NC State has seemingly been on the bubble the last 6 weeks. Bracket projections point to the Wolfpack’s RPI of 57 as one of the reasons to keep them on the bubble too. I’m not anti-RPI guy, but it’s time to let your eyes tell you that NC State is a NCAA tournament lock. They are playing for seeding now or they should be. They destroyed likely NCAA tournament team Florida State Sunday night 92-72 in a game that seemed worse than the score.
I said this last Thursday in looking at NC State’s NCAA Chances, and even I still thought they had a little more to work to do. I think they’ve done enough now.
(57) NC State (19-9) (9-6) Projected Seed 10
Last 10 – (6-4)
Good Wins – * (18) Arizona, * (4) Duke, * (10) Clemson, * (5) UNC, (68) Notre Dame, * (46) Syracuse, (83) Penn State, (98) Boston College
Bad Losses – * (145) Northern Iowa
Add Florida State to the list of quality wins. By virtually any metric the Wolfpack have 4 top 25 wins. (Arizona, Duke, Clemson, and UNC) Arizona was neutral site win and North Carolina was on the road.
They’ve won their last 4 games, and are a solid 10-4 since a January 6 win over Duke.
The NCAA tournament committee supposedly weighs injured players, then they should look that NC State’s pre-conference record, which still included a win over Arizona was without guard sophomore Markell Johnson. @scacchoops reminded me of that this evening.
Not to mention they likely aren’t aware of Markell Johnson’s play and the impact of his suspension. https://t.co/bWL4qOEcWC
— Jon Pence (@scacchoops) February 26, 2018
Should NC State lose out they would still be 20-12 (10-8) with their current group of wins. That’s a NCAA tournament resume to me, but I don’t think it will come to that. The Wolfpack play a tricky, but winnable road game at Georgia Tech and Louisville at home. NC State isn’t losing both and will be favored to win each. If you don’t have the Wolfpack dancing at this point, I’m pretty sure you haven’t watched college basketball the last 6 weeks. Kevin Keatts has done a wonderful job in his first year in Raleigh.
