As NC State, Pittsburgh Are Opposing Each Other Wednesday Night In Raleigh NC State, Pittsburgh Are Looking To Snap Their Losing Streaks
Coming into the game Wednesday night in North Carolina’s state capital NC State is on a two game losing streak while Pittsburgh comes into the game on a three game losing streak.
As NC State, Pittsburgh are opposing each other Wednesday night in North Carolina’s state capital NC State, Pittsburgh are looking to snap their losing streaks when they face, oppose each other.
Where?
On the hardwood!
NC State comes into the game with Pittsburgh with record of 11-18 overall is 4-14 in the Atlantic Coast Conference seventeenth in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings because they’ve lost two straight Atlantic Coast Conference games including their previous game to Georgia Tech Saturday in Atlanta 87-62. As NC State lost to Georgia Tech 87-62 as a team NC State shot 37.3 % on field goals , 33.3 % on on 3 pointers two players scored in double figures Ben Middlebrooks was 5-6 on field goals to go along 6 rebounds, 13 points. Dontrez Styles was 4-12 on field goals , 3-8 on field goals to go along with 5 rebounds, 13 points.
Following NC State’s 87-62 loss to Georgia Tech Head Coach Kevin Keatts had this to say!
I don’t have a lot to share, but I will say this, Ndongo is good. I mean, he is as good as advertised. Obviously, not to take away from any of the other players, but I thought he was special tonight, the way he played.
Damon’s (Stoudamire) got to be happy, because a lot of the time when you’re a guy that can score the basketball, he doesn’t give you a lot on the defensive end, and I thought he was really good, two blocks, really rebounded the basketball, played at a high level. They do a good job of feeding off of him, putting guys around him who can make some shots.
I thought he was really special.
How much did it hurt your team when (Ben) Middlebrook’s got in foul trouble?
Yeah, it crushed us. I mean, he’s about the only guy that I had that could stay in front of Ndongo, and obviously, that’s been one of our Achilles heels on the entire season, is Ben has been in foul trouble for a good portion of our games, and it completely changed us, and it really hurt us tonight, because he was scoring the ball tonight.
That’s typically not who he is. He’s more play hard, rebound the ball, but he was scoring with his back to the basket, so it completely changed us.
Well, this has been a rough season for you guys. Just how difficult is it when you lose momentum on the road like this, and then they just kinda gang up on you every time you guys made a run tonight?
Yeah, it’s been a tough year. I mean, it really has, and it’s hard, because you think about, we were at the top of the mountain, and it was a great year, and we lost really four good players. Sometimes you don’t realize that until the next year how good and how important those guys were to us.
We did something unique and really special last year that we hadn’t done in 37 years, and the tough thing about it is you get a lot of teams that make an incredible run similar to us, and the next year it’s not as great, because it’s always tough, but this has been a really tough year. I hope that with the way things are going now, and we get to have the chance to move stuff in-house, and it’s more revenue sharing, I think it’ll be a little bit different for us, and I think we’ll be able to compete a little bit more, but it’s been tough.
I’ll be the first to tell you, and I give our guys credit for showing up. I thought we got a little off-tough, but I don’t think that anybody’s laid down. It’s one of those situations where we normally take care of the basketball, and we turned it over tonight.
You have some quick guards that have the ability to get to the hoop, but I imagine knowing that Ndongo was down there waiting, that put a little hesitation into what they were doing?
Yeah, Ndongo was…I’m gonna tell Damian if he calls me, he better get his revenue sharing up. That guy, he’s gonna be in the league. I mean, he was good.
I mean, tonight he was special, and I can’t say enough about him. He dominated the game in every aspect of it. And it’s not a surprise, because we talked about it.
We talked about the scouting report the last five, six games. He’s been on a tear. He’s been playing great.
It’s just when you see it, and so I’m sure that affected us in some way.
Perhaps last season, for you all, and this season might be the classic example of the peak and the valley. When the valley’s part two of those two things, where do you think about trying to go from that valley?
Yeah, I mean, things in today’s game can change quickly. We were at the top of it. I don’t know that there’s ever been a nine game stretch like the one we had.
But because of the outside, we didn’t capitalize on it as much. When it gets moved in house and our administration has a little bit more control of it, I think we’re gonna be fine. You take a program like Louisville, who obviously really struggled.
Kenny’s (Payne) a great friend of mine, and he worked, and bust his ass, but he didn’t have what they have now. So when you look at that, they’ve got over 6 million to play.
If you’re not involved in NIL, or revenue sharing, you’re not in the game. I worked for Rick Pitino, and you guys know the history of St. John’s, and Coach Pitino is the best coach, in my opinion, that’s been out there. He will be the first to tell you that the reason why they’re successful is because they got in the game with revenue sharing and NIL.
So I’m excited about the opportunity for next year to be able to be a part of where our in-house people actually have an opportunity to impact us.
The way the ACC tournament’s set up now, you guys have to claw to get in. Is that frustrating for you that they’re not setting it up so everybody can get it into the tournament and have a chance like you guys made that run last year?
I think if you win the tournament, and this is a joke, and I’m saying a joke when I really don’t feel like joking, but I think that if you win the tournament a year before, you should automatically get in. I don’t know, I don’t make the rules. I don’t, but I do think it’s something that we need to look at at the end of the day.
You’re playing a long season.
Here’s my argument for looking at that. All schedules are not created equal. If you look at our schedule compared to somebody else, our schedule may be tougher.
So now do you weigh the schedules and say, ‘all right, well, this team played a way tougher ACC schedule than the other team and they’re getting in. What makes the tournament so unique is you play an unbalanced schedule, and everybody can get in, but when you get in the tournament, it’s nothing unbalanced.
The cream always rises to the top and we were the cream at that point. So I would say one suggestion is we look at stricter schedules, and I don’t know where we fit out of 18, but I do know that the couple games that we have to play, we go to Duke, we go to Carolina, we go to Wake Forest, play them twice. We played the top of the league for a good amount of years, and that may be something that needs to be considered.
Do I fix it? I don’t know that. That’s completely up to the athletic directors and the ACC to take a look at that part of it, but I will say every conference schedule is not created equal
According to Matthew Bradham article https://packinsider.com/2025/03/01/kevin-keatts-postgame-press-conference-after-nc-states-loss-at-georgia-tech-transcript/
Pittsburgh comes into the game with NC State with record of 16-13 overall 7-11 in the Atlantic Coast Conference are eleventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference because they’ve lost three straight games including their game Saturday at Louisville As a team shot 36.5 % on field goals , 27 % on 3 pointers. Four players scored in double figures Guillermo Diaz Graham was 4-11 on field goals, 3-10 on three pointers to go along with 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 13 points. Zack Austin was 5-11 on field goals , 3-8 on 3 pointers to go along with 5 rebounds , 1 assists, 15 points. Jaland Lowe was 6-18 on field goals , 1-8 on 3 pointers to go along with 10 rebounds , 5 assists, 16 points. Ishmael Leggett was 4-15 on field goals , 1-8 on 3 pointers to go along with 7 rebounds , 2 assists , 10 points.
Following Pittsburgh’s Head Coach Jeff Capel had this to say about his team! We had stretches where we had a lead and we went 2-4 from free throw line then in five possessions we had three turnovers . Those are moments when we had the chance to extend the lead and put more game pressure on them . We have to be better in those situations and as the point guard he is in charge of that.
We had stretches where we had a lead and we went 2 for 4 from the [free throw] line,”Then, in five possessions, we had three turnovers. Those are moments when we had the chance to extend a lead and put more game pressure on them. We have to be better in those situations. And as the point guard, he’s in charge of that.”
According to Christopher Carter article ttps://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Pitt/2025/03/01/louisville-acc-college-basketball-hepburn-lowe-leggett/stories/202503010013
Tip off is set 7:00pm from Lenovo Center!
The game is going to be televised on ESPNNEWS with Mike Monaco, Randolph Childress commentating!
Mike Monaco is a versatile and accomplished play-by-play announcer for ESPN. Adept at calling a variety of sports, Monaco joined ESPN in 2019 and has called Major League Baseball, NHL, Little League World Series, basketball, college baseball, football, lacrosse, volleyball and softball events.
Prior to joining ESPN and the ACC Network, Monaco was with FOX Sports and the Big Ten Network from 2017-19, where he called football, hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball and softball. Monaco also previously called college basketball for NBC Sports and four seasons of college basketball games at Western Michigan University.
In addition to his work with ESPN, Monaco also currently serves as the fill-in play-by-play announcer for Boston Red Sox broadcasts on NESN. He has also called games for the Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox.
After initially filling in on Red Sox telecasts during the 2019 season, Monaco returned to NESN’s Red Sox booth in 2020, 2021 and 2022 for select spring training and regular-season games. He previously spent the 2017-19 seasons with the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox.
In college, Monaco interned with NESN during the 2012 Red Sox season, then served as a broadcaster in the Cape Cod Baseball League (2013 and 2014 seasons) and for the Chicago Cubs’ (2015) and San Diego Padres’ (2016) Single-A affiliates in the Midwest League.
Born and raised in Cohasset, Massachusetts, Monaco attended the University of Notre Dame. While in South Bend, he served as a play-by-play broadcaster, reporter and host for his alma mater, including on nationally syndicated Notre Dame football shows.
According to https://espnpressroom.com/us/bios/mike-monaco/