March 7, 2012
NC STATE BASKETBALL
GoPack.com
NC State Faces BC In Opening Round of ACC Tournament
NC State opens play in 2012 ACC Tournament on Thursday at 2 p.m. The Pack enter this weekend’s play as the No. 5 seed after finishing the ACC’s regular-season standings tied for fourth. NC State will face Boston College in its first-round match up which tips at 2 p.m., from Atlanta’s Philips Arena. The Pack enters the game on a two-game winning streak.
This is the first time that the Wolfpack and Eagles have met in ACC Tournament action. The two teams met twice in the regular season with NC State winning both games. In January, the Pack posted a 76-62 victory at the RBC Center and followed that with a hard-fought 56-51 win at BC’s Conte Forum in February. With the back-to-back victories, NC State has won four of the last five contests with Boston College.
• Thursday’s game will mark the first time that Boston College and NC State have met in the ACC Tournament.
• NC State sports a 3-3 record in ACC Tournament games played in Atlanta,
• Brown is five assists from tying Spudd Webb (199) for seventh on the Pack’s single-season list.
• Leslie is averaging 20.3 points and 10.5 rebounds over the Pack’s last four games .
• Richard Howell is the ACC’s third leading rebounder with an average of 9.3 per game.
• Reserve Alex Johnson averages 3.1 assists per game, while playing 19.8 minutes per contest, the ACC’s eighth best assist average.
CAULTON TUDOR (N&O)
Who will go pro from the ACC?
JP GIGLIO (N&O)
Breaking down the bubble and where N.C. State stands
Akula Wolf (BackingThePack.com)
The Nebulous Case Of 9-7
In this blog post, J.P. Giglio offers up some good analysis of NC State’s bubble situation, with a comparison to the other ACC teams that finished 9-7 in league play in the post-expansion era. Here’s the comparison Giglio put together:
[snip]
The records reflect each team’s win-loss record on Selection Sunday, so they include ACC Tournament results. Not surprisingly, all of the 9-7 teams that finished in the RPI top 40 received bids. If a power conference team finishes in the top 40, that team is usually a lock. It’s tough to differentiate the rest, though. The other six teams finished between 52-63 in the RPI, and every team except the 2011 Clemson team had at least one win against the RPI top 50.
Austin Johnson (PackPride.com)
Breaking Down The Bubble
For Pack fans I think you have to hope that the committee places equal rate on SOS and road/neutral record as it does on performance against the top 50. Failing that they at least look at top 100 cumulatively because the Pack’s combined 5-9 record in those games would compare favorably with its direct competition.
To me, there is no question that Miami ranks behind State – nothing on their resume is good and their combined 3-10 record against the top 100 is worse than the Pack.
That said, if you are only picking four on this list I don’t think the Pack makes it right now if the selections were made today. It does, however, suggest that two wins in Atlanta could be enough – if luck keeps working on the side of bubble teams and mid-majors keep winning their respective conferences.
NCAA
Eamonn Brennan (ESPN.com)
College Basketball Bubble Watch
But their at-large résumé certainly is. Drexel failed to pick off a top-50 RPI opponent in the nonconference, and 15 of those aforementioned 27 wins came against teams ranked below the RPI top 200. Likewise, Drexel’s overall strength of schedule and nonconference mark are both outside the top 200.
If you’re so inclined — if you are, say, a fan of NC State or Northwestern or Texas or any of the other middling high-majors scrapping for position on the bubble cut line — it’s easy to make the argument that Drexel merely beat up on a bad league. And part of that is true.
[snip]
North Carolina State [20-11 (9-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 22] For as ugly as the Wolfpack’s profile is, they did beat Miami twice this season. That sweep may give them the narrowest of head-to-head edges over the Hurricanes, but that’s damnation with faint praise: NC State is 0-8 against the rest of the RPI top 50, its best nonconference win came over Texas, and its RPI still isn’t great. It’s ugly stuff, the product of big missed opportunities down the stretch, and so NC State must likewise beat Boston College and then Virginia — and maybe even North Carolina in the ACC semifinals — to fight its way above the rest of the bubble mess.
Joe Lunardi (espn.com)
Bracketology
Jerry Palm (cbssports.com)
Bracketology
It was a relatively quiet night in the bracket as four more bids were clinched. Detroit and Western Kentucky are new to the bracket after upsetting higher seeds in their tournament finals. South Dakota State and Harvard clinched as well. The Crimson clinched their first NCAA tournament berth since 1946 when Penn lost to Princeton.
Last four in: South Florida, California, Colorado State, Miami (FL)
First four out: Texas, North Carolina State, Oregon, Mississippi
Jerry Palm (cbssports.com)
Bubble Watch
CBSSports.com
RPI Rankings (1-68)
NCAA.com
Men’s College Basketball RPI Rankings
StatSheet.com
Men’s College Basketball RPI Rankings
