For the ninth time in program history, NC State won its fourth-straight ACC game Sunday in a 65-62 home victory over Pittsburgh.

The Wolfpack’s postseason hopes appeared dead in the water after losing eight of its first 10 games in 2021, but a recent turnaround by the Pack that includes five wins in its last seven contests has reignited hope amongst the fan base.

While the odds of NC State earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament are still very slim, the current win streak has prevented the door from officially being closed.

With two games remaining in the regular season before the Wolfpack heads to Greensboro next week for the ACC Tournament, head coach Kevin Keatts says his team is simply focusing on one opponent at a time.

“I don't have the type of bunch that I could talk with about the future like that,” Keatts said. “The four games that we won in a row, we've just had these guys locking in to the next opponent. We just turned the page from playing Pitt. Today, we'll start talking about Notre Dame, but it won't be anything other than Notre Dame.

“I don't have a mature enough group of guys to be able to look ahead and say, 'Hey, if this happens, if that happens.' We just got to stay focused on who we're planning against next.”

NC State is next scheduled to take on Notre Dame on the road this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. before hosting Virginia Tech in PNC Arena in its regular-season finale.

For as hot as the Pack is in recent weeks, the Fighting Irish have been equally cold.

Notre Dame will enter its matchup with the Wolfpack on a three-game losing streak after claiming five conference wins in seven games from mid-January to mid-February.

The Fighting Irish are talented offensively but have struggled tremendously on the defensive end.

Notre Dame’s adjusted offensive efficiency ranks 16th nationally and fourth in the ACC, but the Fighting Irish’s adjusted defensive efficiency ranks 175th among Division I teams and last in the ACC according to KenPom.com.

“They're a talented bunch,” Keatts said. “They shoot the ball very well. They spread you out, they can shoot the ball one through four. Then when they make a sub and take Juwan Durham out of the game, their ability to make shots from all five positions is a problem.

“Mike Brey's done a great job with his team. They got some veteran guys mixed in with some newcomers that can really play. They spread you out, make shots and roll you into the post.

“You're able to see multiple defenses that they play. They'll switch from some man-to-man to two-three zone and mix in some 1-3-1. They can beat anybody on any given night.”

What makes NC State’s recent win streak even more impressive is the fact that they’re done it shorthanded.

Redshirt junior Thomas Allen, who has started in 15 of the 17 games he’s appeared in this season, has been out of the lineup with an ankle sprain since the Pack’s 69-53 home loss to Duke on Feb. 13.

Allen was averaging 7.4 points per game while shooting 37.9 percent on three-point attempts prior to his injury. While there’s still hope he could return at some point this season, the timeline remains unclear.

“We're hopeful,” Keatts said. “He's doing better. We're going to get a second MRI on him either today or tomorrow just to figure out if everything is going in the right direction. I don't know if he's available for Wednesday at this point.”

In the absence of Allen, the Wolfpack’s freshman guards have stepped up in the recent turnaround.

One of the most promising developments in the youthful backcourt has been the emergence of freshman guard Cam Hayes.

Hayes scored in double figures in two of his first three games this season during the non-conference portion of the schedule, but the young guard struggled in the opening half of the Pack’s conference slate after the team’s December COVID pause.

Hayes only finished with six points in the NC State’s win over Pittsburgh Sunday, but he also produced five rebounds, two assists and didn’t turn the ball over a single time for the second-straight contest.

During the Wolfpack’s four-game win streak, Hayes is averaging 11 points, four assists, 3.3 rebounds and just two turnovers per game.

“He's played much older than he is the last few games,” Keatts said. “He's taking care of the basketball. When you talk about turnovers and you're jumping on your team about turnovers, he's the one guy that's offended by it because he wants to take care of the basketball. He's played at least 30 or more minutes per game in our run.

“He's emerged, he's starting to play well, he's starting to be a really good point guard in this league. What you like about him is his ability to make shots, he's got great size.

“His biggest improvement is he's starting to defend the basketball. Early on in the season, he would take breaks and he would take breaks on the defensive end. He's starting to get better in those areas. Our team feels comfortable with him running the point. It's actually helped Braxton Beverly become a better player for us by the way that Cam has emerged as a point guard.”

Hayes isn’t the only one that has improved his ball security recently.

NC State turned the ball over a combined 38 times in home losses to Syracuse and Duke in early February. In the four games since, the Wolfpack has averaged just 10.5 turnovers per game.

The Pack has also turned the ball over just nine times in each of the past two contests, which mark the lowest single-game turnover totals in conference play.

“The way we play, our point guards are going to have turnovers because we get up and down, we let them play a little bit faster,” Keatts said. “We don't necessarily run a bunch of sets with stagger screens and everything, so they have the ball in their hand. I just ask them to win the battle of assists versus turnovers. You can't have a game where you have five assists and everybody says that's a great game, but you turn the ball over six times yourself.

“Ball security, for us, is great, especially when we're teaching on the other side to turn other teams over on the defensive end.”

——

• Talk about it inside The State of Basketball

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook