NC State Basketball
After blowout loss to Clemson, is NC State still an NCAA Tournament Team
Most State fans figured that the big win over Virginia Tech would pretty much lock the Pack into the NCAA Tournament.
However, some may be second-guessing themselves after the 26-point beat down Clemson put on NC State in the 3rd round of the ACC Tournament.
So where does the Pack stand now?
Well, as disheartening as last night was, NC State is still going to be a tournament team according to ESPN’s Joe Lundardi.
As of 11:30am this morning here is what he’s got…
Lunardi has at least 8 teams behind the Pack that he thinks will get in. Meaning, some craziness would have to go down for the Wolfpack to be left out.
On top of that, you have both Pitt and Clemson right on the bubble. So if an ACC team is going to be left out, at this point he thinks it’ll be Clemson, however my bet would be Pittsburgh. That said, I believe they’ll end up all getting in.
Lunardi has NC State stuck at a 10 seed. So the loss to Clemson seems to have done nothing to their chances.
As for what happened last night?
State just doesn’t match up well at all with Clemson. They are the only team to have blown out the Wolfpack this season, and they did it twice.
In fact, Clemson is going to be a tough out if they get into the NCAA Tournament. With the emergence of 6’7 Ian Schieffelin, they have a physical and versatile frontcourt. Add in 6’8 Hunter Tyson, and 6’10 PJ Hall and you have what might be the toughest frontcourt to deal with in the nation.
Their guards are good defenders and they don’t do much reaching or biting on pump fakes. They are a lot like Virginia, but they actually have an explosive offense.
NC State with its current roster isn’t going to beat Clemson if they are knocking down shots, however, the good news is that there aren’t many teams in the nation like the Tigers.
I feel like we’re going to get snubbed.
And glad I’m wrong!
Wow! We clobber VT. Clemson clobbers us. Virginia clobbers Clemson. This Atlantic Clobber Conference Tournament has been an interesting one.
And VT had beaten UVA earlier to complete the circle. Insanity.
Yep.
Every team with a bye advantage won their first game.
Losing a game to a team with a bye should not negatively affect you very much.
I should hope not. We’ll find out tonight.
If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that we would lose our starting center for the entire season, lose our starting forward for over half the ACC season and have limited availability of his backup, I would have guessed we’d finish in bottom 4 teams in the league and laughed in your face if you suggested we’d have 23 wins.
Perfect. And don’t forget three extremely important Wolfpack success metrics. Beating UNC, Duke and Wake.
12 ACC wins is the most since David Thompson’s day. The asterisk is, we play more ACC games these days. But there aren’t any easy ACC games. A fine accomplishment.
A tourney loss to Clemson is not a loss that hurts much. We were a solid 10 or better going in and nothing should have changes.
Hall is like having Tom Gugliotta on your team, makes life miserable if you don’t match up well. I sure hope we don’t find a Clemson like team in the NCAAT. (What would be more cruel than us against them in a play in game?)