Sarah Cochran
Senior forward Jericole Hellems questions a foul call against him during the game versus the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022 in PNC Arena. Hellems scored nine points and had three rebounds against the Demon Deacons. NC State lost to Wake Forest 69-51.
As the saying goes, “survive and advance.”
That will be the motto for the NC State men’s basketball team as it heads to the Brooklyn borough of New York City for the ACC Tournament. The team needs a miraculous run to have any chance of extending its season beyond this week.
It was a disappointing regular season to say the least for the Wolfpack, which finished with 20 losses for the first time in school history and enters the ACC Tournament in last place, meaning the only way to qualify for the NCAA Tournament would be to win the ACC Championship.
The Pack will start out on Tuesday, March 8, the tournament’s first day of competition, which many NC State fans know as the “Les Robinson Invitational.” As the No. 15-seed, the Pack’s first game will be against the No. 10-seed Clemson.
In the only matchup between the two teams this season, Clemson beat the Pack 70-65 in Raleigh on Jan. 8. The difference in that game was the play of Clemson big man PJ Hall, who dominated inside with 20 points. The Pack will need to be able to stop him in order to have a chance.
The last time the two teams met in the ACC Tournament, the Pack won a 59-58 thriller in Charlotte in 2019, and if this game is anything like that one, fans should be in for a treat.
If the Pack makes it past Clemson, it will play the No. 7-seed Virginia Tech, which was one of the four ACC teams the Pack beat this season. NC State won the first matchup on the road 68-63 on Jan. 4, but Virginia Tech barely won the second matchup in Raleigh 62-59 on Jan. 19.
In the second matchup between the two teams, the Pack got off to a slow start, giving up the first 15 points and letting Virginia Tech lead by as many as 18 in the first half. If the Pack wants to advance past the second day, it will need to get off to a better start. Plus, the game may be tough because Virginia Tech is on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament and likely needs to win a few ACC Tournament games to have a chance of making the Big Dance.
If the Pack is able to win its first two games, it will then play the No. 2-seed Notre Dame, who won both meetings between the two teams this season. In each matchup, Notre Dame pulled away in the second half as the Pack held a second half lead in each game. If the Pack wants to win, it must close out the game better, as well as get off to a better start, as it trailed by as many as 17 in the first half of the second matchup in Raleigh.
If the Pack beats Notre Dame, it would likely play the No. 3-seed North Carolina, which is bad news because the Tar Heels swept the Pack in the regular season and did so rather easily, winning by a combined 30 points. There’s nothing to say other than that the Heels seemingly own NC State and seem to play their best game of the season whenever they see red jerseys. Perhaps the fact that the game won’t be played in North Carolina and that it’s an ACC Tournament game may give the Pack a better chance. Plus, it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season.
If the Pack somehow makes it to the championship, it would likely play No. 1 seed Duke, who has been the best team in the ACC all season and is the favorite to win the tournament. In the only matchup between the two teams, the Pack hung tough in the first half, but the Blue Devils pulled away in the second half as they proved to be the tougher, more talented team, which will likely be the case again if the two teams were to meet.
No team has ever won five games in five days to win the ACC Tournament, and the chances the Pack will become the first to do so are slim to none. However, outside of Duke, the ACC is much weaker as a whole this season than in prior seasons, and about every potential matchup before the championship is a winnable one.
If the Pack can somehow string a few wins on the first couple of days, it may have enough momentum to carry it to the championship, but only if the team doesn’t run out of gas by then.
WRAL sports writer and radio host Joe Giglio has a phrase to sum up NC State athletics called the Law of the Wolf, which goes, “When you expect the least, you get the most.” This would be the ultimate test of that theory. Maybe the Pack will show something it hasn’t all season.
For now, all the team can do is take it one game at a time, or survive and advance.
The Pack’s first game against Clemson is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8 and can be viewed on ACC Network.