NC State is hosting Syracuse on Wednesday night and then will make the short trip to Duke Saturday. Here's the Wolfpacker 3-2-1 on the week ahead.
Three observations
1. One weird benefit of NC State’s playing Pittsburgh is it may have helped the Pack prepare for Syracuse. Why? Because the Panthers used a 2-3 zone defense for much of the contest Saturday. That’s not surprising. Pitt head coach Jeff Capel used that zone effectively against NC State when the two teams played earlier this year in Raleigh.
Where did Capel learn that zone? Well it’s worth noting that Capel under his previous boss, Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, coached with Team USA basketball. And part of Krzyzewski’s staff also included Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, chief architect of the most effective 2-3 zone in basketball.
Playing Syracuse is a unique challenge because not many teams utilize strictly a zone defense. Thus in a way NC State may be a tad bit better prepared for playing Syracuse than it normally would be.
