NEW YORK — There is no doubt that NC State men’s basketball’s 91-87 loss to Boston College in the first round of the 2018 ACC Tournament at Barclays Center in New York was a painful one.
After an abysmal first half that saw NC State trail by 14 at the break, a valiant comeback effort in the second that saw NC State tie the game five times in the last 4:17 after trailing by as much as 17 fell short thanks to two mental errors in the last 17 seconds of the game.
Does the loss sting? Yes. Should NC State have beaten Boston College, and come with a better effort in the opening frame? Absolutely. But does this loss take away what has been a season of enormous progress, and wipe out what the Pack has and could still accomplish this season? Absolutely not.
This is a team that was picked to finish 12th in the ACC under first-year head coach Kevin Keatts. The Pack proceeded to capture its fans’ attention with a new style of basketball, and blow those low expectations out of the water. The Pack won 11 games in conference play for the first time since 2013, and 21 games overall. NC State beat five teams that were in the AP top-25 when it played them, and only one, Florida State, is no longer ranked.
The loss to Boston College does not change that. It also does not change the fact that this season is not, and should not be, over. Despite flaming out in the conference post season, NC State should still reach the promised land of college basketball’s second season: the NCAA Tournament.
NC State definitely finished the year strongly enough to punch a ticket to March Madness. Winning five of its last seven games, including the loss to the Eagles, to finish at 21-11 overall and 11-8 in the ACC, and came into the ACC Tournament as the five seed.
That’s the kind of volume of wins you need to make the big dance, particularly in one of the best conferences in college basketball. While one could make the argument the Pack should be kept out due to a non-conference schedule that ranked 263rd in the country, and a trio of bad losses to Northern Iowa, Georgia Tech and UNC-Greensboro (though the Spartans went on to win the Southern Conference and an automatic bid to the Big Dance), NC State more than has the quality wins to make up for it.
The biggest thing the Pack can hang its hat on when it comes to the NCAA selection committee is the five aforementioned top-25 wins. The Pack beat Arizona in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas, Duke, Clemson and Florida State at home, and picked up a road win over archrival UNC-Chapel Hill. Both Duke and Arizona were ranked No. 2 when NC State beat them. Beating that kind of competition to go along with the Pack’s volume of wins and 52nd-ranked RPI clearly warrants inclusion in the field of 68.
There are a few other teams in the ACC on that perceived “bubble” for the tournament in Notre Dame, Florida State, Louisville and Syracuse. The Wolfpack boasts head-to-head wins over all of them. While there’s a possibility NC State falls from its current projection as an eight or nine seed to a 10 or 11, it’s ridiculous to think one bad loss in the ACC Tournament would drop the team out completely.
And the Pack knows this. After the loss, Keatts expressed his plans to watch the NCAA selection show with his players Sunday. And make no mistake, they will expect to hear their name called.
“Our body of work is pretty good when you think about what we’ve done in a short amount of time and look at winning … beating five top-25 teams and winning on the road and a couple wins against the No. 2 team in the country. So I’m excited about it. You know, I’m excited for these guys for the opportunity.”
This is a season that started with extremely low expectations for NC State, particularly after the team dropped its first two ACC games in embarrassing fashion. As the season went along, those expectations rose higher and higher. While not advancing past its first game of the ACC Tournament is disappointing for the Wolfpack, the team should still have a chance to fulfill that expectation of its first trip to the big dance since 2015.
