NC State ACC Tournament Preview and NCAA Update

The ACC Tournament brackets are out and the Pack is a #5 seed. They will play at 2pm on Wednesday. 

Actually, that’s not that bad considering the ups and downs this team faced over the course of the season. With two losses to the basement-dwelling Tar Hells and a loss to Boston College, you’d think that the Pack wouldn’t have a great shot of playing into March, but wins over #6 Duke, a win over Wisconsin (who tied for 1st in the Big Ten), and a win over UVA has them squarely on the bubble.

The ACC Tournament
NC State (5 seed) plays on Wednesday at 2 pm. They will face the winner of Tuesday’s Wake vs. Pitt game. If they were to win that they’d face off against Duke.

Actually this is a pretty decent draw for the Wolfpack. They have beaten Wake pretty handily twice and beat Pitt in their only meeting. Then they’d be on to Duke, who of the top 3 teams, State matches up best against them.

So what does this mean for the NCAA Tournament?
NC State was left off of the last Bracketology, but Lundardi did say that three wins assured them a spot. One problem is that one of those wins was always going to be against a top tier ACC team.

The win over Wake this past weekend was necessary and they’ll have to win over Wake again or Pitt in their ACC Tournament opener. That would, in our opinion, put them in a position to be a ‘Last 4 In” or “Last 4 Out” team. However, they control their destiny and a win over Duke would surely have them dancing.