North Carolina State gets another chance to build on a strong start Friday night in Raleigh, when the Wolfpack host East Tennessee State.
NC State opened the Justin Gainey era with an 83-64 win over Campbell on Monday night, getting a big night from Ven-Allen Lubin. He scored 20 points, hit all eight of his shots from the field and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Wolfpack moved to 1-0.
Gainey, a former NC State player from 1996-2000, was making his debut as the program’s head coach after replacing Will Wade, who resigned in March after one season to return to LSU. Even with the win, Gainey said the Wolfpack still need to clean up one area in particular.
"Everybody's got to rebound," Gainey said. "You know, there's a lot of long shots, a lot of long rebounds.
And so our bigs are in there fighting, they're wrestling, and now those long rebounds come out. And so our guards have got to get in there and rebound the ball."
NC State finished with 38 rebounds against Campbell, but only eight came on the offensive end. Campbell actually matched the Wolfpack on the glass in some key ways, finishing with 34 rebounds and 14 offensive boards. Rashawn Inglemon led the Fighting Camels with 20 points, while Lance Waddles added 19 points and nine rebounds.
East Tennessee State arrives after already testing itself against a Power Four opponent. The Buccaneers dropped their opener to Arizona State, 75-65, and have not beaten a power-conference team since taking down Georgia in December 2021.
BJ Ward led East Tennessee State in that game with 25 points on 10-for-23 shooting, along with three assists, four rebounds and four steals. Trevor Hennig scored 15 points and Jayden Cooper added 10.
"I thought our pick-and-roll game was really strong," coach Brooks Savage said after the game. "We had them confused a number of different times on what they wanted to do coverage-wise.
BJ Ward is a good pick-and-roll player. A really good effort for Trevor (Hennig); I thought he got going downhill.
We played really good offense."
The Buccaneers are coming off a season in which they won the Southern Conference regular-season title at 23-11 before falling to Furman in the conference championship game.
In Other News...
NC State Still Has One Big Lineup Concern Before Duke
The ACCs second availability report for NC States trip to Duke brought some notable movement, and not all of it was encouraging for a Wolfpack team trying to sort out its lineup before a key matchup. Four players who had been listed as probable the day before are no longer on the report, including three defensive starters, which at least suggests some of those situations may have improved as game day approaches.
The bigger concern now sits on offense, where Preston Douglas has been ruled out and two other important pieces remain questionable. Duke Scott and Teague Andersen are still in limbo, leaving NC State with at least one significant lineup decision still hanging over the buildup to the Duke game. [Read more 🡒]
Philip Rivers Could Be Coaching For More Than A Playoff Win
Philip Rivers has spent the past four seasons building a coaching rsum at St. Michael Catholic High School, where the former NC State quarterback has been on the sideline since 2021 after an 18-season NFL career. Now his next move could pull him back into the college game, with NC State searching for its next head coach and Rivers emerging as the name to watch.
The process has already moved beyond idle speculation, with university officials meeting with Rivers and the schools Board of Trustees set to approve the next coachs contract. For Wolfpack fans, the appeal is obvious - a familiar face with deep ties to the program and a long football pedigree - but the final step still has to be taken before any reunion becomes official. [Read more 🡒]
NC State Faces A Brutal Duke Test With Plenty On The Line
NC State heads into its matchup with Duke trying to keep the focus on football, even as the broader backdrop remains noisy with an ongoing coaching search. The Wolfpack have reason to feel a little better about their offense, though, with Duke Scott back in the lineup after missing the last three games, giving the run game another option as the team tries to settle in and stay present for a game that matters beyond the usual rivalry edge.
The challenge is obvious: Duke brings a physical rushing attack of its own, led by Nate Sheppard, and that kind of test can expose any team still juggling distractions. For NC State, this is the sort of week where details matter and the margin can shrink quickly, especially against an opponent that has been steady on the ground and arrives with plenty of confidence in how it wants to play. [Read more 🡒]