The candidates for ACC at-large NCAA bids keep shrinking. A couple of weeks ago pretty much anybody not named Boston College, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, or Louisville had a realistic shot at making a run at an NCAA bid with a strong finish.
North Carolina and Duke have been set for a while. Clemson has tons of nonconference equity. Virginia has surged into a good position even after being the blown out by Virginia Tech Monday,
Then it was everybody else.
Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Florida State, and Miami have all fallen off the pace.
Watch the Hokies if they can do something with their victory over Virginia.
Wake Forest and Pittsburgh are certainly in the NCAA picture and play a huge game with each other this week.
That leaves NC State. Could they start moving toward the bubble or join those that have fallen off the pace? Saturday night they went into Clemson and left with a gutty 77-76 victory an important Q1 win. Going into Tuesday night at 16-9 (8-6) NET 76, make no mistake the Wolfpack were still pretty away from the bubble, but the win over Clemson gave them a shot.
What were they going to do with it?
Pittsburgh was off the NCAA radar and left Duke with a victory. They then won 6 of their next 7 games.
Syracuse was off the NCAA radar, and beat UNC in a stunner. Syracuse followed that up with a sloppy loss at erratic Georgia Tech, which wasted their UNC win.
Well, we found out exactly what NC State did with their slight crack at a NCAA bid. They did absolutely nothing.
Trailing by most of the game against Syracuse and by double digits in a good portion, the Wolfpack worked to get back in late only to lose 87-83 at home. The Wolfpack’s final possession after a Kevin Keatts timeout was a disjointed set that never resulted in a real look at the basket.
This is NC State basketball under Keatts, good enough to make you think they might be decent and then reality sets it in.
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