By Harry Barsan

After a decent home victory against the Hurricanes of Miami, Louisville will play another struggling foe in the NC State Wolfpack.

The Wolfpack are on the heels of eight consecutive losses and 10 losses in their last 11 games. But the injury status of Chucky Hepburn put what would be an easy win in serious doubt.

Big Bad Offense

A year removed from a miracle run to the Final Four, NC State has struggled to replicate their success, even the mediocre regular season they experienced.

With an effective field goal percentage of 48.5%, a 132nd offensive efficiency rank on Kenpom and the 44th slowest tempo in the country, it isn’t too surprising to see why their 69.6 points per game ranks in the bottom-100 of Division-1.

In conference games alone, NC State is ranked 17th out of 18 teams in each of field goal percentage, assists and points.

Only two of last year’s top six scorers returned for the Pack, those being Jayden Taylor and Michael O’Connell.

O’Connell, the former Maryland lacrosse commit, has played a quieter role with his 6.1 points per game and team-leading 3.2 assists per game despite starting every game.

Conversely, Taylor is the head of the pack with the most minutes per game. He’s also started every game this season and has filled a similar role to last year with his 11.8 points per game. He has a team-high 1.5 three-pointers per game and shoots a respectable 34%.

Dontrez Styles has a similar package, with a slightly better three-point percentage (35.6%) contributing to his 10.3 PPG.

Standing at 6-foot-10 is Ben Middlebrooks, who likes to get to the paint and use that frame to draw a team leading 3.9 free throws per game. While he doesn’t shoot as well as you would like your big to (43.9%) and hasn’t been very productive as of late, he certainly can deliver with his 7.9 PPG.

Big Bad Defense

The Wolfpack defense holds its ground a little better than its offensive counterpart, netting opponents only 68 PPG (66th in D-1).

NC State is pretty poor at recovering loose balls as opposing teams gather offensive boards 32.9% of the time, the 305th worst rate in the league. However, teams still struggle to make ends meet on offense. Opponents shoot at middling rates of 33% and 50% from three and two, respectively.

Coupled with the snail’s pace, teams have few opportunities to run up the score on a well coached defense.

Another staple of this defense, something that has followed Kevin Keatts throughout his career, is a high pressure defense. NC State forces a solid amount of turnovers, but somehow they force a near identical number of non-steal turnovers to steals.

None of these numbers look very daunting at all, especially for what the Cards have been able to do to teams this season, but that’s all dependent on if Hepburn can play.

Against Miami, Louisville played decent as a team, but the defense struggled to consistently stop straight drives to the basket and the offense has spurts of stagnation.

Depending on the health of Louisville Wednesday could either be another easy win in the column and a record of 19-6, or the pressing of the panic button.

Tip-off is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh.

Photo Courtesy // Mallory Peak, Louisville Athletics