It’s selection sunday and once again NC State is waiting in anticipation to see if they’ll be included in the field of 68.

As of now ESPN bracketology has NC State as one of their “Next 4 Out.” Now, a lot of this is based solely on the numbers and while the numbers are right in a lot of cases, it’s usually these last 4 or 5 teams in the tournament that get a closer look outside of the realm of statistics.

We have stood firm with our prediction that if NC State beat Miami and then Syracuse in the ACC Tournament (we’ll get into the ‘why’ later), that they would squeak in. We still believe that and have a few others on our side:

Coach K after the State/Duke game yesterday:

“I said to [N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried] at the end of the game, “I hope you guys get in.” I don’t understand it. They won at Tennessee. They probably should have beaten Syracuse twice. I think they’ve played a really good schedule, and they’ve got one of the best players in the country…. I’ll get in trouble probably for saying it. Like the Atlantic 10, they’re a really good conference. I hear people saying there are six teams in there. Come on. I mean, they’re good, but put them in our conference and go through the meat grinder that our conference has to go through. But really… our league should get more respect. The fact that Pitt comes in here and people are saying they have to do something, come on. Come on, man. I don’t get it. The Clemson team we played last night is a heck of a basketball team.”

Then there is this article from ACC reporter David Teel:

The more I look at the credentials of other contenders, the more I suspect the 10-member selection committee chaired by Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman will choose the Wolfpack.

This is my 24th year of projecting the field, and while I’m not nearly as detailed as the national types, or especially my friend Patrick Stevens of Syracuse.com, in predicting sites and matchups, my track record isn’t half bad.

Last season I picked all the at-large teams correctly. I missed one team each of the five previous seasons.

…. No. 12s: Stephen F. Austin, Harvard, North Dakota State, N.C. State/BYU play-in.

And then you have these tweets from Patrick Stevens who is very respected when it comes to projecting the field of 68:

N.C. State … The least amount of bad among the remaining teams. Not the greatest endorsement, but three best Ws away from home does help.

— Patrick Stevens (@D1scourse) March 16, 2014

@bennjeff So frankly, N.C. State is the best (in my mind) of a bunch of flawed teams. It offers less bad & about the same amount of good.

— Patrick Stevens (@D1scourse) March 16, 2014

@bennjeff N.C. State is above .500 away from home. Its best work has been done away from home. Its SOS doesn’t set off any flags …

— Patrick Stevens (@D1scourse) March 16, 2014

@bennjeff … its bad losses aren’t overly dubious. And I don’t believe a borderline team w/SMU’s NC SOS will get it in.

— Patrick Stevens (@D1scourse) March 16, 2014

 

So, basically you see why some are thinking State has a good chance to make it. What we’ve been saying all along is that the win over Syracuse gives the Pack a signature win for the committee to look at. It also ups their RPI to an area where you’re really in the discussion. Add in the fact that they have a great strength of schedule, they are peaking at the end of the season and TJ Warren is the ACC player of the year and a real draw when you talk about television and marketing money for the NCAA. We are looking for State to be one of the last teams in and may even play in the play-in game on Tuesday night…but we’ll have to wait and see during the selection show on Sunday evening.

…oh and PS. Dickie V also thinks we’re in….

NCSU with a big big W over Syracuse – NCAA dancing baby – hey Jimmy V jumping with joy in Heaven !

— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) March 15, 2014