HIGH-OCTANE OFFENSE
Mark Gottfried has brought a fast-paced, high energy offense to NC State as evidenced by the
team’s scoring numbers. The Wolfpack currently leads the Atlantic Coast Conference and is
tied for 12th nationally in scoring with 78.9 points per game.
The Pack’s offensive production has improved dramatically since Gottfried took over the program
prior to last season. In 2010-11, the campaign prior to his arrival, State ranked 115th nationally
and sixth in the ACC in scoring with 70.7 point per game. Last year, his first season with the
Wolfpack, the average was up slightly to 72.9 points per game - the nation’s 59th-best mark at
season’s end.
The NC State single season record for points per game is 92.9, set in 1973. However, the Pack’s
current mark would rank as the highest in over 15 years (81.2 in 1996) if the season ended today.
State has already scored at least 80 points in 11 contests this season - the highest total for a
Wolfpack squad since 2005-06 (13).
RECRUITING PROWESS
Mark Gottfried is bringing top-level talent to Raleigh, as both of his recruiting classes have been
ranked in the top-10 nationally. Last year, having just seven months till the fall signing period,
Gottfried brought in the No. 5 recruiting class in the nation, including three McDonald’s All-Americans.
It marked the first time the Wolfpack had three McDonald’s All-Americans in the same class
since 1979. Gottfried followed up with three more recruits signed in November and that class
currently ranks ninth nationally.
Gottfried came to NC State with the reputation of being a first-class recruiter. In three of his
final four seasons at Alabama, Gottfried’s recruiting classes were nationally ranked: 10th in
2005, 27th in 2007, and 16th in 2008.
NC STATE VS. WAKE FOREST
Tuesday’s game is the 236th meeting in the
rivalry between NC State and Wake Forest,
which is tied with Duke for the most games
NC State has played against one school.
The Wolfpack has won five straight against
Wake Forest, its longest streak in the series
since Jim Valvano led the Pack to six straight
wins from 1985-87. Everett Case twice had
10-game winning streaks over the Deacons,
from 1949-52 and from 1954-57.
The Pack’s five straight wins have come by
an average of 21.4 points. NC State has also
won two straight at Wake, by a combined 61
points.
The two teams have met at least twice a year
since 1944, when World War II interrupted
the rivalry for one season. Since the first
game in 1911, the only seasons the teams
haven’t met at least twice were in 1914-15
when no game was played, 1929-30 when
only one game was played and 1943-44
when no game was played.
LAST SEASON VS. THE DEACONS
NC State posted a 76-40 victory at Wake Forest
on Jan. 14, 2012, with that 36-point margin
of victory ranking as the second largest in
an ACC road game by the Wolfpack since it
defeated Clemson by 40 (112-72) in 1954.
The victory gave State its fourth consecutive
win over the Demon Deacons and its eighth
win in the last 11 contests versus Wake Forest.
The Wolfpack was led in scoring by Lorenzo
Brown with a game-high 20 points. C.J. Williams
contributed 15 points, while Scott Wood
added 12. Richard Howell posted his fifth
double double of the season with 12 points
and 12 rebounds.
State controlled the game from the outset,
scoring the first five points and never relinquishing
its lead. The Pack took a 33-17 lead at
the break following a 10-2 run to close out the
stanza. In the second half, NC State outscored
Wake Forest 43-23 and led by as much as 39
during the period. The 40 points by Wake was
the lowest output for a Pack opponent since
NC Central scored 29 in 2008, and the fewest
for an ACC foe since 28 points by Maryland in the 1982 ACC Tournament.
NC State would earn a sweep of the season series
with Wake Forest with an 87-76 home win
on Feb. 4, 2012. The Wolfpack was paced by
a season-high 23 points by Scott Wood, who
connected on six 3-pointers and was 8-for-10
overall from the field and 1-for-1 from the line.
His long-range shooting help swing the
momentum toward the Pack, as he hit three
straight 3-pointers in the span of 91 seconds
to turn 29-22 deficit in to 31-29 lead. NC State
finished the first half on a 20-4 run, taking a
42-33 lead at the break.
Wake Forest chipped away at NC State’s nine-point
halftime lead early, eventually tying the
game at 50 just before the 13-minute mark.
The Pack responded with a 16-5 run to stretch
its lead to 11 points, 66-55, with 8:40 to play.
Wake rallied to pull within five at 69-64, but
State answered once again with an 11-2 run to
seal the victory.
The C.J.s, Williams and Leslie, each contributed
18 points and Lorenzo Brown added 15 points
and provided eight assists. Richard Howell
had a double-double of 11 points and 11
rebounds in the win.
GOTTFRIED FAMILY TIES SUPER BOWL COACHES
Not only will the Feb. 3 Super Bowl be a
family affair between brothers Jim and John
Harbaugh as they coach the San Francisco
49ers and Baltimore Ravens, respectively, but
it will also have a family connection with NC
State ties.
Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried is the Harbaughs
second cousin, as their grandmothers
were sisters. In other words, gottfried’s father,
Joe, and Jim and John’s dad, Jack, are first
cousins. Jack Harbaugh is the Wolfpack head
coach’s godfather.
Gottfried’s oldest son Brandon also played
football for a season under Jim Harbaugh at
Stanford before he left to coach the 49ers.
Gottfried’s uncle, Mike, coached football at Pitt
from 1986-89 and both John and Jack were on
his staff in 1987.
The Harbaughs have one other basketball
connection: their sister, Joani, is married to
Indiana coach Tom Crean.
THE RACE TO 1,000
The game at Wake Forest could mark the first
time in school history that two players have reached the 1,000-point total for their career
in the same game. Senior Richard Howell
lacks five points of reaching that milestone,
while junior Lorenzo Brown is 10 points
away. When and if both players reach that
milestone, all four of the Wolfpack’s upperclassmen
will be a part of the program’s 1,000-point
club.
Scott Wood scored his 1,000th point in last
season’s opening-round win over San Diego
State in the NCAA Tournament.
Junior C.J. Leslie earned his place in the fraternity
in the first half in NC State’s win over
Western Michigan on Dec. 29. He became
the 46th player in NC State’s storied basketball
history to score his 1,000th point.
The last time NC State had three 1,000-point
scorers on the same team was in 2008-09,
with Brandon Costner (1,273), Ben McCauley
(1,138) and Courtney Fells (1,060).
The 1982-83 squad also had a trio of 1,000
scorers led by Thurl Bailey (1,495), Dereck
Whittenburg (1,272) and Sidney Lowe
(1,048). That squad went on to win the
national title.
Only 10 previous times have a pair of players
in the same recruiting class each scored
1,000 point during their careers, the last was
the trio of Costner, Fells and McCauley. Howell
and Wood would be the 11th and Brown
and Leslie would be the 12th.
SHARP SHOOTERS
NC State turned in its lowest shooting performance
of the season Wednesday in the
one-point loss at Maryland, uncharacteristically
connecting on just 31.1 percent of its
shots. That was the lowest mark of the season
and dropped the Pack from the national
lead in field goal percentage to third place.
The Pack still ranks third, but its percentage
dropped further to .511 after shooting just
.451 in the win over Clemson - the second
time all year that the Pack has shot less than
.500 and won a game.
In 14 of 18 contests this season, State has
shot .500 or better, including a season best
.614 in its season-opening victory over
Miami of Ohio.
In its first three games against ACC competition,
State hit .500 from the field.
DULL SHOOTERS
The main common denominator in the
Wolfpack three losses this season has been
poor shooting.
State has shot .533 (442-828) in its 15 wins
and just .408 (73-179) in its three losses.
Another common factor in the three losses
has been that all three occurred away from
the friendly confines of the PNC Arena.
In home games, State has shot .544, while
connecting at just a .462 pace away from
home. The Wolfpack posts an 11-0 home
record this season.
BATTING .500
Since the beginning of the ACC in 1953-54,
the NC State men’s basketball team has finished
the season shooting over 50.0 percent from the field just five times. The Pack’s current
season total is 51.1 percent, while the school record
is 52.1 set by the 1981-82 squad.
In 14 of the Pack’s 18 games this season, NC
State has shot over 50.0 percent in the game.
The last time the Pack shot over 50.0 percent in
that many games was during the 2006-07 season,
when NC State shot 50.0 percent or better
in 19 of the 36 contests.
MAKING BASKETS
NC State currently is tied for 12th nationally in
scoring, as the Pack is averaging 78.9 points
per game. Mark Gottfried’s team has eclipsed
the 80-point mark in 11 of the 18 games this
season, including eight of the last 11.
The Pack has not averaged 80 points in a season
since 1996 (81.2).
In the past two games, a loss at Maryland and
a win over Clemson, the Pack has averaged
just 58.0 points.
THE SELFISH SHARER
Junior point guard Lorenzo Brown was very
giving in the Wolfpack’s win over top-ranked
Duke on Jan. 12. He was also extremely selfish.
Brown generously passed the ball to his teammates
in that epic Wolfpack win - dishing out
13 assists to tie his career high in that category.
The oddest thing about that statistic is that
Brown had every assist in the game. Nationally,
only three times since 1996-97 has a team
tallied more than 10 assists in a game with
every one going to a single player.
Brown ranks fourth in school history with 472
assists and is just one away from third place.
He had one other 13-assist game in his career.
That one also came against the nation’s No. 1
team, as he handed out a baker’s dozen when
top-ranked Syracuse visited the PNC Arena on
Dec. 17, 2011.
THE LONGEST GAMES
NC State and Wake Forest played in the two
longest games in ACC history.
On the last weekend of the 1988-89 regular
season, the two teams met in the final game
played at the old iteration of the Greensboro
Coliseum, which from 1959-89 was the primary
home of the Demon Deacons.
On that final day of the season, however, fans
were treated to the only four-overtime game
between league schools in the ACC’s 58-year
history, which the Wolfpack won in remarkable
fashion.
With his team trailing 77-75 with two seconds
to play in regulation, NC State coach Jim Valvano
sent guard Kelsey Weems to the free-throw
line and ordered him to miss the first of his
one-and-one opportunity. Teammate Rodney
Monroe then made one of the more improbable
shots in league history, grabbing Weems’
intentionally missed shot and putting back a
soft jumper while falling backwards to send
the game into overtime.
The teams played evenly for three five-minute
extra periods, until the Wolfpack pulled away
from a tiring Wake Forest squad. Monroe gave
his team the lead at the start of the fourth
overtime and then hit two free throws in the
waning moments to seal the 110-103 victory,
finishing off his 26-point scoring effort.
The win assured the Wolfpack of first place
in the final ACC standings and gave Valvano’s
team the top seed at the 1989 ACC Tournament.
It was one of three quadruple-overtime games
ever played by ACC schools. North Carolina
played four extra periods against Tulane in the
1976 regular season and NC State suffered one
of the most heart-breaking losses in school
history when Everett Case’s No. 2 ranked Wolfpack
fell to Canisius in the 1956 NCAA Tournament,
ending the career of Pack All-American
Ronnie Shavlik.
But none of those games are even close to the
longest league contest ever played – which
spanned nearly two-and-a-half months.
On Dec. 11, 1965, Wake Forest hosted the
Wolfpack at Memorial Coliseum on Wake’s
Winston-Salem campus. But midway through
the first half, two transformers in the main lobby
caught fire and more than 7,000 spectators
and the two teams were evacuated with the
Wolfpack leading 23-13.
The game didn’t resume until 74 days later,
on Feb. 23, 1966, when the Wolfpack traveled
back to Winston-Salem to finish the contest
with a 101-75 victory, concluding the longest
game in league history.
A STRONG START
NC State’s 78-73 victory over Boston College
on Jan. 5 in Chestnut Hill, Mass., was the first
time the Wolfpack opened ACC play with a
road win since Dec. 4, 1997, when the Pack
beat Georgia Tech in Atlanta, 71-69.
On Jan. 9, an 83-70 victory over Georgia Tech
at PNC Arena gave the Wolfpack its first 2-0
record in league play for the first time since
2003-04, which is also the last time NC State
had beaten a top-ranked Duke team prior to
this past weekend.
On Jan. 12, Mark Gottfried and company sent
top-ranked Duke packing, winning 84-76 to
move to 3-0 in the league for the first time
since 1988-89. That year, head coach Jim
Valvano led State to its most recent regular season
league championship.
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER 1
NC State’s 84-76 win on Jan. 14 against top-ranked
Duke was the program’s first over the
nation’s No. 1 team since Feb. 2, 2004. On that
date, the Wolfpack also knocked over the No. 1
ranked Blue Devils, 78-74, snapping an eight-game
winning streak.
The most recent victory was NC State’s sixth
over a No. 1 team. The Wolfpack is one of 18
programs to boast multiple wins over No. 1
teams and joins Indiana with six wins against
top-ranked squads. That mark ranks 12th
nationally.