NC State basketball counting on its ‘body of work’ to earn it a spot in NCAA tournament
And now, the waiting game for N.C. State.
Depending on who you listen to — and every “bracketologist” is guessing — the Wolfpack has played its way into the NCAA tournament field, or possibly a “First Four” game in Dayton, Ohio, or still sitting on the bubble.
Jerry Palm, for example, had the Pack (23-10) as a No. 9 seed facing No. 8 Illinois in a South Regional mock bracket that will have Alabama as the No. 1 seed. That was his guesstimate Thursday, and there are countless others proliferating online every March.
By Friday, Palm’s CBS brackets had changed. He had the Pack as the No. 9 seed in the East, playing Memphis, and Purdue the No. 1 seed.
Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts will try not to be paranoid about it, although it would be easy to be paranoid. After all, the Pack appeared well-positioned in the NET rankings used by the NCAA selection committee in 2019, and had beaten Clemson in the ACC Tournament, then was left out.
What about losing to Clemson 80-54 in the tournament? That’s the kind of beating the Pack took Thursday in the 2023 ACC Tournament quarterfinals at the Greensboro Coliseum. What effect, if any, will that have on the selection committee this weekend?
“You know, I’m not on the committee, but I will say, man, we’ve got a pretty doggone good resume,” Keatts said after Thursday’s game. “Typically,when you look at resumes and the past, one of the things you look at is what’s your strength of schedule, and I think we’ve got a really good strength of schedule.
“Our non-conference strength of schedule won’t hurt us. We don’t have any bad losses. We’ve got some really good wins. And when you look at us and this league, and we’re 12-8 (in the ACC) and won 23 games overall, if you compare our resume to a lot of teams, we put ourselves in a good situation. I do feel favorable for us, absolutely.”
In 2019, the Wolfpack’s strength of schedule was judged to be the worst in Division I. That made for an easy out for the NCAA committee on N.C. State and allowed St. John’s, with a NET ranking in the 70’s, to be chosen.
Clemson didn’t make into the NCAAs in 2019, either, which rankled both Keatts and Tigers coach Brad Brownell.
Keatts said the ACC should have seven or eight teams in the NCAA field this year, including the Tigers, who had a No. 61 NET ranking before Thursday but now has beaten the Wolfpack three times.
“Sometimes, I think folks don’t look at the eye test as much, and I’m kind of a body-of-work guy,” Keatts said. “So when you look at November and December with our league, we might not have performed as well as some people like, even though I think against the Big Ten we won the challenge maybe 8-6. But when you only talk about us, you look at our body of work, it’s been pretty doggone good.
“I don’t think you should be judged by any one or two games whether you win them big or lose. The great thing about us, we’ve been on the winning end of a lot of those blowouts. I think we’ve had three or four ourselves where we won.”
Wolfpack players were dejected Thursday after the big loss to Clemson. They came to Greensboro believing they could win four games in four days and the school’s first ACC championship since 1987.
That didn’t happen, and it was deflating, especially after the Pack’s 20-point win over Virginia Tech as it opened tournament play. There was no joy in the Pack locker room late Thursday night.
But there’s still postseason basketball to be played. The NCAA committee will announce the field Sunday, and the Wolfpack expects to be given its first berth since 2018, Keatts’ first season at NCSU, when the Pack lost to Seton Hall in the first round.
“I think we have a good possibility to play in March Madness and the NCAA tournament,” sophomore guard Terquavion Smith said Thursday. “It would mean everything to me and I’ll have to make the best of the opportunity if they give it..
“They won’t regret giving it to us.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2023 at 11:00 AM.
