Palm Moves Pack to the Bubble

General NCS Basketball5

VaWolf and I highlighted this possible scenario yesterday in this entry.

With NC State’s recent losses, Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com has moved NC State to the bubble. His most recent bracket lists the Pack as a #10 seed projected to play Indiana, who has run their coach off despite an NCAA Tournament appearance this year and after advancing to the National Championship game less than four years ago. (What can I say about standards and those programs that have them?)

If State enters the Big Dance as a #10 seed, it will mark the 4th time in the last 5 years that the Pack has entered the NCAA’s on the bubble.

Ironically, Palm projects that State will be sent to the Dallas, TX pod and has the Wolfpack matching-up with Rick Barnes’ #2 seeded Texas Longhorns in the second round if State could beat Indiana. (It would have been so nice for State to have had a season good enough to earn an appearance in the Greensboro pod…but who cares about the average fan as long as the big donors can travel to see their boy, Herbie)

Knowledgeable Wolfpack fans, of course, find this match-up interesting…but they may not realize just how interesting that it really is for Barnes. Last season, when rumors were circling Bloomington that Mike Davis may be on his way out, Barnes’ name was rumored to be very high on the list of possible replacements for IU. Now that Davis is actually stepping down as the Hoosiers’ Head Man, Steve Alford’s success at Iowa this season seems to have been enough to catapult him to the top of the Hoosiers list.

It seems that the folks in Indiana understand the concept of institutional “FIT” that so many NC State fans cannot grasp when they submit random (but good) names like Mark Few and Jay Wright for potential employment in Raleigh.

We have a lot of current conversation related to Barnes and Texas by clickling here.

Lastly, we have a mini-Web run focused on the Wolfpack here.

General NCS Basketball

5 Responses to Palm Moves Pack to the Bubble

  1. Jeff 03/12/2006 at 12:22 PM #

    But, make no mistake about it…we are “progressing and improving” every year. LOL!!!

    Just wait until next year after we lose three seniors and run the risk of starting five players that will have the least amount of experience as any team in the ACC.

    I don’t know how this connects with Lee Fowler’s bold predictions FIVE YEARS AGO…but, I’m sure that he will come up with something

    On January 13, 2001, Charlotte Observer’s Gregg Doyel penned an article “Wolfpack Must Crawl Out of Hole�. (Does that one sound familiar?). In the article, Lee Fowler proclaimed to the world:

    “I’m not saying I don’t care what (outspoken fans) think, but I’ve got a background in basketball, and you hear things about everybody. “The one thing I ask (of) Wolfpack fans is support your coach. Fans want a national championship. The way Herb’s doing things, when we do get there – and I don’t think it’s far away – it will stay there.”

    Where is this national presence that Fowler projected FIVE YEARS AGO?

    I guess he got one thing right…we have “stayed” exactly in the same place once we “got there” — stayed on the Bubble.

  2. VaWolf82 03/12/2006 at 4:02 PM #

    It’s not that important, but we’ll have to discuss 2002 sometime. State entered the ACCT defintely on the bubble. They had won enough games to be considered for the NCAAT, but had no wins against any team projected to make the NCAAT.

    However, with two wins in the 2002 ACCT all of that changed. State’s final RPI was 37 and they had a signature win against a #1 seed. I doubt that there was much, if any, discussion about whether or not State deserved an at-large bid that year.

    Who would have ever thought in 2002 that State would make five consecutive tournaments (if all goes well today) and only one time exceed the 7-seed that we got in 2002?

  3. ncsslim 03/12/2006 at 4:41 PM #

    Also, if we come it at #10 and somehow win two (very unlikely at this point; I don’t think Delaware and UNC-A will carry the 7 and 2 seeds), none of the recent past will have actually occurred. Look it up, it’s in the manual……….

    Slim

  4. Jeff 03/12/2006 at 4:53 PM #

    I wouldn’t be surprised to see us in an 8-9 game against UNC-W. It would be quite a set up for the committee…and would be a “no win” situation for Herb.

  5. ncsslim 03/12/2006 at 4:56 PM #

    Uhh…, no, UNC-W doesn’t do BCA tourneys. Wouldn’t expect to get past that game. We must have a better match-up. Maybe the 12th seed in the ACC… Well, maybe not.

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