NC State advances to NIT

In what is a logical progression on the road to next year’s NCAA Tournament, the NC State Wolfpack hold a 6th seed will play at 3rd seeded South Florida at 8pm Tuesday night on ESPNU. Link to TampaOnline article:

The Bulls (20-12) will seek their first postseason win in 15 years against the Wolfpack (19-15), who finished 11th out of 12 teams in the ACC, with a 5-11 record in conference play. N.C. State has played some of its best basketball in the state of Florida this year, with wins at Florida State and Miami.

With a No. 3 seed, the Bulls would likely play their second NIT game on the road later this week, though an upset could open up another home game for USF.

You can view the entire NIT bracket by clicking here.

The television analyst in ESPNU’s studio had the following positive things to say about State:

“NC State is the other team on this side of the bracket that intrigues me…I think NC State is a scary team”

The Wolfpack’s bracket appears to be one of the tougher while the bracket that includes Virginia Tech as the #1 seed appears to be the easiest.

Strangely, The University of North Carolina Tarheels not only got a bid, but was a full two seeds above the Wolfpack in the exact same bracket. But, when you consider that higher seeds get to play at home and ESPN can now broadcast another Carolina basketball game…perhaps their bid and seeding isn’t so strange. Somewhere, a bubble team like UNC-Charlotte is wishing for some justice.

To be honest, I would rather draw South Florida than William & Mary who will do battle with the Tarheels. You can click here for more conversation about USF.

The following is the NIT schedule taken from the NIT’s website:

First Round: Tuesday, March 16 and Wednesday, March 17

Second Round: Thursday, March 18, Friday, March 19, Saturday, March, 20 and Monday, March 22

Quarterfinal Round: Tuesday, March 23 and Wednesday, March 24

Semifinals: Tuesday, March 30 7pm & 9pm (Madison Square Garden)

Championship: Thursday, April 1 7pm (Madison Square Garden)

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09-10 Basketball General

54 Responses to NC State advances to NIT

  1. Defenestrate 03/14/2010 at 8:16 PM #

    complete hilarity that UNC got the 4 seed in our region…

  2. Rochester 03/14/2010 at 8:18 PM #

    Our game is Tuesday night at 8:00 on ESPNU. For some reason the Carolina game is on ESPN. Will Dick Vitale be doing an NIT game? I hope William & Mary rolls them.

  3. MA Wolfpack 03/14/2010 at 8:19 PM #

    Congrats to the team. This was their ceiling, and they over achieved this year. Really looking forward to taking the next step when we upgrade the roster at both guard positions next season.

    I hope our guys are motivated to try to get to NYC.

  4. Wulfpack 03/14/2010 at 8:22 PM #

    The game is Tuesday at 8:00 on ESPNU.

  5. tvp1 03/14/2010 at 8:23 PM #

    This is actually a great match-up. Pomeroy has South Florida ranked #78 in the country (we are #59).

  6. Wulfpack 03/14/2010 at 8:23 PM #

    USF is a pretty darn good team and UAB is no slouch either. I watched Mississippi State today and they could give us a lot of problems the way Georgia Tech did. Tough draw but I’m just glad we get to keep playing.

  7. wufpup76 03/14/2010 at 8:26 PM #

    Mike Kelley (18th string) called our game at Marquette and was very complimentary and impressed with the Wolfpack that day. I enjoyed his commentary and analysis that day b/c he wasn’t biased either way. Maybe he’ll call our game Tuesday.

    Also, don’t sell William & Mary short. If the Holes play their typical non-existent D then W&M will slice them up. W&M won at Maryland … just sayin’ 🙂

    USF is actually a tough matchup for us. They have a combo guard that can blow up and score at will. We’ll have to be ready defensively. Let’s hope the guys take this and run with it and will be ready to concentrate defensively on Tuesday night.

    Very proud of the team for their late season run. Happy for them and hope they can take advantage 😉

  8. robzucc 03/14/2010 at 8:27 PM #

    That is what you call in your face America about what is wrong in sports today. UNC should not even be in the NIT and let the TV $$$ machine crank up. I will bet you they will say the reason was the very beginning of the season how UNC was a different team. What about the total collapse of the rest of the season. I’m starting to wonder if they would have gone in at 15-17. We will never know for sure.

    Anyway, forget them and congrats to the Pack.

  9. AveryPage 03/14/2010 at 8:31 PM #

    idk if this is gonna be a win

  10. packattack95 03/14/2010 at 8:34 PM #

    I guess the NIT figured since the holes beat us twice this year they’d give them some advantage….I would love to make as far as to play them again in the nose dome and spank their ass!

  11. ncsu_kappa 03/14/2010 at 8:37 PM #

    http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/buzzerbeaters – glad we made it. Go to ESPN to vote the Lorenzo Charles buzzerbeater as the greatest of all time. Othewise Duke wins…again

  12. tuckerdorm1983 03/14/2010 at 8:38 PM #

    my good friend that is a UNC alumni, UNC ticket holder, lives in Chapel Hill just called me and had me explain how the NIT works (when they play etc…) Go William and Mary.

    By the way maybe we will get the chance to play them Heels again and finally beat them.

  13. 61Packer 03/14/2010 at 8:41 PM #

    NIT is great for the home teams, tough on road teams.

  14. wolfpackattack89 03/14/2010 at 8:44 PM #

    Something wrong with sports today if the Heels have a better seeding than us. Joke. Off topic but are Josh Davis and Painter in Sid’s dog house? I mean, something must be wrong if Johnny Thomas gets in the games before these guys.

  15. BassPacker 03/14/2010 at 8:46 PM #

    Congrats to the Wolfpack, beat South Florida ! this is not an easy draw as USF beat Seton Hall, Providence and Georgetown at home.

    The Wolfpack women are having a NCAA bracket party at the Backyard Bistro tomorrow nite.
    Great to see both teams making post season play. UNC in the NIT is a joke. Lets hope the Pack make it to NYC.

  16. leewolf 03/14/2010 at 8:48 PM #

    Tough match-up, but I think our guys will be ready and excited to play again. They have Jones as well as two 6’10” guys in Gilchrist and Famous who will give Tracy and Howell some issues. Though both seem like they have racked up most of their big point/rebounding games not versus the best the BE has to offer so maybe it won’t be as much of a problem.

    I think one thing in our favor is their coaching. Stan Heath isn’t exactly the one of the best in the game, I think we have a distinct advantage there.

    I expect maximum effort and this team will not give up. Hopefully Coastal Carolina upsets UAB and we get to host a game in the second round.

  17. PoppaJohn 03/14/2010 at 8:50 PM #

    Congratulations guys!!

  18. Sweet jumper 03/14/2010 at 8:56 PM #

    Congrats Pack! I could care less about UNX. If we meet them, we beat them. Survive and advance Pack.

  19. packfan03 03/14/2010 at 9:03 PM #

    Tough match-up, but I think our guys will be ready and excited to play again. They have Jones as well as two 6′10″ guys in Gilchrist and Famous who will give Tracy and Howell some issues.

    It looks like they start three guards. Seeing that Jones is their premier player, and a 6’4″ guard, maybe S. Wood will cover him. Thoughts? I think he’d be our best bet to neutralize him.

  20. bradleyb123 03/14/2010 at 9:19 PM #

    In a way I’m not surprised that Carolina got in, because how often does the NIT get a crack at a team with the history and tradition of Carolina?

    But… what a joke to make them a four seed! Only Carolina could get invited at 16-16 (the WORST record of all the teams in the NIT), and pull off a four seed. Meanwhile, teams like BC are left out in the cold. And Charlotte. And how many countless others. There really is no justice with Carolina getting invited, regardless of their history and tradition.

    I’ve never heard of a team with a 16-16 record getting invited. And it’s not like Carolina beat a lot of ranked teams. I think they beat maybe TWO, and they got slammed by some of the others that they played. State finished with a 19-15 record, and beat more ranked teams, and ended up a six seed.

    Hopefully justice will prevail and Bill & Mary will annihilate the Heels. But frankly, I think I’d rather play Carolina than that team. So maybe we should pull for the Holes.

  21. bradleyb123 03/14/2010 at 9:21 PM #

    It looks like they start three guards. Seeing that Jones is their premier player, and a 6′4″ guard, maybe S. Wood will cover him. Thoughts? I think he’d be our best bet to neutralize him.

    Didn’t Virginia switch to a three-guard lineup in our first meeting, and give us fits with it?

  22. bradleyb123 03/14/2010 at 9:27 PM #

    There’s one thing I like about playing at USF… the Wolfpack is unbeaten at 5-0 in the state of Florida this year. We won all three games in that early season tournament that was held in Daytona. Then we won at Florida State, and then at Miami.

    Here’s to the Pack remaining unbeaten in the state of Florida for one more game!

  23. NJpack 03/14/2010 at 9:28 PM #

    It will be nice if we can get that 20th win, if nothing else. For all the chatter on SFN this basketball season, if I told you after Lo Brown did not qualify that we would get 19 wins including two wins in the ACC tournament and get to the NIT, would you not call that progress? I know, I know, the bar is set low, we should have higher goals, etc, but realistically we had a pretty marginal team on paper coming into this year and ended up finishing pretty strong. I’m not smoking the peace pipe with Lowe and Fowler, but the fact is we do have much better talent coming in next year, and Lowe does deserve to come back and see if he can create a successful team now that the pieces should be in place.

    We only had 3 guys on the team this year that were top 100 out of high school: Smith, Howell, and Painter. Let’s see, the 1st guy was a stud, the 2nd showed some flashes, and the 3rd barely played. Painter’s MO was that he was a project with big upside, we’ve seen the project part, hopefully next year we will see the upside part.

  24. packfan03 03/14/2010 at 9:30 PM #

    Didn’t Virginia switch to a three-guard lineup in our first meeting, and give us fits with it?

    I forgot about that. They sure did switch and go small in the second half. It seemed Sid thought we’d be able to post up inside, and we just couldn’t. Although, as I do recall, I think they were playing Sylven at PF. Bad memories…

  25. JT 03/14/2010 at 9:47 PM #

    Damn glad and proud the Pack played their way from nowhere into a legitimate NIT game. I hope for another crack at the heels. It’d all be worthwhile if State sent unc out of the NIT with an ass- whuppin’.

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