Location: RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C.
Tip-Off: 3:30 p.m.
Television: ABC
Radio: Airtime begins @ 3:00 PM on the Wolfpack Radio Network
NC State Information
ROSTER
SCHEDULE
COACHING STAFF
Duke Information
SCHEDULE
ROSTER
STATS
NC State Projected Starting Line-up
G- 04 Courtney Fells
G- 11 Gavin Grant
G- 14 Engin Atsur
F- 33 Brandon Costner
C- 34 Ben McCauley
Duke Projected Starting Line-up
F- 21 DeMarcus Nelson
F- 42 Lance Thomas
C- 02 Josh McRoberts
G- 03 Greg Paulus
G- 30 Jon Scheyer
Players to Watch
NC State
Gavin Grant -- Grant has been tearing it up lately, starring as a scorer for the Wolfpack. He should have size advantage over the Duke guards, so look for NC State to try and get Grant involved early.
Duke
Greg Paulus -- Paulus has struggled at times this season but was on fire Thursday night against Wake Forest. Look for NC State to pressure Paulus and try to take advantage of him on the defensive end of the floor.
NC STATE GAME NOTES
NOTING THE PACK
Only two Wolfpack players have ever seen action versus Duke.
NC State played 11 players in its last game against Wake Forest. The highest total of the season.
Brandon Costner leads all ACC rookies in both scoring and rebounding.
Costner set a new NC State freshman
record with 19 rebounds against UNCW - the highest tally in the ACC this season.
Center Ben McCauley ranks third in the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio.
Four Wolfpack players - Gavin Grant, Brandon Costner, Ben McCauley and Courtney Fells- rank in the top five in the ACC in minutes played.
Five Wolfpack players have played the entire 40 minutes in at least one game.
NC STATE VS. DUKE
Saturday's matchup will be the 226th meeting between
NC State and Duke, with the Blue Devils holding a 130-95 lead in the series. The series is the second-longest in Wolfpack
basketball history, dating back to the 1911-12 season.
The Wolfpack has won two of the last three matchups with the Blue Devils in Raleigh,
winning 80-71 against third-ranked Duke on Jan. 22, 2003, and knocking off the Devils, 78-74, when they were ranked No. 1 on Feb. 15, 2004. In 2005, the Pack fell to No. 5 Duke, 74-86, in the RBC Center
and Duke did not visit the Wolfpack's home court last season.
Duke had won 13 straight games over NC State prior to the Pack’s 2003 upset and has won 24 of the last 27 games played in the series (NC State’s only other win during that time frame was a 66-60 victory over the top-seeded Blue Devils in the 1997 ACC Tournament quarterfinals. The eighth-seeded Wolfpack then went on to defeat Maryland to advance to the championship game).
PACK FACES FOURTH RANKED TEAM
In just its 18th game of the season, the Wolfpack will face its fourth ranked opponent
when Duke comes into the RBC Center.
NC State is 0-3 against ranked competition this season - losing to No. 25 Virginia in Charlottesville by five (62-67), to 10th-ranked Alabama (75-82) and to No. 17 Clemson (76-87).
LOWE EARNS FIRST ACC VICTORY
The road is a not a friendly place for a college basketball coach, especially one who is competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. First-year Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe, however, garnered his first ACC road victory in just his second
try (the Wolfpack lost to Virginia in Charlottesville on Dec. 3).
Lowe is the first Wolfpack coach since Press Maravich to earn his first ACC road victory in just his second try. In 1964-65, Maravich lost his first conference game on the road to Wake Forest, then defeated Maryland.
DUKE WHO?
Despite the fact that Duke is an ACC team and a school that is just 20+ miles away, only two of the players on the current Wolfpack roster have ever seen action against the Blue Devils.
Engin Atsür, whose status for Saturday's
game is still up in the air, has started and played five games against Duke, while Gavin Grant has played in three and started none.
PACK TAKES A BREATHER
Not only has the Pack had a week off between the Wake Forest and Duke games, but the win over the Demon Deacons was almost like a vacation for some Wolfpack players - not in terms of the intensity of the game, but in terms of the minutes they played.
Ben McCauley was in for 28 minutes - his lowest total in 15 games. Brandon Costner was in for 28, lowest in seven games. Gavin Grant? Tied for second-lowest of the season. The reason? Sidney Lowe played 11 players in the contest - the highest total since November 24, when nine players saw action.
Senior Bryan Nieman got the majority of the extra minutes with 22, but football player Darrell Davis played six and Braxton Albritton, Chad Williams and Justin Clark were all in for one key minute at some point during the game.
GREAT GRANT
Junior Gavin Grant opened the season as the Wolfpack's leading scorer, averaging 16.6 points in NC State's first nine games. In the next five games, however, as he adjusted to his role as point guard, that average went down to 11.2 points per game (including the only two games of the year when he did not reach double figures).
The last three games have been a different story for the Bronx, NY, native. Grant has averaged 22.7 points in the last three outings, posting three straight 20+ games against Boston College, Clemson and Wake Forest.
It marks the first time a Pack player has gone over 20 points in three straight games since Grant's former teammate Julius Hodge did so in 2003-04. It marks the first time a State player has accomplished that against three ACC teams since Anthony Grundy posted three consecutive 20-point games against Clemson, Georgia Tech and North Carolina in 2002-03.
One reason Grant's scoring may have increased so dramatically may be his shot selection. He has shot 68% (28-41) from the field in those three contests after shooting 42% (70-166) in the 14 previous games.
SHOT SELECTION SOLID
NC State posted its second highest shooting percentage
of the season in the win over Wake Forest last Saturday - connecting on .607 from the field. The Wolfpack actually shot .682 in the second half of the 14-point win. The Wolfpack now ranks second in the league in field goal percentage with a .507 mark.
Four Wolfpack players are currently shooting 53% or better from the field (Ben McCauley, Engin Atsür, Dennis Horner and Trevor Ferguson) and four of the five starters are shooting over 49%.
McCauley currently ranks third in the league with a .614 mark. NC State has shot 50% or better from the field as a team in nine of its 17 games.
HORNER TURNS THE CORNER
One of the bright sides to the injury to Engin
Atsür has been the emergence of freshman Dennis Horner.
Horner has started six of the 11 games that Atsür has missed, averaging 9.5 points as a starter as opposed to 4.9 off the bench. But in the last two games (versus No. 17 Clemson and at Wake Forest), Horner has caught fire. He scored a career-high 14 points against the Tigers and followed that with a dozen against Wake Forest. Horner has shot 82% (9-11) from the field in the last two contests, 83% (5-6) from three-point range.
He's dished out four assists in those two games and hasn't turned the ball over while averaging
29.5 minutes.
FELLS IS SWELL
Sophomore Courtney
Fells started off the win at Wake Forest running the point for the Wolfpack.
Although by game's end, he wasn't at that position any more, he had posted a career-high 20 points. Fells shot 4-9 from behind the three-point arc in the contest, 8-15 from the field overall.
TOP SCORERS PLAY FOR PACK
NC State is one of only two Atlantic Coast Conference schools that currently
has three players ranked in the top-13 in the league scoring stats.
Redshirt freshman Brandon Costner currently ranks seventh with 16.6 ppg, while sophomore Ben McCauley is eighth with the same average, but has scored one less point. Junior Gavin Grant is 13th with a 16.1 ppg average.
The Wolfpack has two players ranked in the top 12 in the league in the individual
rebounding stats - Costner (5th, 7.8) and McCauley (12th, 6.6).
DUKE GAME NOTES
STORYLINES
Duke leads the all-time series with N.C. State 131-95, including a 40-18 mark under Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils have won eight of the last 10 road games versus N.C. State, including a 4-2 slate at the RBC Center.
Duke and N.C. State have played in five of the past eight ACC Tournaments. The Blue Devils won all five meetings, including wins in the championship game in 2002 and 2003. Duke is 14-8 all-time in the ACC Tournament against the Wolfpack.
Coach K owns a 266-117 record in conference regular season play, including a 116-75 mark in road games. His 266 career ACC wins is the second most in league history.
Duke is coming off its top defensive effort of the season in Thursday’s 62-40 win over Wake Forest. The 40 points allowed was a season low and tied for the third fewest allowed by Duke in an ACC contest. The Blue Devils held Wake Forest to 19 points in the second half, the sixth time this season they have limited the opposition to less than 20 points in a half.
Sophomore Greg Paulus is averaging 11.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game over the last eight contests. He has reached double-figures in scoring in six of the eight games and is shooting 48.4 percent (30-of-62) from the field, including 48.7 percent (19-of-39) from three-point distance in that time span. Paulus is coming off a 17-point effort that including a career-high five three-pointers against Wake Forest on Thursday.
Josh McRoberts is the only player in the ACC to rank in the top 10 in rebounds (sixth - 7.7 rpg.), blocks (third - 2.50 bpg.), assists (eighth - 4.22 apg.), assist-to-turnover ratio (eighth - 1.73:1) and minutes played (sixth - 34.39 pg.). He is also 24th in the league in scoring at 12.6 points per game. McRoberts is the only non-guard listed among the top 10 assist leaders in the conference and one of just two forwards among the top 10 in assist-to-turnover ratio.
Junior DeMarcus Nelson is 17th in the ACC in scoring at 14.4 ppg. He is also seventh in the league in field goal percentage (.519 - 94-of-181). In four league games, Nelson is shooting 55.6 percent (25-of-45) from the field, tied for fifth in the ACC in conference play.
David McClure is tied for second on the team in rebounds at 5.3 rpg. He is also second on the team with 25 steals, while playing 21.2 minutes per game. His 5.3 rpg. are the second most in the ACC by a non-starter (behind BC’s Shamari Spears - 6.3 rpg.). He has two double figure rebounding efforts and is averaging 7.2 rpg. in the last five contests.
Duke announced on Thursday, Jan. 11, that Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick will have their respective jersey numbers retired at separate ceremonies this season. Williams’ number 23 will be retired on January 28 and Redick’s number 4 will be retired on February 4 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The two former Blue Devil stars will be the 12th and 13th players to be honored at “Retirement Day” at Duke, joining Dick Groat (10), Art Heyman (25), Jeff Mullins (44), Mike Gminski (43), Johnny Dawkins (24), Danny Ferry (35), Christian Laettner (32), Bobby Hurley (11), Grant Hill (33), Shane Battier (31) and Jason Williams (22).
DEVILISH ON DEFENSE
Despite the departure of two-time
NABC National Defensive Player of
the Year Shelden Williams, Duke’s
defense remains one of the best in the
ACC.
The Blue Devils are giving up 55.2
points per game (eighth-lowest in the
NCAA - as of Jan. 15) as well as just
27.1 percent (68-of-251) shooting from
three-point distance. Duke is allowing
the opposition to shoot 39.0 percent
(381-of-977) overall from the field,
second-best in the ACC.
Duke has held 13 opponents under
56 points in a game, including six
foes under 50 points this season. In
wins over Columbia, Holy Cross, UNC
Greensboro and Wake Forest, the
Blue Devils forced more turnovers than
their opponents had made field goals.
102ND SEASON OF BASKETBALL
Duke is in its 102nd season of basketball
in 2006-07. The Blue Devils have
compiled a 1,811-814 record to rank fourth
all-time in victories.
DUKE IN ELITE VICTORY CLUB
With its 71-56 win over Air Force in the
semifi nals of the CBE Classic on Nov. 20,
2006, Duke became just the fourth school in
NCAA history to have earned at least 1,800
all-time wins. Now with 1,811 wins, the Blue
Devils join Kentucky (1,941), North Carolina
(1,897) and Kansas (1,887) as members of
the 1,800-win club.
SUSTAINED SUCCESS
Duke has won 20 or more games 41
times in its 102 years of basketball. Including
a 32-4 mark last year, Duke has won
20+ games for 10 straight seasons.
The Blue Devils have won 30 or more
games nine times, including six times in the
last nine seasons. All nine 30+ win seasons
have come under Coach K.
COACH K MOVING UP VICTORY LADDER
Mike Krzyzewski is one of just 19
coaches in Division I history to reach 700
career wins. His 768 wins is ninth all-time
among college basketball’s victory leaders
(third among active coaches).
TRIO OF CAPTAINS
Junior DeMarcus Nelson, sophomore
Greg Paulus and sophomore Josh
McRoberts were named team captains for
the 2006-07 season. Paulus and McRoberts
are the fi rst sophomores to be named
team captains in the 102-year history of the
Duke men’s basketball program.
NELSON LEADING THE WAY
Junior DeMarcus Nelson leads the
Blue Devils in scoring (14.4 ppg.), fi eld
goals (94) and steals (28). He is also
second in three-point percentage (39.1
pct.) and rebounding (5.3 rpg.). Nelson, a
preseason Naismith Trophy candidate, is
shooting 51.9 percent (94-of-181) from the
fi eld. Nelson has scored in double-fi gures
30 times in his career, including 15 times
this season. Duke is 25-5 in such games.
Nelson’s scoring average is up 7.3 points
from a season ago, the eighth largest increase
in the ACC this season.
SUPER SOPH
Josh McRoberts is the only player in
the ACC to rank in the top 10 in rebounds
(sixth - 7.7 rpg.), blocks (third - 2.50 bpg.),
assists (eighth - 4.22 apg.), assist-to-turnover
ratio (eighth - 1.73:1) and minutes
played (sixth - 34.39 pg.). The 6-10, 240-
pound forward is also the only player in
the country averaging over 10.0 points, 7.5
rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.5 blocks per
game.
FAB FRESHMAN
Freshman Jon Scheyer has been one
of Duke’s most consistent players through
18 games. The Northbrook, Ill., native has
reached double-fi gures in scoring 11 times
and is third on the team in scoring at 11.7
ppg. He is shooting 37.9 percent (33-of-87)
from three-point distance and is seventh
in the ACC in treys (1.83 pg).
Scheyer has
made three or more three-point field goals
six times this season. He is also fourth in the
conference in free throw percentage (.843
- 59-of-70). He was named the ACC Rookie
of the Week on Dec. 26 after averaging 15.5
points and 3.5 rebounds in Duke wins over
Kent State and 22nd-ranked Gonzaga.
Scheyer scored a career-high 25
points in an 85-63 win over Miami. He went
5-of-8 from the field, including 4-of-6 from
three-point distance in the contest. Scheyer
was also 11-of-11 from the free throw line,
becoming just the 13th player (22 times)
in Duke history to make all his free throws
while attempting at least 10 in a game.
PAULUS AT THE POINT
Sophomore Greg Paulus is averaging
8.4 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists per
game. He is also shooting a team-high 46.8
percent (29-of-62) from three-point range.
Paulus has 18 career double-figure
scoring games, including a career-high 20
points against Gonzaga on Dec. 21. Paulus
knocked down a career-best five treys and
fi nished with 17 points in a win over Wake
Forest on Jan. 18.
MCCLURE PROVIDES SPARK
David McClure has been a big reason
the Blue Devils hold a +6.5 rebounding
advantage over the opposition this season.
The Ridgefield, Conn., native is tied for
second on the team in rebounding at 5.3
rpg., while playing 21.2 minutes per game.
He has grabbed at least five rebounds in
11 contests, including double-figure efforts
against Temple (12) and Miami (11).
McClure is also averaging 4.6 points
and shooting 55.2 percent (32-of-58) from
the field. He is second on the team with 25
steals, including a career-high seven in a
win over UNC Greensboro.