NC State basketball learns ACC Tournament draw
NC State basketball now knows its seeding and path for the ACC Tournament next week in Greensboro, N.C. And if the Pack is to win its first league title since 1987, they will have to go through a challenging set-up.
By virtue of Duke winning on the road in Chapel Hill, N.C., against rival North Carolina, the Pack is the six seed outright with a 12-8 ACC mark. UNC missed a chance to force a tiebreaker that would have gone in the Heels’ advantage and ended league play 11-9.
NC State earned a bye out of the first round, but the Wolfpack will have viewing interest Tuesday. The winner of No. 11 seed Virginia Tech vs. No. 14 seed Notre Dame, which will be played at 7 p.m., advances to face the Pack at approximately 9:30 p.m. Wednesday evening.
During the regular season, NC State won both of the one-and-only meetings with Virginia Tech and Notre Dame, but each victory was competitive.
On Jan. 7, NC State raced out to a 36-22 halftime lead in Blacksburg, Va., over the Hokies. However, Virginia Tech had a furious rally to cut the Pack’s advantage to 3 points three times in the last minute and then at 2 points with 7 seconds left before NC State sophomore guard Terquavion Smith made a pair of free throws to ice a 73-69 win.
Virginia Tech played that game without an injured Hunter Cattoor, who averaged 10.7 points per game during the regular season and is the Hokies’ best three-point shooter.
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Virginia Tech ended the regular season with back-to-back lopsided wins to boast an 18-13 overall record and 8-12 mark in the league.
On Jan. 24 in Raleigh, Notre Dame led the Wolfpack 42-39 at halftime. NC State started the second half on a 16-4 run to build a 9-point lead, but the Irish battled back and cut the margin down to 1 at 69-68 with 5:00 left. The Wolfpack never relinquished the advantage however in an 85-82 win (Notre Dame hit a three-pointer at the buzzer).
Notre Dame finished the regular season 11-19 and 3-17 in the conference.
If NC State basketball advances to Thursday’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal, perhaps the Pack’s chief nemesis in the league this year awaits. Clemson is the No. 3 seed, and the Tigers swept NC State in lopsided fashion, winning by 14 in Clemson and then crushing the Wolfpack by 25 points in the penultimate game of the regular season on what was Senior Day in Raleigh.
That game would also start at approximately 9:30 p.m. Clemson, a NCAA Tournament bubble team, is 22-9 overall and 14-6 in the league. The Tigers won 4 of 6 down the stretch, with each win coming by at least 23 points.
