North Carolina State Wolfpack vs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: How to Watch, Gamethread, Preview and More!

For those of you who still have high hopes for Tech's basketball team this year, I truly applaud you. After starting off the season pretty well, it seemed like the Yellow Jackets had finally turned a corner. And then we hit conference play and became virtually the exact same team from last year. One good thing for Tech, though, is that we finally get an easy conference game tonight.

NC State is averaging 74.3 points per game and giving up 70.9 points per game for a point differential of 3.4. That's decent, but not nearly as good as what Tech has been going up against thus far.

The offense is still pretty dangerous, though. The Wolfpack are led by junior guard Anthony "Cat" Barber, who leads the team with 22.1 points per game, while shooting 41.9 percent from the floor. He also averaged 4.7 rebounds per game and assists per game. He's also the team's best 3-point shooter, shooting 35.4 percent from beyond the arc. And by a wide margin, he's the team's best free throw shooter (and most fouled) at 139-of-162 (85.8 percent).

Another guy that the Jackets are going to need to watch out for is sophomore forward Abdul-Malik Abu. Abu is averaging 12 points per game, while shooting 46.2 percent from the floor. He's also the team's best rebounder at 8.5 per game.

Joining these two in the starting lineup will likely be freshman forward Maverick Rowan (13.3 ppg || 35.6 percent shooting || 46-of-141 from 3), sophomore guard/forward Cody Martin (6.3 ppg || 50 percent shooting || 4.6 rpg) and junior forward/center BeeJay Anya (4.8 ppg || 62.3 percent shooting || 51 blocks).

Game Time: 8:00 p.m. EST

TV:

Radio: 93.7 FM || 680 AM || Georgia Tech Radio Network || Sirius 94 || XM 204

Rosters: Georgia Tech (Game Notes) || NC State (Game Notes)

Preview from Backing the Pack:

• Georgia Tech is experienced, and better, and not going anywhere worth mention, by Steven Muma