NC State has lost four straight in the month of January, but the Wolfpack has an opportunity to get back in the win column when it hosts Wake Forest Wednesday in PNC Arena.

The Demon Deacons have struggled in head coach Steve Forbes’ first season in Winston-Salem but picked up their first conference win this weekend in a 76-75 home victory over Pittsburgh.

Despite Wake’s 1-6 record against ACC competition, the Deacs have been competitive in every contest. Prior to this weekend, the Demon Deacons lost by four to No. 20 Virginia Tech and were tied in the second half with North Carolina in a seven-point loss in the Smith Center.

“The biggest thing that jumps out is you look at the last two games, they have shot the ball very well behind the three-point line,” NC State head coach Kevin Keatts said. “They've had two different guys who have made a bunch of threes. They're playing hard.

“When you look at them, they're becoming a better team because they're finally getting a chance to practice a little bit. They're tough, they're playing hard. When you look at our league, there are going to be competitive games day in and day out… I've been watching tape for the last 24 to 48 hours, and the biggest thing is they have really shot the basketball behind the three-point line. That's tough to guard when you're making those shots, and they've been tough shots.”

Wake’s hot shooting could be problematic for the Wolfpack, who has struggled in defensive field goal percentage in conference play, particularly in the month of January.

NC State’s offense has played well enough to win the last two games, but the Pack has allowed its last two opponents to an average of 95.5 points per contest during that stretch.

“I don't think there was anything that we could have done at Florida State,” Keatts said. “They were great. When we use the Florida State game, everybody's like 'Well, how could they lose like that?' They've had two or three games where they've done the same thing to other teams. Right now, in my opinion, they're playing the best basketball in our league at this particular moment. In the Carolina game, the most encouraging thing for us was I was able to see Manny Bates and Braxton Beverly get on the floor and contribute.

“It's tough. We were off for 10 to 12 days and the rhythm, what happens is when you're off and you can only practice for a certain amount of time, you got to try to figure out what's important.”

The Wolfpack has allowed a 56.8 defensive effective field goal percentage through six conference contests, which ranks second-to-last in the ACC according to KenPom. The Pack’s league opponents have also shot 39.3 percent on three-point attempts, which ranks 12th in conference play.

“We have spent more time on the offensive end trying to be able to score than we have defensively because you got to kind of pick your poison to try to figure out what you can do in a game,” Keatts said. “We haven't had a lot of time to really prepare defensively like we should. We got to spend a little extra time because we've been one of the better teams defending the three-point line in the last few years. The last couple games, we haven't.”

Another area the Pack has struggled is defensive rebounding. In the 86-76 road loss to North Carolina Saturday, the Tar Heels outrebounded State 14-7 on the offensive glass.

NC State’s conference opponents have averaged a 33.5 offensive rebounding percentage according to KenPom, meaning the Wolfpack has allowed one offensive rebound for every three misses by its opponent.

State hasn’t been able to keep pace in league play shooting the basketball inside either. The Pack has shot 50.2 percent on two-point attempts against conference competition, good for 10th in the ACC, but has a defensive two-point field goal percentage of 55.9, which ranks second-to-last in league play.

“There are not many big guys anymore in college basketball,” Keatts said. “We have one. In our league, I would say there are probably five of them, and Carolina has at least three of those. It's positionless basketball. I tell our guys sometimes that somebody has to play the post. Somebody will have to be a post player in the league and get paid, but nobody wants to be more of a traditional back-to-the-basket guy.

“Even in our situation, we love ball screens, but more than likely we have guys that can pick and pop, and we pick and rim run. It's hard now to find guys who can score with it back to the basket.”

Before the Pack can start thinking about its NCAA Tournament resume for March, it will need to string together some wins in late-January and February. The postseason, however, was one topic that came up consistently in the ACC’s league-wide head coaches availability Monday.

When asked about the prospect of teams opting out of conference tournaments to mitigate COVID risks ahead of the NCAA Tournament, Pittsburgh head coach Jeff Capel admitted that programs who have already secured bids to the Big Dance will have tough decisions to make on whether or not participating in the conference tournaments will be worth the risk.

Keatts agreed that the ACC Tournament may not have full participation due to the volatility of the 2020-21 season thus far but still felt that an opportunity for an automatic bid in Greensboro should still be on the table.

“I'm a fan of us having the tournament, especially if we can continue to do the right stuff,” Keatts said. “I'm sure the ACC is the best in making sure that we're following protocol. It'll be weird because it may be a situation where going into the tournament you may have one or two teams that have to drop out, but that's no different than what's going to happen in the NCAA Tournament. There's a lot of people that make a lot more money at that level to figure that out than we do, but I certainly think that we should have a tournament if it's possible.”

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