January Hoops

FSU looks to have a letdown after beating a Duke team at home in their last game. FSU is just 4-12-1 ATS in their last 17 home games while NCSU is 12-4 ATS in the last 16 meetings and the Wolfpack is 21-10-1 ATS in their last 32 on the road.

Let's look at the last 10 ACC home games for FSU:
(only 1 of 10 games was won by more than 8 points)

beat Duke by 5
beat Clemson by 6
beat WF by 4
lost to Clemson by 3
beat BC by 15
beat Miami by 6
lost to Md by 4
beat Ga Tech by 2
beat Va Tech by 5
lost to NCSU by 7

Yes, they lost both games vs. NC State last year by 58-52 in the ACC tournament and lost a high scoring 88-81 (+11) game at home. Scott Wood scored 31 and 18 in those games and made 13 (7 and 6) 3-pointers. Tracy Smith and Javier Gonzalev played well in those games too.

As for Tracy Smith, the senior has played just 6 of 16 games. The Wolfpack get balanced scoring from veterans and freshmen:

Tracy Smith 14
CJ Leslie 11
Ryan Harrow 11
Scott Wood 11
Lorenzo Brown 10
Richard Howell 8

Gonzalez, CJ Williams and DeShawn Painter also play minutes for the visitors, who have played at Wisconsin, at Syracuse and at Boston College this year. They played Georgetown on a neutral court and played Arizona at home, so they have played a good schedule.

Now NCSU goes on the road off of a 9 point road loss to Boston College to play a defesnive team that has already lost at home to Florida and Ohio State. The Seminoles get 15.7 points per game from Chris Singleton and 10 from Kitchen and next are Snaer and Dulkys at 8 ppg.

I like our chances for NCSU to stay within 8 even without Farnold Degand no longer on the roster. NCSU +8 is the line as I write this on Friday night.

NC State +8 is the play