NC State comes to Charlottesville tonight, hoping to catch the ‘Hoos flat after playing what is probably their most inspired ball of the year in Sunday night’s 75-60 win over UNC in Chapel Hill. Does a reverse jinx still work if you plainly indicate you’re trying to pull one? I hope so.

It feels like we just saw NC State, and we’re seeing them again before we see Maryland, BC, Clemson, Duke or Florida State for the first time, but it’s not actually uncommon at all: we played UNC twice in the first half of the league schedule last year, and Virginia Tech twice in 17 days the year before that.

Since our last meeting, the ‘Pack has beaten Florida State on the road and Duke at the RBC Center (very nice!) been beaten handily by North Carolina and Maryland (not as nice), lost a nailbiter to Clemson (judgment pending) and blown out North Carolina Central (whatever).

Tracy Smith is still the straw that stirs the Wolfpack drink, scoring in double figures in five straight games and going over 20 in three of the last four. Jerome Meyinsse – the current runaway leader in the poll for most improved Cavalier – did a great job on Smith in the second half in Raleigh, and he’ll likely get the call again tonight.

Pretty much everyone else on the team is inconsistent – the ‘Pack determine who else is going to play well by drawing names out of a hat in the pregame huddle, and yes “no one” is occasionally an option. Freshman gunner Scott Wood had 31 and seven threes in the big win against Florida State, and just three against UNC. Second leading scorer Dennis Horner (12.2 ppg) is seen some highs (games of 20 and 13 points) and lows (games of 2, 4 and 6 points) since we’ve seen them last. What this says is that we’ll need to focus most of our pressure on Smith and then identify which other ‘Pack player has decided to show up tonight and go from there.

What I’d Like to See Tonight:

1.) Mu and JJ get off the schneid.
Farrakhan and Jones are both slumping in the last four games. The two have slumped across the board in the last four games: a combined 13-44 from the floor (.295), 9-17 from the line (.529), 4-22 from three (.182) and 5 assists to 7 turnovers. These two at their best provide crucial energy and offense off of the bench, so we need at least one but preferably both of them to get their shot back in order before the second half of the conference slate rolls around.

2.) Plenty of touches for #32.
We play better when Mike is touching the ball. He only took eight shots against UNC, but was still was involved and drew the attention of the defense – a season high tying three assists speaks for that. Mike matches up well with Tracy Smith and the NCSU bigs – he’s too quick – so I’d love to see him have a big game tonight.

3.) Sylven keeps up his 2010 work.
Syl has been scoring 20.8 points per game on 50% shooting since the calendar flipped, and has complimented those numbers with 5.4 boards and 3.0 assists per game – all increases from his ’09 numbers. He’s been on a tear, and has his improved jump shot to thank. I hope that a.) it keeps up and b.) NBA scouts are completely oblivious. Ha.

This is one of those games that scares me because it feels like we should win. One thing this team has shown me is that despite our gaudy record, we can’t be depended on yet to put in strong performances game in and game out. I wouldn’t be surprised if we won or lost by ten points tonight.