No. 3 NC State gets top seed in NCAA tournament
N.C. State knew the when and the where, now the Wolfpack knows the who.
The 2021 NCAA tournament women’s brackets were released Monday and N.C. State will take on North Carolina A&T (14-2) at 4 p.m. on Sunday in San Antonio, Texas.
The Wolfpack (20-2) was selected as a No. 1 seed. The Pack and Aggies met last season in Raleigh, with N.C. State winning 80-44.
Wes Moore has led the Wolfpack to two consecutive Sweet 16 berths (2018, 2019) since taking over as head coach prior to the 2013-14 season. This is the sixth trip to the NCAA tournament for N.C. State under Moore, and Moore’s 21st trip overall to the NCAA tournament as a head coach.
“This is what you work all year for,” Moore said Monday night. “You go from July until this point, you’ve invested a lot of time, a lot of work and now is the fun part, to be able to play on this stage and be in this situation.”
A&T won the MEAC Tournament title by defeating Howard, 59-57.
“They’ve been very consistent,” Moore said about the Aggies. “I know they will be fired up about playing another in-state school. We’re talking about a team that won a championship. They know how to win so we better be ready to play.”
The final Associated Press Top 25 standings were released on Monday and N.C. State finished No. 3 in the country. The current squad is tied with the 1977-78 team with the best final AP ranking in school history. The No. 1 in the tournament is also a first in program history.
“It’s something that’s great for your program,” Moore said. “It’s great for our players to be recognized in that way. They did a lot of things to earn that opportunity.”
That makes three straight seasons the Pack has finished ranked in the AP Top 10, a first for N.C. State women’s basketball. The Wolfpack spent the final 15 weeks of the season ranked in the top five, the longest streak in school history.
The Pack spent three weeks of the 2020-21 campaign at No. 2, tying as the best AP Top 25 ranking in program history. This season marked NC State’s first time ranked second since week seven of the 1990-91 campaign.
N.C. State is the top seed in the Mercado Region. The Wolfpack rides into Texas on an eight-game win streak dating back to Feb. 11. Down the stretch Moore felt like his team was trending in the right direction. He said he was proud of the way they defended and rebounded during the ACC Tournament, but hopes to see the offense get going.
“I don’t know if we clicked on offense,” Moore said. “We have to get everyone hitting on all cylinders if we want to do something special here in the next few weeks. You have to have everybody firing on all cylinders.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 7:10 PM.
