The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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JULY 2018 ■ 17 TRACKING THE PACK The full men's basketball slate for NC State will not be announced until later in the summer, but the pieces are starting to come together. NC State's ACC rotation schedule was announced in April and will include home- and-home games with North Carolina, Wake Forest, Boston College and Pitts- burgh. The Pack's home-only contests in conference play will come against Clem- son, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Virginia and Virginia Tech, and they will face Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami and Notre Dame each once on the road. NC State will have a rematch from last year when it plays Penn State in the inau- gural Basketball Hall of Fame Boardwalk Classic in Atlantic City on Dec. 15. The event, which will be presented by Citi, will be held at Historic Boardwalk Hall. NCSU defeated the Nittany Lions 85-78 as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in Raleigh last season. The win proved to be a valuable one for the Pack when Penn State went on to capture the NIT title. The Nittany Lions lost star sophomore and All-Big Ten selection Tony Carr to the NBA Draft after he averaged 19.6 points per game last year, but will return three starters who averaged double figures in scoring. NC State will head to Wisconsin Nov. 27 in this year's edition of the Big Ten/ ACC Challenge. The Badgers' run of 19 straight NCAA Tournament appearances was snapped by its 15-18 campaign last season, but the squad will return its top eight scorers, highlighted by first-team All- Big Ten selection Ethan Happ, a power forward who averaged 17.9 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. NC State will play Vanderbilt Dec. 1 at American Airlines Arena in Miami as part of the Hoophall Miami Invitational. The Commodores went 12-20 last season under first-year head coach Bryce Drew and lose three of its top four scorers. Vandy, though, signed a touted three-player recruiting class that included a pair of five-stars in power forward Simisola Shittu and guard Darius Garland. Shittu tore his ACL in January, but Vanderbilt is hoping he will be ready by the start of the season. The Commodores also inked four-star wing Aaron Nesmith. On Dec. 19, NC State will host Auburn, which went 26-8 last year and lost 84-53 to Clemson in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers received good news with the re- turn of redshirt sopho- more center Austin Wi- ley, junior guard Jared Harper and senior guard Bryce Brown, all three of whom entered the NBA Draft process. Brown was first-team All-SEC last year, and Harper was named to the second team, while Wiley sat out last season as part of the FBI investigation. The 6-11, 260-pound Wiley averaged 8.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game en route to All-SEC freshman team honors in 2016-17. Auburn did, however, lose Mu- stapha Heron, who averaged 16.4 points per game last season, but has transferred to St. John's. Auburn, which won the SEC regular- season title a year ago, is ranked No. 11 in NCAA.com's Andy Katz look-ahead Power 36 that was released in early June. Wisconsin checked in at No. 25 on that same list. CBS Sports has reported that NC State will also host USC Upstate in a non-con- ference tilt. The Spartans went 7-25 last year and hired Dave Dickerson as its head coach in April. ■ Red And White Notebook BY JACEY ZEMBAL Last season, point guard Markell Johnson (11 gray) and the Wolfpack defeated Penn State 85-78 in Raleigh. The two are scheduled to play each other again this fall. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN Pack Bits • Jennifer Patrick-Swift was named NC State's new softball coach following seven years as the head coach at St. Francis (Pa.), where she won 226 games. The Methodist College standout will be joined by her husband and assistant coach Patrick Swift, who is from Williamston, N.C. NC State went 23-31 overall and 5-18 in the ACC this past season under former head coach Shawn Rychcik, who led the Wolfpack for six years. • U.S. National Team member Emily Holsopple was hired as head coach of the NC State rifle pro - gram. The former nine-time All-American at Ken- tucky helped lead the Wildcats to the 2011 national title. Holsopple replaces Keith Miller, who coached the Wolfpack for 29 years. • NCSU women's basketball coach Wes Moore made a pair of hires to replace outgoing assistant coaches Gene Hill and Nikki West. Hill was hired as the head coach at Georgia State, and West elected to get out of coaching this year after her husband landed an assistant coaching position with the Min - nesota football program. Moore hired former men's basketball player Si- mon Harris, who had been an assistant coach at Dayton, and ex-Liberty assistant coach Erin Batth. • The Wolfpack swimming and diving program hired ACC coaching legend Mark Bernardino as an assistant coach. Bernardino won the ACC Coach of the Year award an amazing 31 times — 18 with the men and 13 with the women — while heading up the swimming program at Virginia. The Cavaliers won 27 ACC championships during his tenure (1978-2013). Bernardino had been the associate head coach at South Carolina the last four years. NC State Men's Basketball Schedule Taking Shape During his tenure at Virginia, swimming coach Mark Bernardino was named the ACC Coach of the Year 31 times and won 27 league titles. PHOTO BY MATT RILEY/COURTESY UVA