Just over a week ago, NC State men’s basketball was off to its best conference start in over 30 years after an emotional home win against Wake Forest. Now, after three straight losses, the Pack’s season is on life support.
By no means is this an overreaction to a three-game losing streak. It’s more about the Pack not having many opportunities left to add quality wins to its resume. At the moment, NC State has just five quad 1 games on its schedule, which include four road games and one at home.
The Wolfpack would have to win three, maybe even four of those games to give itself a shot for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament, while at the same time not losing to any of the teams it’s favored against.
That’s why last week was the Pack’s biggest stretch of the season, and NC State failed to capitalize on it. It started with a home game against Virginia Tech — one of the better teams in the ACC. The game was back-and-forth for the entire first half, but the Hokies scored 51 in the second half to put the Pack away.
NC State was previously unbeaten in quad 1 games before the home loss to Virginia Tech — which doesn’t mean that much when you have zero quad 1 wins — but an unbeaten record in quad 2 games doesn’t hurt the resume. The red-and-white needed to move on from this loss quickly because its biggest game of the season was up next.
Before its game in Virginia, the Wolfpack was unbeaten on the road in conference play, so there was some hope it could end the Cavaliers’ longest home winning streak in the nation. Even though it was a road game, it felt like a must-win because it was one of the few quad 1 games on the Pack’s schedule, and a win in Charlottesville would go a long way on Selection Sunday.
Virginia set the tone early despite the Pack being the one needing to play desperate. NC State could only muster 15 first-half points and found itself in a nearly insurmountable hole to climb out of. The start of the second half looked similar to the first frame, but the Pack went on a scoring run that eventually tied the game and sent it to overtime.
It seemed like the Wolfpack had all the momentum forcing overtime on the road, but it once again fell flat as it was outscored 12-6 in the extra session. This was NC State’s fifth quad 1 game and its fifth loss in such matchups.
The Pack would once again have to move on from a tough loss; its next game was against Syracuse in a tough environment. It wasn’t a quad 1 opportunity like Virginia, but the game was just as important because, at this point in the season, NC State couldn’t afford to lose any games that aren’t against quad 1 opponents.
Another uninspiring first-half performance led to the Pack’s demise against Syracuse as it trailed 38-22 going to the locker room at halftime. The red-and-white tried to fight back, but never got the deficit to less than nine and suffered its third devastating loss in the last seven days.
What a difference one week can make.
The Pack looked destined to start ACC play 6-1 before its game against Virginia Tech and was confident it could beat Virginia, given it had just beaten them by 16 points at home a few weeks prior.
Now, just a week later, NC State barely has a pulse.
Looking ahead, the quad 1 games the Wolfpack has left are away games against Wake Forest, Clemson, UNC-Chapel Hill, Pittsburgh and a home date with Duke. It’s safe to say the Pack needs to win at least two or three of the away games and the home game against Duke for the committee to consider NC State come March.
If it can’t do that, then the Pack is going to have to mess around and win the ACC tournament or its hopes of making the dance will be put to rest.
