Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For most of NC State’s season, the Wolfpack lived and died by the play of their three high-scoring guards: junior Trevor Lacey (15.6 ppg), senior Ralston Turner (13.1 ppg) and sophomore Anthony ‘Cat’ Barber (12.2 ppg).
What has Villanova head coach Jay Wright worried as the Wildcats prepare for their third round (Round of 32) game against the ACC opponent on Saturday is that those dangerous guards are now getting some help from a young and athletic frontcourt.
Lacey, Turner and Barber combined for 36 points in 8-seed NC State’s 66-65 win over LSU on Thursday night, but it was the play of the forwards that helped deliver a last-second victory for head coach Mark Gottfried.
Six-foot-nine, 290-pound sophomore reserve BeeJay Anya was the hero, scoring the final four points of the game, including the game-winning hook shot with a second to play–but he was far from the only young big man who impressed for the Wolfpack.
Freshman Abdul-Malik Abu, a super-athletic 6-8, 240-pound freshman out of Kimball Union Academy (N.H.), had 13 points and four rebounds. Another 6-9 bench player, sophomore Kyle Washington, scored seven of his nine points during a key 10-0 second-half run that helped NC State turn a 14-point deficit into a four-point one with six minutes remaining.
“What we have to be concerned about is it’s not what they’ve done all year, it’s what they did in that second half and how much that’s going to be a factor in this game,” Wright said. “I think we’ve got to play them more like a balanced team than we do play them just those three guards.”
Villanova center Daniel Ochefu (above) and the Wildcats will have their hands full with a deep, athletic NC State frontcourt. (Photo: Tug Haines)
Anya, Abu and Washington aren’t the only size that Gottfried has at his disposal. Also in the starting lineup is another 6-8 sophomore, Lennard Freeman, who averages 3.4 ppg and 5.5 rpg; 6-7 freshman Caleb Martin averages 4.9 ppg off the bench.
All of the above are why NC State has a +3.1 rebound per game advantage on the glass over its opponents this season, the 75th-best mark in Division I.
“They’re all very athletic and extremely strong, they’re all very, very good rebounders, especially on the offensive glass,” Villanova junior center Daniel Ochefu said.
It’s a young group of forwards that’s only improved throughout the course of the year.
“Early in the season, we were not getting very much scoring at all from our interior guys,” said Gottfried, who’s taken the Wolfpack to four straight NCAA Tournaments. “But they’ve come along. They’ve developed.
“Each one of our guys brings something different to the table. They’re all different in what they do. We’re a much better team when we get some consistent scoring from some guys around the basket.”
Villanova, the top seed in the East, has been far from a bad rebounding team this season in its own right, with a +2.4 rpg margin that’s 94th nationally. But the Wildcats don’t have the same depth up front, and that could very much be a factor on Saturday night as they look to make a Sweet 16 for the first time since a Final Four run in 2009.
Ochefu, at 6-11 and 250 pounds, certainly has the size to bang with the NC State bigs, and he’s really become a bona-fide NBA prospect in his own right, averaging 9.2 ppg and 8.4 rpg. And senior forward JayVaughn Pinkston, at 6-7 and 245 pounds, shouldn’t be overmatched either.
As upperclassmen, they’ve certainly got the mental edge over the Wolfpack’s frontcourt, which is made up entirely of sophomores and freshmen. The problem is, after them, Wright’s bench is lacking for quality size.
He can bring in 6-6 Kris Jenkins, though the sharpshooting forward only averages two rebounds a game. Josh Hart, another sophomore off the bench, is a good rebounder for his 6-5 frame, but he’s usually playing the ‘3’ for the Wildcats.
Redshirt freshman Darryl Reynolds is 6-8 but only about 230 pounds, and is only averaging 1.4 ppg and 1.1 rpg in 27 appearances this season. Wright might try to get him a little more involved, but it’s going to be difficult for him to go too far away from the eight-man rotation that’s gotten them to a 33-2 record.
“It’s going to be a team effort,” Ochefu said. “It’s not going to just be myself and JayVaughn on the glass, it’s going to be the whole team.”
Luckily for Villanova, that idea of team rebounding is one that they’ve worked on all year long. Starting guards Dylan Ennis and Darrun Hilliard each average more than three rebounds per game, and Hart contributes 4.5 rpg off the bench, mostly chasing down long rebounds from missed 3-pointers.
That already-existing mentality should make it easier to adjust to what NC State will present on Saturday night.
“It’s something that we’ve been working on since the summer,” Hart said. “I don’t think it’s going to be one change here or one change there, it’s about the habits that you created in the offseason, habits you created early in September, that’s what you’re going to show right now.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be much of a problem,” he continued. “We’ve [just] got to do it.”
