11/23/2020 basketball Edit

Kevin Keatts' Wolfpack is ready to take the court

Justin H. Williams • TheWolfpackCentral

Staff Writer

A lot has changed since the Wolfpack last took the court in a 73-58 win over Pittsburgh in the second round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro Coliseum on March 11.

After the remainder of the conference tournament and the entirety of the NCAA Tournament was canceled this past spring due to COVID-19, NC State will look to turn the chapter with the season-opening multi-team event dubbed the Mako Medical Wolfpack Invitational in Reynolds Coliseum Wednesday.

With all of the external noise surrounding college basketball as COVID-19 cases are spiking nationwide, fourth-year head coach Kevin Keatts doesn't have any doubts that his team will be ready to compete against an opposing team for the first time in over eight months.

"This is why we do what we do and excited to get the opportunity to play," Keatts said. "Basketball is basketball. If you give basketball players a ball and somewhere to play, we can find some excitement in it.

"I know our guys are excited about it. Our freshmen are dying to play. Our upperclassmen who haven't had the opportunity to play since March, they can't wait to get back on the court."

NC State Wolfpack basketball Kevin Keatts — NC State has not played since its 73-58 victory over Pittsburgh in the second round of the ACC Tournament on March 11, 2020. (Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports)

Although the beginning of the season is just two days away, Keatts admitted that college basketball is not out of the woods yet.

Several Division I programs are currently on pause due to COVID-19 cases on their rosters. Tennesse was the latest Power Five program to pause all of its team activities Monday after head coach Rick Barnes tested positive.

Even teams without active cases have seen their first week impacted. Duke announced Monday that its season opener against Gardner-Webb that was scheduled for Wednesday was postponed due to a positive test on the Bulldogs.

Despite the volatility of the national schedule, Keatts has reminded his team to keep making smart decisions and doing what they can to limit exposure.

"We're excited about Wednesday and praying that we get to Wednesday," Keatts said. "I think one of the toughest things is every time you get on the internet, you see that there's another program that has to pause because of COVID-19. That's a tough thing for us. We want to play the game on Wednesday, we want to play our game on Friday.

"I'm happy for my guys that we're right there, but we're not there yet. We got to get there, we got a couple of days because anything can change and things change in a split second when it comes to this virus."

Assuming the first week of NC State's schedule goes on uninterrupted, the head coach stated that he does not know who will be in the starting lineup yet.

He acknowledged that there are eight potential players that could start, but he will not make a final decision on what the opening lineup will look like until the Pack completes its pregame walkthrough.

"I know people think when I say that, they think I'm just hiding something," Keatts said. "I literally won't make a lineup until after I see how we go through a walkthrough. If somebody is not locked in and focused... I've had guys who I thought were going to be starters, and they weren't focused in the walkthrough, didn't know what was going on, blew a couple of assignments, and I've changed it. It's going to lead up until game time."

The most likely candidates are fifth-year seniors DJ Funderburk and Devon Daniels.

Funderburk, a 6-10 forward, is the top returning scorer and rebounder after averaging 12.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game last season.

Daniels, a 6-5 guard, was one of two players in 2019-20 that appeared in every game and averaged 31.0 minutes per contest, the most among returning players. He finished last season averaging 12.7 points and 5.3 points per game.

That would leave three more spots for six potential players to round out the starting five.

Redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates, senior guard Braxton Beverly and redshirt junior forward Jericole Hellems all averaged at least 18.5 minutes per contest last season and could compete for even more time this year.

The other likely candidates are three newcomers in the backcourt: redshirt junior guard Thomas Allen and freshman guards Cam Hayes and Shakeel Moore.

Allen redshirted last season after transferring from Nebraska following the 2018-19 campaign. The 6-1 guard from Garner, N.C., averaged 8.7 points per contest and was a 36 percent three-point shooter for the Cornhuskers as a sophomore.

Hayes and Moore are both North Carolina natives that were four-star recruits in the five-man 2020 class. Both are described as combo guards, but Hayes is the likeliest candidate to take on the point guard responsibilities in the absence of the now-graduated Markell Johnson.

"The guys who've stood out, I would say probably in the last two weeks have been more of our veterans," Keatts said. "Our young guys have had moments where I thought they've done a really good job. Manny has been consistent, DJ has been consistent, Devon has been consistent. Then you can throw in a Jericole and you can throw in a Braxton.

"Our young guys have had moments where they were really good, but because they're young guys, that keeps them from being consistent and that's not their fault. They just haven't been able to go through college practices for this long and know how to be consistent every day."

Regardless of which five names are called out before tip-off, Keatts is known to consistently rotate the regular contributors off of the bench. Despite major concerns with depth in 2019-20, particularly in the post, eight players averaged at least 14 minutes per contest.

Now the Pack turns its attention to its first opponent, Charleston Southern. The Buccaneers finished last season tied for seventh in the Big South Conference with a 14-18 overall record.

"They're good and they're returning three starters, possibly four," Keatts said. "You're going to see them get up and down, take a lot of threes. You'll see some different offense, sometimes they run Princeton, sometimes they can dribble-drive you, but they play with a lot of confidence. They believe that they can win, so it's a very good basketball, well-coached team."

The NC State-Charleston Southern tip-off is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 8 p.m. in Reynolds Coliseum on ACC Network Extra.