On the road again
By: hale-mcgranahan February 19, 2016

Even though NC State is trying to avoid a losing season, the Wolfpack will be a tough test at PNC Arena on Saturday afternoon.

In ACC road games, Clemson is 2-5  with wins against Syracuse and Wake Forest. Winning on the road ain’t easy, especially in the ACC, and there’s plenty of talent on NC State’s roster — more than their record (13-13, 3-10 ACC) would indicate.

“They have good players and it’s a great atmosphere. Wolfpack fans come out and support their team,” Brad Brownell said on Saturday, before the Tigers left for Raleigh.

“The place can really get jumping. You just have to play really well.”

Defensively, the conversation begins with Cat Barber, an ACC Player of the Year candidate, even with his team’s struggles in conference play. For the season, he’s averaging 23.7 points per game, but he scored 30 or more points five times against ACC teams — four of those were in the last six games.

“Cat Barber is unbelievable,” Brownell said. “They’ve got big, strong guys inside that are physical. The (Cody and Caleb) Martin twins are good players and Maverick Rowan can really shoot.

“They’ve shown that they can play really well at times…we anticipate a tough game. We had two tough matchups with those guys last year.”

The two teams split in 2015. This year’s State squad has an RPI of 102 with 40 for strength of schedule while Clemson is 16-10 (9-5 ACC) with their RPI at 96 and strength of schedule at 87.

The Tigers’ NCAA tournament hopes would take a significant hit if they fall in Saturday’s 3 o’clock showdown. Brownell & Co. won’t get too far ahead of themselves. Chief among his concerns is keeping his players fresh for the final four games of the season.

“We have to be smart about how we do things now,” he said. “(Thursday), we didn’t do very much — one of the shortest practice days that we’ve had, because I think our guys are a little fatigued.

“It’s been a long season (and) our starters are playing a lot of minutes. We were in and out (in) 50 minutes yesterday, but we’ll have a good practice today — will be more spirited, more competitive.”