NC State men’s basketball eying first win in Chapel Hill since 2018

The last time the NC State men’s basketball team won a game in Chapel Hill, a ragtag group of transfers and players left over from the tenure of previous head coach Mark Gottfried went into the Dean Smith Center and played a near-perfect game, taking down No. 10 North Carolina 95-91 in an overtime thriller.

The year was 2018, current head coach Kevin Keatts’ first in Raleigh in which he finished the season upending three top-10 teams, including a home upset over Duke just three weeks prior to beating UNC.

Now in Keatts’ sixth season, the Wolfpack (15-4, 5-3 ACC) travels to Chapel Hill for the first time this year in a way that’s very similar to 2018. The Pack is led by a tandem of standout transfers and the star from an otherwise abysmal 2021-22 season, and oh yeah, already beat Duke in blowout fashion.

Keatts came into the season desperately needing a good campaign in order to retain his job, and he certainly looks to be on the right track thus far, leading the Pack to a four-game win streak to become the hottest team in the ACC. But other than making the NCAA Tournament, there’s one feat that Keatts and this team could accomplish that would please NC State fans perhaps more than any other — beating North Carolina.

After starting the year as the preseason No. 1 team in the country, the Tar Heels (13-6, 5-3 ACC) haven’t had the season many expected thus far, but that doesn’t mean they’re not a good team. In their second season under head coach Hubert Davis, the Heels are still just as talented as any team in the country and can beat anyone on any given night.

UNC has 80% of its starting lineup from last year’s team, which made it all the way to the national championship. ACC Preseason Player of the Year Armando Bacot leads the team down low in points per game with 17.6, and the veteran backcourt duo of RJ Davis and Caleb Love are averaging 16.3 points per game each.

Rounding out the starting five are fifth-year senior Leaky Black and graduate transfer Pete Nance, the latter of whom is the son of former NBA player Larry Nance and is a transfer from Northwestern. Nance was responsible for perhaps the Heels’ most memorable moment of the season thus far, a game-tying buzzer-beater against Ohio State in Madison Square Garden.

Carolina currently finds itself out of the top 25 after losing four straight games at the end of November and early December, but the team has been playing better since then, winning eight of its last 10 games, including its most recent pair of matchups. Just like the famed teams in the days of Dean Smith and Roy Williams, the Heels are at their best when they push the ball and play fast.

For all that Carolina fans claim NC State is “not our rival,” the Heels always seem to play their best game whenever they see red uniforms. It’s true — the Heels have dominated the Pack over the last 30 years.

Perhaps the best evidence of this was last season when UNC played two of its best games of the regular season against NC State, routing the Pack 100-80 in the Dean Dome and again 84-74 in Raleigh. Call it a rivalry or not, but the Heels simply do not want to lose to the red-and-white.

In 2018, it took a near-perfect effort from the Pack to take down the Heels, which did the job just barely, showing how difficult it is for NC State to win in Chapel Hill. The team was led by graduate transfer Allerik Freeman, who scored 29 points on a perfect 7-7 from downtown as the team shot an outrageous 15-30 from beyond the arc.

Markell Johnson and Torin Dorn — two Gottfried-era players — chipped in with 20 points each, and big-man Omer Yurtseven put in 16. Instead of Freeman, Johnson and Dorn, the Pack now has the likes of sophomore guard Terquavion Smith, graduate guard Jarkel Joiner and graduate forward DJ Burns leading the way.

In years past, UNC has dominated NC State down in the paint with big men such as Brice Johnson, Garrison Brooks, Luke Maye and Bacot. The Pack has not had anyone who could size up with UNC’s bigs — that is, until now, with Burns.

While the backcourt battles between Smith, Joiner, Love and Davis will get most of the attention, the game could very well be decided down low in the matchup between Burns and Bacot, and whoever is able to stay in the game the longest without picking up fouls is likely to give his team the advantage.

It’s clear that the Pack is a contender in the ACC and has already proven itself with recent big wins against Duke and Miami, but this would be the biggest of them all. No matter what their record or ranking is, a win against North Carolina is about as sweet as it gets. But, as history has revealed, NC State will have to scrap, claw and lay it all on the line to have a chance.

Game time is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, with the matchup being televised on ACC Network. For live updates on this game and all things NC State Athletics, make sure to follow @TechSports on Twitter.