North Carolina State’s Breon Pass, 10, heads to the basket as Clemson pitches NC State to 70-0 in the first round of the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY on Tuesday, March 8, 2022. 64 won.
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Raleigh
The non-conference basketball schedule for North Carolina State University has been set.
The toughest part of the schedule is the three games Pac will play in the Bahamas in November as part of Battle 4 Atlantis.
The eight-team field includes defending champions Kansas, North Carolina’s first opponents, Southern Cal, BYU, Dayton, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Butler.
The rest of the non-meeting slate, however, isn’t all that juicy.
The pack will face seven opponents in Raleigh and will face Vanderbilt (Chicago) on a neutral site in mid-December. Also, he won’t win a game in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge this season.
If North Carolina State recovers from last season’s 11-21 campaign and wants to return to the NCAA Tournament, the non-conference schedule could be the difference, especially if they prove to be a bubble team.
network problem
The NCAA Rating Tool (NET) is used to judge teams on postseason fields. NET takes into account the outcome of the game, the intensity of the schedule, the location of the game, etc.
And it usually benefits the visiting team. North Carolina State did himself no favors for a possible home victory over his four opponents Austin Pee, Campbell, FIU or Elon in the first before heading to the Bahamas. not.
When they return, they host William & Mary, Coppin State and Furman before taking on the Commodores.
NC State’s non-conference opponents, other than the Battle 4 Atlantis team, were not in the top 60 of the NET rankings a year ago. Six of the eight opponents in Battle 4 Atlantis made the top 50.
Even if the Wolfpack move the tables in non-conference games, and even if they’ve had a good season, the NET could come back and bite them.
Last year, the Demon Deacons finished 25-10 overall, finishing 4th in the ACC and watching from the outside on Selection Sunday.
Wake Forest ranked 42nd in the NET rankings, finishing 3-5 against their Quad 1 opponents.
“Someone who can’t make it to the tournament when they’re 13-7 in the ACC is a tough pill to swallow,” said Kevin Keats, coach of North Carolina State University. “I think it was in November and December that really hurt our meeting. We are focused on the schedule of
The bottom line is that if State wants to look good in March, it better get some big wins in the Bahamas.
“It shouldn’t hurt,” said Keats. “There are three great teams out there. Wouldn’t it be great if we could go undefeated?”
During Keats first season, the pack went to Battle 4 Atlantis and knocked off No. 2 Arizona. Guard Casey Moesel is looking forward to another chance to score a signature win like that.
“It’s a great opportunity to see where we are,” said Mossel. “I think it’s a good challenge for conference play.”
Non-meeting Power 5 games
Even if NC State goes undefeated to win Battle 4 Atlantis, the match will take place in a resort ballroom in the Bahamas far from the PNC Arena.
Those would be important wins, but only a handful of Wolfpack fans actually got to see them.
Going forward, how will Keats be able to get Quad 1 opponents to play in PNC Arena, or schedule home-and-home matchups against Power 5 opponents?
“It’s easier to get a quad 1 or quad 2 neutral game than playing at home,” Keats said. “Finding another Power 5[to play at home]is not as easy as people think.”
Last season, North Carolina State University faced Purdue, then number one in the nation, in a neutral site game in Brooklyn. For the 2020-21 season, a road game in Michigan and his neutral site game with UConn were both canceled due to his COVID.
During the 2019-20 season, Wisconsin participated in the PNC as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The previous season, Auburn, ranked No. 7 at the time, played for North Carolina State, part of the home-and-home series against the Tigers.
“I thought last year’s nonconference major midfield schedule was really good,” Keats said. “This year we wanted to have a really good and dangerous Furman on the team.”
Two mid-majors — Light State and Richmond — noticed the puck slipping a year ago. The Raiders beat North Carolina State University at home, 80-74. The Spiders beat the pack 83-74 in Charlotte. Both teams made it to the NCAA Tournament and he won at least one game. At the end of the year, those losses weren’t too bad.
If North Carolina State hopes to turn things around and get back in March, those blemishes can’t be put on the resume.
This story was originally published August 8, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
Sports Reporter Jonas Pope IV has covered college recruitment, high school sports, Central North Carolina, North Carolina and ACC for the Herald Sun and News & Observer.
