Game facts
NC State (13-7, 3-4 ACC) at Pittsburgh (8-12, 0-7 ACC)
Game time: Wednesday, Jan. 24, 9 p.m. — Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh
Television: RSN
Probable starters
NC State
PG — 10 Braxton Beverly (6-0, 180, Fr., 9.8 ppg., 2.4 rpg., 4.3 apg.)
PG — 11 Markell Johnson (6-1, 165, So., 7.7 ppg., 2.4 rpg., 6.8 apg., 2.2 spg.)
SF — 2 Torin Dorn (6-5, 210, R-Jr, 13.2 ppg., 6.9 rpg., 1.6 apg., 1.1 spg.)
PF — 0 Abdul-Malik Abu (6-8, 240, Sr, 6.1 ppg., 4.0 rpg., 0.4 apg.)
C — 14 Omer Yurtseven (7-0, 245, So., 13.6 ppg., 6.8 rpg., 0.4 apg., 1.8 bpg.)
Pittsburgh
PG — 5 Marcus Carr (6-1, 185, Fr., 10.2 ppg., 2.9 rpg., 3.8 apg.)
SG — 13 Khameron Davis (6-4, 195, Fr., 4.8 ppg., 2.6 rpg., 1.0 apg.)
G — 1 Parker Stewart (6-5, 190, Fr., 8.6 ppg., 2.7 rpg., 1.0 apg.)
PF — 21 Terrell Brown (6-10, 240, Fr., 3.1 ppg., 2.7 rpg., 0.7 apg., 1.1 bpg.)
C — 15 Kene Chukwuka (6-9, 215, Fr., 2.7 ppg., 2.9 rpg., 1.0 apg.)
Pittsburgh
Location: Pittsburgh
Nickname: Panthers
2016-17 record: 16-17 overall, 4-14 ACC
2017 postseason: None
Coach: Kevin Stallings 25th season overall (479-312) and second season at Pittsburgh (24-29)
Notes
Pittsburgh season overview: The Panthers were expected to have a rough season, and that has certainly been true.
Pittsburgh had the one-two punch of losing four senior starters and then junior Cameron Johnson graduated and transferred to North Carolina. Four other players who didn’t pan out transferred and the recipe for a complete overhaul was in place.
The lone veteran holdovers that remained were senior center Ryan Luther and senior guard Jonathan Milligan. However, Luther ended up suffering a season-ending injury after playing 10 games and leading the team with 12.7 points and 10.1 rebounds per contest.
Add it all up and five freshmen are starting, three other freshmen are on the bench and junior college transfer Jared Wilson-Frame has become the leading scorer in his sixth man role.
Pittsburgh tendencies: KenPom.com ranks the Panthers No. 215 overall in the country, and they also are No. 161 in the RPI.
The Panthers young squad is suffering on the offensive end, ranking last in the ACC in points per game (64.3 ), and 14th in both field goal percentage offense (42.8) and field goal percentage defense (43.5). The latter is a spot ahead of NC State’s 45.2 percent figure.
Pittsburgh is also weak on the boards, averaging a league-low 32.8 rebounds per game with a league-low minus-3.2 rebounding margin.
Perimeter: Freshman point guard Marcus Carr was the highest ranked of the nine newcomers this season.
The Toronto native played for prep powerhouse Montverde (Fla.) Academy, and was rated a four-star prospect and the No. 101 overall player in the class of 2017 by Rivals.com. Carr was the lone Rivals150 member in the class.
Carr has reached double figures in points in 10 games, and had a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists in a 73-67 loss versus Oklahoma State Nov. 21. He exploded for a career-high 23 points in a 82-78 overtime loss against Mount St. Mary’s Dec. 5
Carr has struggled shooting in seven ACC games, going a collective 18 of 64 (28.1 percent) and just 4 of 22 (18.2 percent) on three-pointers. Carr is shooting 42.0 percent on the season and 37.7 percent on three-pointers, even with the ACC struggles.
Freshman Khameron Davis was a sleeper recruit out of Forest Trail Academy in Kernersville, N.C., who is originally from Denver. Davis is judicious with his three-point shooting, which has helped him go 17 of 34 (50.0 percent).
NC State offered freshman wing Parker Stewart, who is the son of Tennessee-Martin head coach Anthony Stewart. The older Stewart became the interim head coach and eventually permanent solution after Heath Schroyer went to join Mark Gottfried’s staff at NC State during the spring of 2016.
The younger Stewart was regarded as a good outside shooter in high school. He lived up to that billing against Syracuse’s zone defense by bombing in 7 of 13 from three-point land en route to 23 points in a 59-45 loss Jan. 16. Stewart is shooting 38.8 percent from beyond the arc and 103 of his 129 field goal attempts are three-pointers.
Stewart has actually played better in ACC action than the non-conference slate, with double digits in points in all but one of the seven games. He achieved that feat four times against non-conference opponents.
Milligan, the lone healthy player from last year’s team, is originally from Arizona but played his senior year at Durham (N.C.) Mount Zion Academy. The 6-2, 170-pounder went to Kilgore College in Texas before transferring to Pittsburgh, where he got hurt in 2015-16 and redshirted. Milligan is averaging 5.7 points and 1.5 assists in 18.1 minutes per game, and is shooting 47.0 percent from the field and 21.9 percent on three-pointers.
Wing Malik Ellison, the son of former Louisville great Pervis Ellison, is sitting out this season after transferring from St. John’s.
Frontcourt: The loss of Luther scrambled the frontcourt, but freshmen Terrell Brown, Kene Chukwuka and Peace Ilegomah are gaining experience.
Wilson-Frame played for Northwest Florida State College, which is the same program that current NC State power forward signee Derek Funderburk is currently attending.
Wilson-Frame has started 15 of 20 games, but lately has come off the bench. He leads the Panthers with 12.1 points per game, to go along with 3.3 rebounds per contest. He scored 20 points in a 71-62 loss to Navy in the season opener Nov. 10 and then again in an 81-67 defeat at Virginia Tech Jan. 6.
He is shooting just 36.3 percent from the field and 27.9 percent on three-pointers, but can get hot from deep. He has drained four or more three-pointers in four games.
Like Wilson-Frame, freshman Shamiel Stevenson is a former starter. The 6-6, 230-pounder is averaging 9.0 points and 5.1 rebounds in 24.7 minutes per game, and is shooting 50.8 percent from the field and 30.4 percent (7 of 23) on three-pointers.
Stevenson has reached double figures in eight games, and he had an ACC-best 16 points and four boards in a 67-53 loss versus Miami Dec. 30.
The 6-10, 240-pound Brown was a well-respected recruit. He was a standout on BABC traveling team in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League. He leads the team with 20 blocks and is shooting 41.2 percent from the field.
Chukwuka is 6-9, but prefers to shoot three-pointers and has made 25.9 percent (7 of 27). He is 11 of 15 on two-pointers.
The 6-9, 235-pound Ilegomah has 34 fouls in 96 minutes played this season, and has made just 3 of 5 field goals.
Ilegomah and fellow freshman Samson George are both from Nigeria. The 6-7, 220-pound George has 11 points in 44 minutes this season.
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