NCAA.com’s Andy Katz Says ‘NC State is going to make NCAA Tournament’

Andy Katz was the face of college basketball for ESPN for a long time. He’s now with NCAA.com in a very similar role and is still one of the most respected national media figures coving the sport.

Last night he released his reflections from Saturday’s games and he made a surprisingly bold prediction. One that you might be pretty interested in reading…

4.NC State is going to make the NCAA tournament: The Wolfpack picked up their fourth quadrant 1 win by winning at North Carolina on Saturday. The Wolfpack have wins over Duke on the road, Arizona on a neutral court and home wins over North Carolina and Clemson. Barring a collapse, Kevin Keatts is going to get this team across the finish line.

That’s right, folks. Andy Katz believes that NC State is heading to the big dance! One correction to his article, however, is that State beat Duke at home and UNC on the road, but whatever, we get what you’re saying, Andy.

NC State has 15 wins on the season and is 5-4 in the ACC. While we love to see the national media recognize the Pack, we also realize that this season is far from over. We’ve said all along that we believe 19 regular season wins and one ACC Tournament win gets State in the NCAAs. That means they need to win 4 of their next 9 games. That’s doable, but it’s also easy to fall short of that in the ACC. This team needs to keep focus and as Keatts says, stay the course if they want to be assured a spot in the Dance.

Next up is Notre Dame at home. The Pack was crushed by 30 in South Bend just a few weeks ago, but this is a different NC State team with Markell Johnson and Notre Dame has now dropped 4 in a row.

Making Andy Katz prediction come true start next Saturday with a win over the Fighting Irish.