Stop me if you heard this one before – but after building a solid first half lead, the Wolfpack offense goes into a coma for the entire second half, losing 72-64. At least it was just shitty and braindead play, not effort (unlike the Maryland game).
State will be seeded 10th, and square off against Maryland unless VT wins tomorrow and the Terps lose later today. For the rest of the weekend, here’s what you should want as an NC State fan:
1) Maryland to beat Virginia. If the Cavs win, you are looking at 3 ACC teams projected to fall into the NIT (Maryland, Miami, Virginia Tech) ahead of NC State. Although there is no hard and fast rule, the only reason I saw for leaving Wake out of the NIT last year was that 3 ACC teams were already in the field.
2) UNC to beat Duke. From a “hoping for a miracle” matchup standpoint, we need to avoid UNC for as long as humanly possible. Perhaps someone else (I’m thinking FSU) can beat them for us.
3) Wake to beat Clemson. Coupled with a Duke loss, this would put the Deacs in the #2 slot, and Wake is by far NC State’s best possible Friday matchup.