The Wolfpacker Awards: NC State basketball's 2020-21 season

With the 2020-21 NC State basketball season in the books, it’s time to take a look back and hand out some awards for the year.

The Wolfpacker duo of Matt Carter and Justin H. Williams share their honors:

Matt Carter

I’m going to go with fifth-year senior forward DJ Funderburk, partially because I emphasize the word “valuable.”

In the seven games in which Funderburk was on the floor for 30 minutes, the Wolfpack went 5-2. When he started, the Pack was 8-5. When he missed games, NC State went 2-2, one of those victories being a home win over Campbell.

Funderburk also continued his penchant for stepping up in ACC play, actually scoring more in league games (12.8 points an outing) than he did in out of conference (12.2).

There are certainly a lot of candidates to choose from, with fifth-year senior guard Devon Daniels and junior forward Jericole Hellems standing out among them, but Funderburk was my choice.

Justin H. Williams

This would be a no-brainer if Daniels hadn’t suffered a season-ending ACL tear in late January, sidelining him for the Pack’s final 13 contests.

Daniels was on pace to have an All-ACC caliber season. At the time of his injury, the 6-5, 200-pounder led the team in scoring average (16.5 points per game), assists (3.1 per game) and steals (1.7 per contest).

No matter how unfortunate his injury was, it’s difficult to name a player the MVP of a season in which they weren’t able to play half of the games.

With that in mind, I’ll give my vote to the guy that took a bulk of Daniels’ post-injury usage volume: Hellems.

Along with freshman guard Shakeel Moore, Hellems was one of two players on the roster to appear in all 25 of the Pack’s contests. He also recorded a team-high 24 starts. In the absence of Daniels, Hellems became NC State’s leading scorer and finished the season averaging 12.9 points per game. He was also the third-leading rebounder, reeling in five boards per game.

Hellems finished the year as the Pack’s leader in field goal attempts, three-point attempts and field goal makes. He was second only to senior guard Braxton Beverly in three-point field goal percentage among players on the roster with 10 or more attempts.

His efficiency was much-improved too. Hellems’ 38.3 percent three-point shooting this season was his career-best rate, showcasing continued improvement from his 31.9 percent accuracy as a freshman and a 33.0 mark from deep in 2019-20.

After a somewhat slow start during the limited non-conference portion of the schedule, Hellems settled into his role down the stretch. He scored in double figures in 14 of the final 16 games of the season.

Carter:

I thought the last eight games of the season showcased the potential that freshman Cam Hayes has in the backcourt for the Wolfpack. It was not always a strong performance, but more times than not he delivered during that stretch.

He averaged 11.0 points and 3.4 assists per contest in that span while shooting a healthy 38.5 percent on three-pointers (15 of 39). He had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.7-to-1 and was 19 of 24 at the free throw line.

There are some things that Hayes has to improve: finishing his drives, consistency in his jumper and cutting down high-volume turnover games, but for me the freshman year is about flashing as much as anything, and Hayes did that in 2020-21, especially at the end.

Williams:

There are three strong candidates for this honor: Hayes, Moore and redshirt freshman guard Dereon Seabron.

If we did a mid-season award, it would have gone to Moore. However, this is meant to be reflective of the entire body of work this season.

Therefore, I’m going with Hayes.

After a four-point performance in his Wolfpack debut, Hayes put together a combined 30 points in 40 minutes in his second and third-ever collegiate contests. In his first three games, the freshman had 16 combined assists with just two turnovers.

Then NC State had its December COVID pause, and Hayes didn’t return to the lineup until the home win over UNC on Dec. 22.

The freshman struggled in January through mid-February but showed his potential while settling in at the end of the regular season.

Starting with an 11-point, nine-assist performance in the Pack’s road win over Pittsburgh, Hayes scored in double figures in four of the last five games of the regular season.

Carter:

For NC State, nothing is finer than beating Carolina, right?

Optimism for the season was at its highest when the Wolfpack defeated No. 17 UNC in Raleigh on Dec. 22. NC State controlled that game for the most part, leading for 37:48 and by as much as 17 points. The Heels led for all of 24 seconds.

The game still ended up being tight, and NC State repeatedly had to hold off charges from the Heels. Six times in the second half, UNC closed to within two points, and once had the margin down to one. But never did UNC tie or take the lead.

Making the win even sweeter, the Pack did it without Funderburk.

Williams:

The home win over North Carolina in December was extra sweet because of the rivalry, but the Pack’s best performance was its road win over Virginia, the ACC regular season champions.

No other team in the conference was able to claim that they were able to beat the Cavaliers in Charlottesville.

NC State defeated then-ranked No. 15 Virginia 68-61, claiming its first and only “Quad One” win of the season.

One could make the argument that the Wolfpack’s road victory of the Hoos was the best win of the season not just for the program, but in the ACC as a whole.

Carter:

I’m going back to the very beginning.

Yes, Charleston Southern, the season opener on Nov. 25, turned out to be NC State’s weakest opponent of the year. However, Daniels went 11 of 16 from the field, including 4 of 5 on three-pointers, to finish with 29 points, and topped off his double-double with 10 rebounds.

Williams:

Hellems’ first-career double-double in the three-point road loss to Syracuse was particularly impressive, considering it was the Pack’s first game without Daniels and its first time facing Jim Boeheim’s zone defense this year.

Hellems finished that game with a career-high 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting with all nine of his makes on two-point attempts. He was able to get to the line seven times and made six attempts.

He also grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds, four of which on the offensive glass, and added four assists and one steal to his stat line.

Carter:

Williams:

Moore’s dunk over UNC center Walker Kessler in the Pack’s home win over the Heels in December is the clear winner.

Kessler is 7-1 and Moore is 6-1. That’s a whole foot of a height difference.

An embarrassing moment for the UNC freshman big turned into one Wolfpack fans will remember for many years to come.

Kessler is a great player, but the rookie had a learning moment trying to defend Moore at the rim. Sometimes, it’s best to let the high flyers have the bucket.

Carter:

It’s an easy choice, for me.

Redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates went from averaging 5.1 points as in 2019-20 to 9.8 points per game this season.

Bates also improved from a subpar free throw shooter as a rookie (48.6 percent) to a good one at 68.6 percent. He also improved his ability to stay on the court, fouling out just once after being disqualified four times the year before.

Williams:

This one is easy. It’s clearly Bates.

The athleticism and shot-blocking ability has always been there but after putting on 20+ pounds of muscle during the offseason, the 6-11 post player developed an offensive game too.

His numbers speak for themselves:

Scoring Average

2019-20- 5.1 ppg

2020-21- 9.8 ppg

Rebounding

2019-20- 4.0 rpg

2020-21- 5.9 rpg

That’s without any dropoff in his defensive game — he led the conference in blocks per game for the second-straight season and earned a spot on the All-ACC defensive team.

He also showed an ability to pass out of double teams down the stretch of the season, which gave a nice boost to the Wolfpack’s offense.

Carter:

I’ve been open about this all year: the second week in January really hurt the Wolfpack. It began with a four-point, overtime defeat to then-No. 19 Clemson on the road.

Then came the 5-point setback at home to Miami, which resulted in the lone quad three defeat for NC State. The Wolfpack led most of that game, but an 11-0 run by the Hurricanes around midway through the second half turned the contest around.

In a hypothetical world, if all else had remained the same, that would have given NC State an 11-6 ACC record at the end of the regular season with a 2-5 quad one mark and zero quad three/four losses. NC State would also have been seeded where Georgia Tech was on its run to an ACC title.

And it would have put the Pack in a position to where a win in Greensboro likely would have had them in the Big Dance.

Williams:

NC State’s road loss to Clemson is 1B for me, but the three-point road loss at Syracuse is another one that got away from the Pack.

Yes, the Wolfpack was without its two leading scorers at the time with Daniels (injury) and Funderburk (university policies), but State had the Orange right where it wanted them.

The Wolfpack led by nine points at halftime after scoring 47 points against the Syracuse zone. That may have been the best half of basketball we saw from the NC State this season.

Ultimately, the shots stopped falling in the second half, and the Wolfpack coughed up its halftime lead, resulting in a heartbreaking one-possession loss that could have given it an additional “Quad One” victory.

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