The NC State men’s basketball team has a lot of fresh faces and an interesting road ahead of it with a tough schedule. The Wolfpack will get things started with an exhibition on Monday, Nov. 1 before properly starting the season on Nov. 9 against Bucknell. As we do every year, here are our editors’ predictions for how the season might go.

Record

Tristan Tucker: 18-13

The schedule for this year’s rendition of the Pack is absolutely brutal. As of now, I have the team dropping 13 games, those being against Purdue, Oklahoma State and Richmond in midseason competitions, road games against Louisville, Virginia Tech, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Florida State, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech, and then at home against UNC, Florida State and Virginia.

And that’s an optimistic outlook. In that scenario, that means knocking off Louisville, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame and Syracuse in those home outings. All of those teams are projected to finish ahead of the Pack. And even with those solid wins, it may not be enough to make the postseason considering the ACC’s projected strength.

Nicholas Schnittker: 16-15

Going with the safe option on this pick (which is far from the case on all of them), but .500 just feels right for this team. If some of the new guys produce, and the new guys from last season continue to progress, the Pack can finish better than that mark, but I’m hedging my bets a bit here.

Bryan Pyrtle: 15-16

The Pack will fall one game short of an even .500 due to an absolutely stacked ACC conference and a sucker-punch loss against Richmond. The incoming players look promising, but this team is at least two years away from really competing in the ACC.

Wade Bowman: 14-17

It seems as if the ACC will return to its former glory this year after suffering what was an extremely down one last season. The top dogs of the conference have reloaded with final four aspirations, but despite the addition of a few new players NC State remains in a similar position to the one it was in a year ago. The Pack will face off against ACC opponents 19 times in a row to end its season, and I have a strong feeling that the difficulty of play will prove to be too much for a younger Pack squad.

Tournament seed

Tristan Tucker: N/A

While I gave somewhat of an enthusiastic prediction about the record, the Pack isn’t making the big dance without a handful of huge wins. Unfortunately for it, games against teams like UNC, Duke, Florida State and Purdue seem so out of reach. It’s not like every team makes it either. Louisville, a team that is far better than this Pack team on paper, is projected to be a 12 seed.

If NC State somehow knocks off one of the top-25 teams it’s scheduled to face, or if the ACC again falls short of expectations, it could ride a strong ACC Tournament to the postseason. As it’s composed, it seems as though the Pack is primed for a late-season run that may give fans hope. I would love to be wrong about this because I think this roster has more untapped potential than any other Keatts roster, but I’ll hedge my bets for now.

Nicholas Schnittker: 11

With the strength of the ACC and a decent win or two, I think the Pack can just sneak into the tournament and will have to play in one of the first four games. It wouldn’t be the most spectacular way to make the tournament, but once you are there, anything can happen and I think the Pack does just enough to get there. I also fully recognize that the team would probably have to do better than my 16-15 record to get in, but again the .500 is a hedged bet.

Bryan Pyrtle: No

I predict the Pack to finish below .500. Even though it plays in the ACC, you can do the math.

Wade Bowman: N/A

With a record prediction of 14-17, it should be clear that I do not hold tournament hopes for this team. Even with the addition of guys such as Ernest Ross and Terquavion Smith, the Pack just doesn’t get much better than it was a year ago. Also, despite whatever Keatts has said in the preseason, we all know his reputation when it comes to getting the younger guys on the court. If he holds out on the young talent for the older members of the team with far lower ceilings, this squad won’t make it close to the big dance.

MVP

Tristan Tucker: Jericole Hellems

Hellems is most likely to lead this team in scoring after averaging 12.9 points per game on very efficient shooting marks. He became a much more confident leader after Devon Daniels went down last year and will likely be called on to lead this team on offense, and he’s sneakily versatile on the defensive end as well. Look for Hellems to average somewhere near 16 or 17 points per game as he takes on Daniels’ scoring load from last year.

Nicholas Schnittker: Manny Bates

We all know Manny Bates is an elite defender, but my biggest takeaway from the ACC Tipoff was that he is adding some really decent offensive skills to his game (even proclaiming himself as the sixth best 3-point shooter on the team). If Bates can produce some solid offensive numbers, while maintaining his defensive prowess, I’m not sure anyone else will be close in this.

Bryan Pyrtle: Cam Hayes

Manny Bates is Manny Bates, but I predict that this is Hayes’ year to shine. The young guard showed a lot of promise last season, and with the departure of Braxton Beverly and Devon Daniels, Hayes will emerge as a major scoring option in this offense.

Wade Bowman: Manny Bates

Bates is the most elite shot blocker in the ACC coming into this season and has the opportunity to expand that title to a national stage. The roster for Wolfpack men’s basketball is so front-heavy with guards that Manny will constantly be getting the ball fed to him on the inside, giving him plenty of opportunity to turn into a consistent double-double player. Mix the defensive prowess with higher volume on offense and you’ve got a contender for an All-ACC team.

Newcomer of the Year

Tristan Tucker: Terquavion Smith

As I’ve written, I’m a big fan of all of the Pack’s new faces. Freshmen Ernest Ross and Breon Pass are easy to root for while Casey Morsell and Greg Gantt Jr. have plenty of prior hype built around them. But I’m not sure that anybody will have quite the impact that Smith can in his first season.

Keatts has been raving about Smith’s work ethic, his routine and how dynamic of a scorer he can be. According to Keatts, Smith hasn’t been afraid to get vocal as a freshman and has a real chance to start sooner rather than later. Smith is a true three-level scorer, something the Pack hasn’t had in a long time, and it won’t be at all surprising to see him starting adjacent to Cam Hayes early on.

Nicholas Schnittker: Terquavion Smith 

I won’t harp on this pick too much, since Tristan and I have a lot of the same thinking. But in the words of Keatts, “I know a lot of people have said he’s a bucket. And what I mean is, he can score the basketball.” What else even needs to be said? The freshman is a bucket, and buckets often get awards for being exciting to watch.

Bryan Pyrtle: Casey Morsell

At the risk of sounding really contrarian, I think Terquavion Smith is a bit too obvious of a pick here. I think the star freshman has a solid year, but Morsell’s experience at the college level will be invaluable to a fairly young team trying to stay at least somewhat competitive in the ACC.

Wade Bowman: Terquavion Smith 

This dude is a bucket, plain and simple. With Devon Daniels leaving after last season, someone is going to have to step up along with Hellems to make plays for themselves on offense. Smith is that guy. Keatts has been surprisingly optimistic about the young gun, likely due to a fear of losing him like he did with Shakeel Moore, but we’ll have to see just how much the head coach trusts the budding talent.

Best win

Tristan Tucker: Syracuse

There are a lot of contenders for the best win of the season due to the pedigree of the teams the Pack will face. As mentioned, 16 of the Wolfpack’s opponents will begin the year ranked or receiving votes. Richmond and Oklahoma State would be big wins, as would beating Louisville in the Pack’s ACC opener.

However, without fantasizing about potential wins over far superior teams like Purdue or Duke, Syracuse presents a realistic option for a feel-good win. Syracuse comes to Raleigh Feb. 2, fresh off eliminating the Pack from the ACC Tournament last year. Beating Cuse and sticking it to Buddy Boeheim after he made six 3s against NC State would make a statement and a hell of a story.

Nicholas Schnittker: UNC-Chapel Hill

I’m going big and bold with this one and it has way more to do with vibes than an actually coherent thought process. I picked the Pack to beat Clemson in the football predictions and this just seems like the year for NC State to get some big wins. The women’s soccer team knocked off UNC and Duke this year, Pack football had that aforementioned Clemson win. If this is the year for big wins, then maybe that can carry on to the men’s basketball team. Saying that, this is probably the pick I am least confident in. But go big, or go home.

Bryan Pyrtle: Louisville

The Wolfpack opens up conference play at home against Louisville on Dec. 4, and a rough nonconference schedule will spark NC State to pull up an upset win over the Cardinals. It will be one of the few bright spots in a lackluster season, but at least for a little while, the Pack will be undefeated in conference play.

Wade Bowman: Oklahoma State

Listen, Oklahoma State is going to be a very good basketball team this year. Where I hold hope for this matchup is its timing in the season, coming just four regular-season games into the year. It will take just about everything the Pack has to knock off such a talented team, but doing so could have massive implications for how this team develops over the course of the season.

Surprise loss

Tristan Tucker: Richmond

I don’t know if this should count, because Richmond is by far and away a better team than NC State on paper, but I think a lot of the Wolfpack faithful will overlook the Spiders, seeing as they are in the AAC. Grant Golden and Jacob Gilyard return to make a formidable duo that will give the Pack some troubles.

Nicholas Schnittker: Nebraska

The Cornhuskers went 7-20 last season, so this is a game the Wolfpack should win. Saying that, the Wolfpack has a losing record all-time in the ACC Big Ten Challenge, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it drop this one.

Bryan Pyrtle: Richmond

Richmond actually received votes in the preseason poll, so I’m cheating a little bit in terms of surprise here, but the Pack’s first game after what will presumably be a whooping suffered at the hands of Purdue won’t go quite so well either. The Spiders will be hungry to maintain their resume heading into the new year, and NC State will be just another step in the right direction for Richmond’s season.

Wade Bowman: Wright State

Timing was the biggest factor in my pick for surprise win, and it remains that way for surprise loss. The matchup against Wright State comes right before the Pack will face a gauntlet of ACC opponents. In preparing for such tough matchups, I could definitely see this team overlooking a lower-tier opponent and dropping a game in the worst way.