting lineup, also has not been as effective. He had two points in each of the two losses and played just 11 minutes at Wake Forest.
“We’ve got to get a few of our guys playing better, making some shots,” Keatts said.
Clemson (16-7, 6-6 ACC) has won its last two after a one-point loss to Virginia. First, they went into Chapel Hill and knocked off North Carolina 80-76. The Tigers then shot 61% from the field in beating Syracuse, offsetting 21 turnovers in a 77-68 win
The Pack lost three times to Clemson last season and had blowout defeats in both its last home game and in the ACC Tournament. The Pack went to the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The Tigers, who had a better ACC record than N.C. State last season plus the tournament win, were left out.
In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.
If you had seen D.J. Horne standing outside the N.C. State locker room Saturday and didn’t know if the Wolfpack had won or lost, he wouldn’t have given off any clues.
He wasn’t upset. He wasn’t complaining. There was a bit of disappointment in his eyes but otherwise Horne was composed, showing a degree of maturity that can be rare in some college athletes when questioned after a tough loss.
The Pack was still winding down from an 83-79 loss to Wake Forest at Joel Coliseum. Horne had scored 31 points, but missed a shot with three seconds left that would have tied the score and likely led to overtime.
Instead of any anger about the game, Horne used the word “fun” a few times.
“We knew we beat them earlier in the season and we knew there would be a lot of energy coming from their end today,” the Wolfpack guard said. “As a player, you get up for these types of games. I have in my career and I felt like I was definitely up and prepared for this game.
“I trust my work and when I saw shots going in, that’s always fun.”
Horne saw 13 shots go in against the Deacons and four were 3-pointers. The Joel Coliseum crowd of 12,571, the vast majority Wake Forest fans and loud and engaged all game, groaned a bit when Horne went off.
Some were more vocal than others. After Horne scored one first-half basket, he turned to the crowd and put his forefinger to his lips. The response was some jeers, and one Wake Forest fan stood to give Horne the middle finger.
“Yeah, man, the crowd was talking to me a little bit, chirping,” Horne said, smiling. “I’m sure everybody knows why.”
Horne didn’t say it but the “why” was a reference to him being reprimanded by the ACC for directing both middle fingers toward a referee late in the Pack’s 83-76 win over Wake Forest in Raleigh.
“I definitely wanted to come out here and match anything they were giving me, whether that was on the court or in the stands,” Horne said.
Horne had 19 points in the first half as the Pack took a 45-39 lead, bouncing around the floor, enjoying himself. With Mohamed Diarra coming off the bench and playing with some fire and energy, the Wolfpack ran the floor, rebounded well and generally contained a team coming off 29-point ACC demolitions of Syracuse and Georgia Tech.
The Deacs at times had Cameron Hildreth, a 6-4 junior, matched up against Horne in the second half although the Deacs threw in some double teams, looking to make Horne give up the ball.
Horne and Hildreth both were called for technical fouls late in the first half after some cross words. And their chirping continued after halftime, not that Horne made a big issue of it
“He’s a good defender and we definitely had that going,” Horne said. “With a good defender, I feel like he’s definitely trying to get in my head and try to slow me down a little on offense.”
After Andrew Carr’s inside score over Diarra with 17 seconds left in regulation pushed Wake ahead 81-79, Wake coach Steve Forbes called a timeout. Wake Forest, which had been called for four fouls in the second half, used one with 13 seconds remaining when Boopie Miller fouled Michael O’Connell.
When the Pack got the ball in-bounds, everyone in the building knew who would get it.
Would he take a 3 for the win or just look to score and tie it?
“We were just looking for the first available shot, trying to get a quick one just in case we did miss it, so we could get the rebound and we’d have a second opportunity,” Horne said
“It wasn’t like we were going for a specific shot.”
Horne took the ball on the right side, made a move to get past Hildreth, and took a jumper from near the foul line with Deacs center Efron Reid coming out at him. The shot was well short, the ball grazing the front of the rim.
“They made him take a tough shot,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said.
So ended something of a scoring duel between Horne and Wake’s Hunter Sallis, who had a game-high 33 points and made two free throws with three seconds left to end it.
Horne and the Wolfpack (15-9, 7-6 ACC) will have a week to mull it over and analyze it. The next game is at Clemson on Saturday, the ACC path a hard one for State.
“I do believe this game can help us in the next one,” Horne said. “It was a very close game and came down to the wire. I felt like when we go back and watch the film, we’ll see a lot of mental mistakes where we kind of lost focus, where we can clean things up.”
Is the NCAA tournament still a realistic goal?
“Yes, it is,” Horne said. “We’ve got a lot of Quad-1 opportunities left. It’s going to be tough but I definitely think we can do it.”
In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.
