NC State basketball’s Terquavion Smith came back for this. It’s his time to shine

By the end of the regular season, Jarkel Joiner had almost eclipsed Terquavion Smith in the N.C. State firmament with his fearless step-back jumpers and 94-foot defense on the ball as Smith staggered to the finish.

Which was fine. It was good for Joiner to get some well-deserved recognition, and the older-younger brother relationship between the two is such that Smith wasn’t going to get jealous.

But make no mistake: N.C. State is going as far in the NCAA Tournament as Smith will take the Wolfpack, because as good as Joiner is, it’s Smith’s explosive ability to score, inside and outside, that can truly be a difference-maker in March.

The week off after the loss at Duke seemed to revitalize Smith, who scored 30 points in an ACC tournament win over Virginia Tech after a run of six straight games below his season average. (With N.C. State, you have to throw the ensuing Clemson loss, like the other two, out the window. Clemson was Wolfpack kryptonite this season.) That’s what N.C. State is going to need from the sophomore to beat Creighton, or anyone else, and there’s no question Smith has shown he can do it.

When both Smith and Joiner are feeling it, the Wolfpack has a chance to beat anyone.

“We talk about all the time, I tell them to see what you’re capable of,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said. “When those two guys are playing great together, then they’re really tough to stop.”

But there’s more than scoring to this. N.C. State is one of the best teams in the country at taking care of the basketball: fourth in turnover percentage, seventh in turnover average. That includes Smith, who averages only 2.2 turnovers per game despite having the ball in his hands on almost every possession he’s on the floor. (Joiner’s even better.) Throw in Creighton being one of the worst teams in the country at forcing turnovers on defense, and you have what basketball analyst John Gasaway has identified as one of the main ingredients of a first-round upset.

And despite scoring upwards of 17 points per game, Smith also averages 4.2 assists per game. It does sometimes seem like N.C. State has Smith Possessions and Joiner Possessions, where the offense runs through one or the other, but when they’re on the same page, whether in the halfcourt offense or throwing alley-oops to each other, it’s a tough team to guard even before considering the matchup nightmare D.J. Burns represents.

“He’s probably one of the most unselfish superstars I’ve ever been around,” Joiner said. “We love each other. We’re always talking on the court, off the court, seeing what we’re doing, and man, it’s fun.”

Smith is going to have to be at his best against Creighton, which has the kind of size — three starters 6-foot-7 or taller, including 7-1 center Ryan Kalkbrenner, the two-time Big East defensive player of the year — to handle Burns. If the Wolfpack is going to upset the Bluejays, the offense is almost certainly going to have to come from the outside.

This is why Smith came back to school when he could have followed Dereon Seabron into the draft after that last miserable season. It’s what he hoped would happen, and what he helped make happen.

He’s capable of shooting N.C. State into the next round. His time has come.

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