How One Freshman Picked Apart NC State’s Defense
In this story:
RALEIGH — First, it was Jordan Pope of Texas. Then, it was Keyshawn Hall and Kevin Overton in Auburn. Melvin Council with Kansas. Those are just a few of the players who torched NC State over the first few months of the season, several of them putting up new career highs for made 3-pointers or scoring totals.
The performance of Louisville freshman guard Mikel Brown dwarfed any of the heaters that came before it against the Wolfpack. In a matchup between the two hottest teams in the ACC, the Pack was thoroughly outclassed, with the future NBA lottery pick doing a brunt of the damage with his 45-point eruption at the KFC Yum! Center on Monday.
What went wrong for NC State's defense against Brown?
Sometimes, all a defense can do is watch as a shooter gets into a rhythm. NC State found itself in that predicament as it tried to slow down Brown. When the freshman buried his first 3-point attempt just over six minutes into the game, he did so with confidence. Still, the Wolfpack was aware of his shooting numbers coming in.
In the previous five games, Brown shot just 27.3% from 3-point range, slightly above his season-long average of 26.9%. Throughout the year, most notably with Council and the Jayhawks, the Wolfpack chose to play the numbers rather than the player himself. Those decisions, and a lack of adjustments as well, led to explosions for these players scoring the basketball. They aren't anomalies anymore. There's a larger issue.
Kel found the glitch last night 😅🎮#GoCards pic.twitter.com/arWxX4XSB0
— Louisville Men's Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) February 11, 2026
"He hadn't seen our defense yet," Wade joked after the game, even mentioning Council's performance. "We're good medicine if you can't shoot it."
It all connects back to an explanation Wade provided a few days after NC State's win over VCU in November. The Rams, a team that's gone on to shoot 36.5% from 3-point range as a team, took 42 triples in that game, making just 13. While it didn't cost the Pack in that moment, it felt like a dangerous omen. Wade debunked those concerns, or at least tried to.
"We're going to give up a lot of threes," Wade said on Nov. 20. "I thought the type of threes that we gave up to VCU, for the most part, about 85-90% of them, were the type of threes we want to give up... There's a method to it and we know the percentages that they're taking... It looks like, 'Oh my gosh, it's an open shot,' but it's not nearly as high a percentage shot as you would think."
Numbers can be deceiving, especially for a player like Brown with enormous upside and potential. In Wade's opinion, it all snowballed after he saw one shot go down from the corner. 10 made threes later and the Wolfpack walked off the court down 41 points.
"Then he started hitting some of the tougher ones off the bounce and that sort of thing," Wade said after the 118-77 loss. "Look, we just never made him feel us tonight. They were shooting and it was just them and the rim. When you give a team that's a great shooting time like them... Confidence and you give them good looks, it just snowballs on you."
Obviously, given Brown's eruption, things haven't improved since the start of conference play. Opponents of the Wolfpack are shooting 38.2% from deep in league games. The other unfortunate aspect of Brown's performance is that it's the beginning of a gauntlet of difficult individual matchups for NC State.
If the Pack has the same level of urgency and the same inability to make adjustments, there could be more eruptions from the opposition the rest of the season, lowering the postseason ceiling in Wade's first season at the helm.
Want more NC State basketball content throughout the year? Follow @WolfpackOnSI and @SennettTucker on X (Twitter) and never miss another breaking news story again.
Please let us know your thoughts when you like our Facebook page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE
Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
Follow SennettTucker