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NC State Kicks Off the Season Against Campbell
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- NC State Kicks Off the Season Against Campbell
2026-2027 Men's Basketball Team | Credit: NC State Men's Basketball
When:Monday November 2 – 7:30 PM
Where:Lenovo Center
TV:ACC Network Extra
Opponent:Campbell Camels (CAA – Coastal Athletic Assoc.)
Prediction – KenPom (KP) / Bart Torvik (BT):NC State 90-70 / NC State 95-69
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Excerpts from Coach Gainey's Friday press conference
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About coming home to Raleigh to become the Wolfpack's head coach
"I felt like I had to do it because this is home and home wasn't handled right."
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Exhibitions: Was there a moment that stood out to you …?
"Yeah, it was the Mississippi State game in the Greensboro Coliseum. It had been a back-and-forth battle. We were down six with 2:47 to go. During a timeout, I looked over and Paul McNeil was sitting in my seat, delivering his message to the guys. Everybody was locked in. Nobody was in their own feelings."
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Rotation?
" I feel pretty good about it. I do. I feel like through these three contests that we've been able to develop what I think the rotation will look like. But also, the game will call for different things"
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Darius Adams – Point Guard
"It's been very helpful to have another ball handler. You essentially have two ball handlers, two point guards on the court at the same time. … I always said when I was a young coach coming up that I wanted to have multiple point guards. Like when I put my teams together, I wanted to have multiple point guards on the floor at the same time. … It's value in having guys that understand the game, understand the flow, see the game as a point guard, but also being able to score the basketball.
Opponent Overview:
This is Coach Jimmie Williams' first season at Campbell, his first season at D1, and his fifth season as a head coach after four seasons at D2 Anderson University (South Carolina) where he was the 2025-26 SAC Coach of the Year.
The Camels comes to Raleigh with very little D1 experience, including the coach. Lance Waddles (no he doesn't!) played for Omaha and Nordin Kapic transferred from South Carolina, and that's it. In fact, he's got the same number of international passports (6) on the team as total seasons of D1 experience.
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Rtail – Lebanon, Thet – South Sudan, Butkus – Lithuania, Shellhammer – Canada, Savanovic – Serbia, Kapic – Austria
Coach Williams has an entirely new roster this season built around two 'less than ideal sized' players he brought with him from Anderson.
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Senior point guard, 5'9", AJ Wright Jr describes himself as a 'pass first point guard'. Sometimes when you hear that, it's a clue that he's not a good shooter. And that is the case here, last season he shot 36.8% / 26.7%. But, he averaged 5.3 assists per game.
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Sophomore shooting guard, 6'0", Rashawn Inglemon was the conference Freshman of the Year. He averaged 16.7 ppg, shooting 45% (103-229) from the arc.
Starters / Stats from Campbell's final exhibition game against South Carolina last week
Their Season So Far:
The only reason why I hesitate to predict a massive blowout is because they played South Carolina (they come to Lenovo 12/1) fairly evenly last weekend. They lost by 9 but led 33-32 at the half and had a one-point lead with 5:12 left in the game. However, grain of salt, the media predicts South Carolina to finish last in the SEC. (with Mississippi State nearby)
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What to watch for from the Wolfpack:
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Rebounding! – In the two exhibition games the Pack barely won the total rebounding battle, 72-71. Rebounding is one of Coach Gainey's 'identities' for the Wolfpack, this has to get better for this team to excel this season. These are undersized Camels. This should be a dominant rebounding performance.
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Offensive Rebounding– We were outrebounded 36-18 on the offensive boards in the two exhibitions. Time for the bigs to step up and the Pack turns this around. Last season Coach Goins' Georgia offense ranked 49th in OR%, as per KenPom. Coach Gainey's Tennessee defense ranked 62nd. Expectations are much higher than what we've seen.
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Preston Edmead– He fouled out against MSU and had 4 fouls against Lenoir-Rhyne. He had 16 points (only missed one shot) and zero assists against MSU, he had 2 points (0-4) and 8 assists against L-R. He needs to limit fouls and settle into a happy balance between scoring and assists.
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Kyle Evans– He was terrible against D1 MSU (0/0/1) in only 12 minutes due to fouls. Against D2 L-R, we saw the player we need. He played 18 minutes, 9 pts /5 reb /2 ast / 1 block / 1 steal. The jury is still out.
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Robert Jurkovic– He played a total of 23 minutes in the two exhibitions. 1 rebound. At 6'10" 235 he should deliver rebounds. He did total 4 blocked shots, 1 behind Lubin.
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Zymicah Wilkins– In only 12 minutes against L-R he totaled 14 points (6-7 from field), 5 rebounds, 1 steal and one insane behind the back pass to Jurkovic. I know available minutes are hard to come by, but you have to play Mr. Basketball.
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SPOILER ALERT:Darius Adams is very good. In the two exhibitions, he's played the second most minutes (1 minute less than McNeil), leads the team in assists by a mile, he's third in scoring and rebounds, and is tied for second in steals. He has only one turnover, which happened in the first 30 seconds of the MSU game. (nerves – 1st game in front of a crowd) That's 56 straight minutes with zero turnovers. Stay tuned, he's only going to get better all season. (Matt who?)
Prediction: Wolfpack wins 80-69
