Despite being ravaged by injuries this season, the Wolfpack men’s basketball team (14-5, 5-3 ACC) keeps finding ways to win, as it showed after an especially impressive road victory against the Virginia Cavaliers, the defending NCAA champions.
Riding a three-game win streak, the Pack will next have its chance for revenge against Georgia Tech, which the team lost to in the ACC opener. So far this season, the Pack has only played one other team twice: the Clemson Tigers, who it lost to in the first matchup but went on to defeat in the rematch. The Pack will be looking to do the same against the Yellow Jackets.
Following this rematch is the first game against the rival UNC Tar Heels, a team in a midseason crisis, sitting at 1-6 through its first seven games of ACC play and a measly 8-10 overall record.
The next five opponents for the Pack are a combined 18-22 in ACC games, a mediocre marking which looks drastically worse when the game against Louisville is taken into account, with the remaining four teams having a combined 11-21 record in ACC play.
Even with the injuries and uncertainty surrounding the availability of its players, the Pack must take advantage of this schedule. In fact, the Pack only has five games left with teams that boast a winning ACC record, with 12 regular season games to go.
Three of five of those are home games, giving the Pack an extra leg up on the competition, and those games include a square-off with the Duke Blue Devils, who have lost two of their last three games and notoriously lost to Stephen F. Austin University earlier in the year.
On top of this, the Pack’s defense found a way to contain Cavaliers star forward Mamadi Diakite despite being without leading blocker freshman forward Manny Bates. This defensive showing could prove to be indicative of what defensive schemes head coach Kevin Keatts may want to run against teams like Louisville, which is led by one star in Jordan Nwora.
If the Wolfpack can handle business in the seven remaining games against ACC teams with losing records, it should be able to snag at least one of the home games against Louisville, Duke or Florida State. This would put the Pack around 24-7 or 23-8, an impressive mark, but this would require not having a bad loss, which could jeopardize tournament seeding or even a tournament appearance come March.
This stretch of games against teams with losing ACC records includes the rematch against Georgia Tech, which has played well this season, and two games against the Tar Heels, the nemesis that always plays the Pack tightly. None of the remaining Wolfpack games should be taken lightly by any means, but the team has to feel good about its odds.
First up on the itinerary for the Pack is the rematch at Georgia Tech, which will take place at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta. The game tips off at 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25 and can be viewed on Raleigh Sports Network.
