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North Carolina State at Syracuse

This Saturday the seventh-ranked Syracuse Orange will look to remain unbeaten when they host the North Carolina State Wolfpack in non-conference action.

The Orange have faced a pretty tough schedule to start the 2010 season, but head coach Jim Boeheim is anything but pleased with the way his team is playing. Boeheim called out his team after a 78-58 win over Cornell on Tuesday. The Orange jumped out to a 21-point lead in the first half, but turned on the cruise control in the second half and really played some sloppy basketball. Syracuse turned the ball over 20 times, and while they may have won the game, they won’t be able to win against better quality teams with that kind of play.

Boeheim had this to say after the game, “You can’t play bad basketball and win games against good teams, and we’re playing bad basketball. We’ve been playing bad basketball pretty much from the first game to now.” If you look at the schedule and how the Orange have done you wouldn’t exactly say they are playing bad. Syracuse already has wins over UNI, Georgia Tech, and Michigan.

The Orange are led by the inside play of junior forward Kris Joseph and senior center Rick Jackson. Joseph leads the team averaging nearly 15 points a game, while Jackson is averaging a double-double, bringing in 13 points and 13 rebounds a game. Junior guard Scoop Jardine really gets the Orange going, and look for him to get off to a fast start against the Wolfpack. Jardine is averaging 11 points and seven assists over the first seven games of the season.

The Wolfpack are 4-2 on the season, but haven’t exactly looked that good against the more high quality teams this season. The Wolfpack lost to Georgetown 82-67 and were blown out by Wisconsin in their last game, falling 87-48 in their first true road game of the season.

A big reason the Wolfpack have got off to a bit of a rough start is the fact that they are missing their key big man in senior Tracy Smith, who injured his knee and has not played since the second game of the season. Smith led North Carolina State in scoring and rebounding last season, averaging 16.5 points and seven rebounds a game. Smith isn’t expected back for another 10-12 days, so the Wolfpack figure to be at a big disadvantage in the paint against the Orange.

With Smith not in action the Wolfpack are going to need a big game out of sophomores Scott Wood and Richard Howell. Wood leads North Carolina averaging 12 points a game, while Howell has been the Wolpack’s best rebounder, averaging nearly seven boards to go along with nine points a game.