Head coach Wes Moore has once again led the NC State women’s basketball program to a winning record despite sustaining several setbacks this season. Despite losing a lot of depth on the bench and sustaining injuries to key players, Moore has his squad primed for its sixth-consecutive tournament appearance.
The No. 20 Wolfpack is currently on a two-game win streak with victories against Miami and Louisville after suffering a loss to a ranked North Carolina on Jan. 15. As of Jan. 20, ESPN bracketology expert Charlie Creme has NC State slated as the five seed on its respective side of the bracket, setting up a collision course with UConn, Stanford and Duke.
As it stands, NC State is only scheduled to play one ranked opponent for the rest of the regular season — No. 7 Notre Dame on Jan. 29. This would be a huge win for the Wolfpack and could solidify its spot as a top-five seed, whereas a loss could potentially knock the Pack out of the top five without other games to prove itself worthy of a high ranking.
NCAA’s Autumn Johnson has NC State going into the tournament as a four seed along with Duke, Michigan and Oregon. This, along with Creme’s prediction, indicates a strong finish for NC State with weaker ACC teams left on its plate — with the exception of its local rivals in UNC and Duke.
The red-and-white still has some turbulence to face this season, especially with lingering lower body injuries hindering the play of its top-two scorers in junior guard Diamond Johnson and senior forward Jada Boyd. However, NC State had stretches of play that look worthy of a deep tournament run.
The Pack dominated in and out of conference games, winning its first four games of the season by massive point differentials, the most being back-to-back 48-point wins against Mount St. Mary’s and UNC-Charlotte before being brought back down to earth by a loss at UConn. Since then, the Pack has traded wins and losses within the ACC, currently holding a 5-4 record.
NC State can pad its resume to end this season with six of its final nine games scheduled against opponents not projected to make the NCAA tournament. The Wolfpack hasn’t played down to opponents that it’s favored to beat and is also aware of the trap games left on the schedule. After an upset loss to Duke on Dec. 29, the Pack learned that opposing teams can get hot on any given night, and after the red-and-white’s upset losses to Boston College and FSU, it’ll be ready to take on the easier opponents on its schedule.
The outcome of the Pack’s game against Notre Dame will show how prepared the Wolfpack is to go up against the toughest teams in the country. The Fighting Irish will be a much tougher opponent than the Tar Heels, who held the Wolfpack to a season-low 47 points in its most recent loss on 29% from the field.
NC State won’t be the dominant No. 1 seed that it was last year but has a chance to get hot going into March in order to host its first two matchups in the tournament before heading to the next round.
