Quick Picks with Coach Rick Bowe, CBB Picks, CBB Free Picks, CBB Predictions 1/6/26
- rbowe7447
- Jan 6
- 2 min read
NC STATE @ BOSTON COLLEGE (NCST -12.5, 144.5)
Tonight's ACC matchup between NC State and Boston College will be decided at the 3-point line. That's how it appears on paper, anyway. With a three-point field goal percentage of 37.9%, NC State (10-5, 1-1) leads the ACC going. BC (7-7, 0-1) leads the conference in three-point defense (27.7%).
Paul McNeil Jr. and guard Quadir Copeland are tied for the Wolfpack's team high at 14.1 points per game, with McNeil is the NC State's greatest threat from beyond the arc with 45 made three-pointers.
In their 76-61 home loss to Virginia on Saturday, NC State made 5 of 20 three-point attempts, including 1 of 9 in the first half.
"It didn't look very good to my unaided eye," NC State coach Will Wade remarked. "We tried to do too much too early. We let our frustrations on offense carry over to defense."
With 69.4 points per game, BC is the lowest scoring team in the ACC, and their shooting issues were on full display in Saturday's 65-53 loss to Georgia Tech. With 6:13 remaining, the score was tied 48-48, but Georgia Tech ended the game on a 17-5 surge after the Eagles missed 14 of their final 17 field goal attempts.
"It came down to toughness at that point, where we needed to get a stop and we needed to get rebounds," Earl Grant, the BC coach, said. "We had some open 3s that we didn't make, but we also took a few that we shouldn't have taken. We needed to turn down a shot for a better shot -- that happened to us multiple times."
Boston College's top scorers are guards Fred Payne (12.4) and Donald Hand Jr. (15.6).
During the first half of NC State's defeat against Virginia, point guard Tre Holloman suffered a foot injury. This season, Holloman has started 11 of 15 games and averaged 10.2 points per contest. It's uncertain whether or not he will play tonight.
FREE PICK: NC STATE -12.5
No one wants the Wolfpack laying 12.5 points on the road in a conference game...but I do. NC State is coming off a bad loss to Virginia and can get a nice bounce-back win against what could be the worst Power conference team in the country. BC has serious issues on the offensive end (354th in FG%, 324th in scoring). NC State averages over 85 ppg and that's with Darrion Williams (13.7 ppg) averaging 8.7 ppg over the last month. It's not pretty, but NC State is the better shooting team, better rebounding team, and has much more depth.
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