Profiles of NC State's non-conference opponents

We now know the makeup of NC State Wolfpack men's basketball schedule.

The non-conference opponents were announced, although the official reveal of a game against Connecticut on Dec. 5 at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., will come later.

Here's a profile of each of the Wolfpack's non-conference opponents

Charleston Southern

A year ago, Charleston Southern went 14-18 overall and 7-11 in the Big South Conference. Against notable competition, they lost by 29 points at Dayton and 48 points at Michigan State, but it did upset Missouri on the road, 68-60, and knocked off North Carolina Central by five at home.

The team finished with a final NET ranking of No. 316 (out of 353 teams).

CSU must replace its leading scorer from last season, but the Bucs do return senior guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr., who contributed 17.7 points and a team-best 8.7 rebounds per game in 2019-20, and made 45 three-pointers. Fleming was also named the Big South Defensive Player of the Year, and was selected as the preseason league player of the year.

Also back are two more players who averaged double figures in senior guard Deontaye Buskey (10.5 points per game) and senior forward Ty Jones (10.4). CSU may be poised for an improvement this coming season, and was picked to finish third in the conference.

Eastern Kentucky

Eastern Kentucky marks the return of former NC State assistant coach A.W. Hamilton, who was on the sideline for Kevin Keatts’ first season as the head coach of the Wolfpack before landing the gig at EKU.

This offseason, Hamilton announced that he is cancer-free after battling stage II melanoma.

The 2019 portion of the 2019-20 schedule was not kind for Eastern Kentucky. They were 3-10 when the calendar year flipped. That included 32-point losses at Kentucky and at Louisville.

Starting with a Jan. 2 win over Tennessee Tech in its Ohio Valley Conference opener, Eastern Kentucky went 13-7 in the year 2020, all in league action, and fell to Belmont in the conference tournament semifinals.

EKU returns leading scorer, Raleigh native and product of Southern High in Durham Jomaru Brown, a junior guard who averaged 18.4 points and led the team with 87 assists in 32 games. Also back is 6-foot-9 junior forward Tre King, who contributed 11.3 points and 5.1 boards per game while leading the team with 25 blocked shots.

Two more regular starters — sophomore forward Michael Moreno, who averaged 8.6 points a game, and senior guard Russhard Cruickshank, who leads the returning players in made threes last season with 46 — additionally return.

That should give Hamilton a strong enough core to be a contender again in the Ohio Valley and likely improve on its 16-17 overall record and final NET ranking of 291. EKU was picked to finish fourth in the league and both Brown and King were picked for the preseason all-conference teams.

North Florida

North Florida was the most competitive of the three teams last season. The Ospreys were the Atlantic Sun conference co-champions in the regular season but lost in the semifinals of the conference tournament to Lipscomb.

North Florida finished with a 21-12 overall record and ranked No. 175 in the NET rankings at the conclusion of the season.

That's notable considering the cut-off for a quad three win at home is No. 160. If the Ospreys improve slightly this season, it could end up being a sneaky quad three contest for the Wolfpack.

UNF played a difficult non-conference schedule and finished 0-4 against Power Five competition. It lost road matchups with Florida (74-59), Florida State (98-81), Syracuse (82-70) and Iowa (83-68).

The 2019 Atlantic Sun regular-season co-champions return leading scorer and rebounder 6-7 junior forward Carter Hendrickson. He started every game last season for North Florida and averaged 14.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per contest.

Last season, William & Mary finished at No. 165 in the NET after going 21-11 overall and 13-5 in the Colonial Athletic Association. However, it was upset by Elon in the conference tournament's quarterfinals. Early in the season, it lost by just five points at Oklahoma but was blown away by 31 points at Stanford.

However, W&M lost its twin towers of Nathan Knight (20.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game) and Andy Van Vliet (13.2 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks). The duo were the top two leading scorers and accounted for over half of the rebounding production.

The lone returning regular starter is senior guard Luke Loewe, who averaged 10.7 points a contest and was second on the team in made three-pointers with 43. Junior guard Thornton Scott, who started 10 of 19 games he played and averaged 7.3 points a game, is also back.

In 2019, the Huskies finished 19-12, including a 10-8 record in its final season in the American Athletic Conference. The team moves to the Big East this year, where it was picked to finish fourth in the league by the coaches.

UConn ended the season ranked No. 60 in the NET (the NCAA's evaluation method) and had notable home wins over Florida (62-59), Tulsa (72-56), Cincinnati (72-71 OT) and Houston (77-71). It also had an 80-55 neutral court win over Miami.

Second-year head coach Dan Hurley's biggest departure this offseason was senior guard Christian Vital, the team's leading scorer (16.4 points per game) and rebounder (6.3 points per game) in 2019-20.

Sophomore guard James Bouknight will return as the only double-figure scorer from last year. As a freshman in 2019-20, Bouknight started in 16 contests and averaged 13.0 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

Senior forward Tyler Polley also returns as a 40.5 percent three-point shooter from last season. The 6-9, 215-pounder was an every-game starter for the Huskies and was the team's third-leading scorer before suffering a season-ending ACL tear in practice in January.

In Juwan Howard's first season at Michigan, the Wolverines started strong and finished 19-12 overall and 10-10 in the loaded Big Ten. U-M was at No. 24 in the NET rankings when the season was called off.

Michigan returns three of its five double-digit scorers from last season — senior forward Isaiah Livers, sophomore wing Franz Wagner and senior guard Eli Brooks. Valuable reserve Brandon Johns Jr., a junior forward, is also back.

Michigan also welcomes a four-player recruiting class, headlined by a trio of four-star signings. Center Hunter Dickinson (No. 40), guard Zeb Jackson (No. 91) and forward Terrance Williams (No. 106) were all ranked in the Rivals150.

The Owls used four regular starters a year ago, and two return, including leading scorer and rebounder in senior forward Jailyn Ingram (12.0 points and 5.4 rebounds a game) and junior post player Karlis Silins (7.8 points and 4.5 boards). Also back is junior guard Michael Forrest, who contributed 9.3 points a game and was second on the squad in made three-pointers with 59 while making eight starts.

Senior wing Everett Winchester, junior forward Madiaw Niang and sophomore guard Kenan Blackshear are all back after starting multiple contests in 2019-20.

Those players helped FAU finished 17-15 overall last season and 8-10 in Conference USA. They were still alive in the C-USA Tournament when it was canceled. FAU fell by 14 and 19 points respectively in road losses at Miami and Alabama early in the season.

They finished the year with a NET ranking of No. 193. The preseason picks had FAU finishing 10th in the 14-team league.

In the preseason league picks for the Big South, Campbell was No. 10 of 11 teams. The Camels went 15-16 a year ago, including 6-12 in the league, and had a final NET ranking of No. 258.

Campbell does return its leading scorer in junior wing Cedric Henderson Jr., who produced 12.4 points per game in 2019-20. Senior guard Jordan Whitfield and junior center Milos Stajcic are returning starters. Senior guard Austin McCullough, who made 34 three-pointers and started three games, also returns.

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