Freeman, Yurtseven Excelling For Wolfpack
When Abdul-Malik Abu got hurt prior to the season opener it appeared that NC State, a team likely to play only one true interior player at a time, would see its inside production suffer.
The Wolfpack has produced solid numbers inside however, and the efficiency is quite remarkable.
In his return to the team following a season lost to injury Lennard Freeman has become a focal point of NC State’s attack. The redshirt senior averages 13 points and five rebounds per contest. He is playing slightly more than 21 minutes a game.
Omer Yurtseven, who flirted with leaving school following an uneven freshman season, is now beginning to realize his potential. The sophomore from Turkey has tallied 12.7 points per game through nine contests this season -- incidentally Yurtseven missed the team’s first nine games as a freshman -- and he is also hauling in seven rebounds per outing.
"These games, these non-conference games, really help you get your rhythm and get going, get used to your teammates, the coach, the offense, the system, everything," Yurtseven said. "To miss this portion was really bad last year but now that I am getting my rhythm, it feels good. I feel like it has a huge effect."
Since transferring to NC State after spending his freshman year with Charlotte, Torin Dorn Jr. has always shown an inclination to go inside and do the dirty work a team needs. He has 22 rebounds in his last two games and averages 6.4 boards per contest this season.
Dorn is scoring at a rate of 13.1 points per game and does a solid job as the bridge between the guards and the bigs.
The trio has combined to shoot 62.8 percent (135-of-215) from the floor.
The production NC State is getting inside is not going unnoticed.
Yurtseven and Freeman, despite not receiving major minutes early in the campaign have demanded attention inside. It has given the Wolfpack both solid production in the interior while also creating space for guards and wings to create.
“It just makes the game easier for us when [Omer] and Lennard are dominating down there,” Allerik Freeman said. “Rebounding, scoring on the low block, it makes the perimeter players on the defensive end have to pay more attention to them.
“Most of the time in the future, they are not going to see one-on-ones. They are going to have to be double-teamed. There will have to be a lot of helpside defense on the bigs so that is just going to leave us open for open shots on the perimeter or rotation where we can drive easy.”
According to NC State head coach Kevin Keatts, the return of Abu to full strength is coming along. Soon the Wolfpack will have another interior player with a history of shooting at a high percentage while also posting solid rebounding numbers to join the fray.
“Malik is doing better,” Keatts said. “We've thrown him in back in practice. The couple of days really helped him. I don't have a status of if he'll play on Saturday, but he has practiced a couple of days without any complaints.
“When you look at a guy like Malik who hasn't had an injury, sometimes it's more mental than anything. He's a superior athlete and he hasn't had to go through that. I think he'll be fine, and the last couple of days he's been fine.”
