NC State in a familiar spot hoping for a different ending
It was a good weekend for N.C. State’s NCAA tournament chances.
The Wolfpack (19-12) didn’t even play, wrapping up the regular season with an 84-64 win over Wake Forest on Friday, but the rest of the bubble helped them out.
Xavier, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Stanford, UCLA and Purdue all lost.
Utah State secured a spot with a win in the Mountain West championship game but there’s still plenty of room for the Wolfpack.
Now comes the hard part: helping themselves.
N.C. State, the No. 5 seed in the ACC tournament, will play No. 13 Pittsburgh in the second round of the ACC tournament on Wednesday (2:30 p.m., ESPN) in Greensboro.
“We would hate to have to put it in the hands of the committee,” senior guard C.J. Bryce said. “We have to win games. It’s simple. We have to advance and do our part.”
It’s familiar territory for the Wolfpack, who has spent so much time on the bubble in the past decade it has to start paying rent. Last year, N.C. State’s bubble burst on Selection Sunday. It was passed over for a lack of quality wins and a poor nonconference strength of schedule.
“We’ve answered some of the questions or the concerns the committee had last year,” Keatts said after the win over Wake Forest.
N.C. State enters Greensboro with a 4-5 record in “Quadrant 1” games — the games the selection committee considers the best — and at No. 85 in nonconference strength of schedule.
Last year, the Wolfpack had a 3-9 Q1 record and a No. 353 SOS rating, the worst in Division I.
Keatts has stumped a little more for his team this year. He has more talking points in his favor. The wins over Duke, Wisconsin and Virginia compare favorably with the other 10 teams vying for the final five spots in the tournament.
The win over Duke (No. 6 in the NET) is the best among bubble teams. The three wins over teams likely to be in the 68-team field are also the best (equaled by Arizona State and UCLA).
“Those are pretty good wins and I don’t think all Quad 1 wins are created equal,” Keatts said.
There’s also nothing on N.C. State’s resume that stands out for the wrong reason, like the SOS last year or Q3 or Q4 losses.
“Our resume looks good,” Keatts said. “If you put our resume up against anybody else, I think it looks favorable.”
It does as of Tuesday and if the tournament was being picked on Tuesday, that would be good for N.C. State.
But as the weekend results show, a lot can change and quickly. Just because Texas/Tennessee/Stanford/etc. faltered once it doesn’t mean they will in their conference tournaments.
Wednesday’s game, against either Wake or Pitt, is unlikely to help N.C. State’s resume. It basically can only hurt them. But Thursday’s matchup with Duke, a third meeting for the season, would be a prime opportunity.
“You can’t really get too caught up in the (NCAA) talk,” junior guard Devon Daniels said. “We know the best way to make the NCAA tournament is to win one game at a time. We’re going to focus on this game and not look too far ahead.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 3:23 PM.
