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NC State basketball confirms tourney in Las Vegas next season

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•05/11/23•

TheWolfpacker

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(Photo by Michael Berg/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Scheduling wisely has become important for the NCAA Tournament and its selection committee, especially in the era of NET rankings and weighting wins by quadrants. To that end, NC State basketball confirmed that the Pack has lined up a marquee event to add value for its 2023-24 slate.

As Jon Rothstein of College Hoops Today previously reported, NC State will join Arizona State and BYU in Las Vegas for what is being called the Vegas Showdown. The fourth team was recently confirmed to be Vanderbilt.

The event will be Nov. 22 and 24, the days before and after Thanksgiving.

Coincidentally, Arizona State grad transfer DJ Horne has transferred to NC State and could play his former team. He averaged 12.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game for an Arizona State squad that went 23-13 and was one of the last four at-large teams selected to the NCAA Tournament.

Coached by former Duke legend Bobby Hurley, ASU routed Nevada in Dayton, Ohio to open NCAA Tournament play and nearly upset TCU two days later. ASU, however, has lost at least four of the top five scorers from that team, Horne included, and the fifth is considering the NBA.

ASU has added six players via the portal, including one-time NC State signee Shawn Phillips, a center who was a freshman at LSU last year.

In the final NET rankings before the NCAA Tournament was announced, Arizona State was No. 61, which on a neutral court would count as a Quad 2 contest for NC State.

BYU was NET No. 84, which also would be a Quad 2 game for NC State on a neutral court. The Cougars finished the season 19-15 while competing for the last time in the West Coast Conference. Next season will bring a move to the Big 12.

BYU landed Charlotte post transfer Aly Khalifa, a skilled 6-foot-11 post player who averaged 11.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game as a sophomore. Khalifa is one of a trio of solid transfers BYU has added to join a squad that is expected to return two of its top three scorers from last season.

NC State defeated Vanderbilt on a neutral court site in Chicago last season, prevailing 70-66. The Commodores caught fire late in the year and finished 11-7 in the SEC, earning a bid to the NIT where Vandy beat Michigan and reached the semifinals before losing to UAB and closing the campaign at 22-15 overall. They finished the regular season No. 81 in the NET rankings.

Vanderbilt has been hit hard by attrition. Leading scorer Liam Robbins exhausted his eligibility, and three of the next four leading scorers all transferred out.

Other scheduling tidbits for NC State basketball

In 2020-21, when college basketball scrambled to get schedules done on the fly because of COVID-19, NC State scheduled a road game at Saint Louis University. When the agreement was announced, details of a return date to NC State for 2022-23 were also revealed.

Kevin Keatts however told TheWolfpacker.com last summer that the game may get pushed back to 2023-24 instead, and that appears to have been the case since the Billikens were not on the slate last winter.

Saint Louis went 21-12 this past season and was in a three-way tie for second in the Atlantic 10. Their final NET ranking was No. 97, which would be a Quad 3 contest at home. Star point guard Yuri Collins, who averaged a double-double of 11.2 points and 10.1 assists per game, turned pro, and fourth-leading scorer Javon Pickett exhausted his eligibility.

The Pack will also presumably be a part of the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge. Matchups have yet to be announced.

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