The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/89497
BKB PREVIEW 12-13 QUICK FACTS Numbers You Need To Know For The Upcoming Season Stats To Watch The Key Names, Games And coach Kellie Harper is emphasizing the urgency of more effectively stopping opponents from putting the ball in the basket. Although the Pack improved its last-place ACC average of allowing 71.3 points a game in 2010-11 to 65.0 points per contest last winter, that was just good enough to raise NC State to 10th in the 12-team conference. The 60-point mark was key — in games in which NC State allowed 60 points or less, the Pack was 10-2, while it went 9-14 in games with opponents scor- ing more than 60. 2. Shooting Percentage At Home Versus On the 1. Scoring Defense: As she did a year ago, head By The Numbers 2009. The three are Duke, UNC and NC State. 18 — The number of wins head coach Kellie Harper has in postseason conference tournaments in her eight-year 3 — The number of ACC teams to have won at least one game over every other team in the conference since coaching career. That includes a 6-3 mark in the ACC Tournament in her three years at NC State, the same number of wins as Kay Yow's teams in the first three years of the ACC Tournament (1978-80). 33 — The number of games senior guard Marissa Kastanek needs to play to break the school record of 131 tions a season over the next two years, she'll break the career record of 203 set by All-American Genia Beasley (1977-80), who was a member of this year's inaugural class of the NC State Hall of Fame. career games played by Connie Rogers (1979-82) and Angie Armstrong (1980-83). 110 — The number of blocks through two seasons by junior forward Kody Burke. If Burke averages 47 rejec- Road: One of the stranger stats of the 2011-12 season was the Pack's shooting accuracy in its 18 games at Reynolds Coliseum compared to the 17 games played on the road or at a neutral site. In the supposedly "friendly confines" of its own arena, the Pack made just 37.6 per- cent of its shots, compared to 39.2 percent elsewhere. In ACC games, that home-court disadvantage dropped to an even chillier 33.7 percent, with four games in which the Pack made less than 30 percent of its shot attempts. In its eight ACC road games, the Pack shot 38.1 percent — including the team's worst shooting performance of the year, the 19-of-72 (26.4 percent) ice storm at UNC in a 68-59 loss Feb. 19. 3. Free Throw Shooting: Since its 20-win season in 2009-10, when they led the ACC with a 74-percent accuracy at the foul line, Pack players have made fewer and fewer free throws, dropping to 69-percent accuracy in 2010-11 and just 65.5 percent last season — ninth in the ACC. In the 20 games in which opponents shot a higher percentage than NC State at the stripe, 13 were losses. Returning Leaders Points: Sr. G Marissa Kastanek (440, 12.9 per game) Rebounds: Jr. F Kody Burke (186, 5.3 per game) Assists: Jr. G Myisha Goodwin-Coleman (132, 3.8 per game) Blocks: Burke (53, 1.5 per game) Steals: Goodwin-Coleman (73, 2.1 per game) Three-pointers made: Goodwin-Coleman (58) FG percentage: Kastanek (.429; 159/371) FT percentage: Kastanek (.839; 73/87) Minutes: Kastanek (982, 28.9 per game) 84 ■ THE WOLFPACKER If forward Kody Burke averages 47 blocks a season during her junior and senior campaigns, she will become NC State's all-time leading shot blocker. PHOTO BY ROB BRADLEY Five Key Games three returning starters, nine returning letter winners overall and arguably the most heralded addition to the lineup in five years. The season opener against the Terriers of the Southern Conference (13-18 last season) in the opening game of the Sheraton Raleigh Wolfpack Invitational Tournament should not only give a first look at how much the Pack's veterans have improved from last year's 19-16 campaign, but how much impact 6-5 junior college transfer Markeisha Gatling will have in the paint. Gatling, rated the No. 1 post player in junior college in 2011-12 at Florida Gulf Coast CC, is the biggest scoring threat inside since 6-6 Gillian Goring patrolled the post in 2006-07. Michigan State, Nov. 29: NC State's sixth appearance in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge will pit the Pack against Wofford, Nov. 9: NC State women's basketball tips off its fourth year under head coach Kellie Harper with the Spartans (20-12 in 2011-12) for the first time since their only other meeting, a 58-57 loss in the WNIT semi- finals April 2, 2008. The Pack will be hoping to even its record in the annual inter-conference series at 3-3. Both of NC State's wins have come against Illinois, in 2007 and 2010. At LSU, Dec. 2: NC State's second game of the season against an SEC opponent (following a matchup with Florida in the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout in Las Vegas Nov. 23) will be the second time in four years that former Tennessee players Kellie Harper and Nikki Caldwell will be sitting on opposite benches. Harper took NC State to the NCAA Tournament in her first year (2009-10), where the Pack lost to Caldwell's UCLA Bruins 74-54 in the opening round in Minneapolis. Duke, Jan. 3: The Blue Devils, with returning All-ACC Freshman of the Year Elizabeth Williams and another top- ment, continuing the tradition started by Kay Yow in 2006, will be the second chance this season (following a visit to Atlanta Jan. 27) for the Pack to exact revenge on the Yellow Jackets, who not only won both regular-season games last winter (77-67 in Raleigh and 75-68 in overtime in Atlanta) but ended NC State's 2012 ACC Tournament with an 87-61 trouncing, the Pack's worst margin of defeat last season. The Pack also will be seeking to end a two-year string of losses in the annual nationally televised contest. ranked recruiting class, will be out to avenge the Pack's stunning 75-73 upset in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals last March — but it won't be easy. Reynolds Coliseum has been a tough venue for the Devils in recent years, with Duke winning 61-58 in overtime in 2009 and escaping with a 65-64 verdict in 2011 after overcoming a 20-point NC State lead in the second half. Georgia Tech, Feb. 17: The Pack's eighth annual "Hoops for Hope" benefit game for cancer research and treat-