For the next several days, the Tar Heel Blog staff will be previewing each ACC team heading into the ACC Tournament. We’ll be highlighting how the season has gone for each team, and discussing the state of each school heading into the postseason.
NC State Wolfpack
Overall Record: 15-16
Conference record: 4-14
Biggest wins: Virginia Tech (104-78), @ Duke (84-82)
Worst losses: @ UNC (107-56), @ Boston College (74-66)
Key players: Dennis Smith Jr.
Chance of making NCAA Tournament: About equal to chances of winning the lottery.
To kick things off with perhaps the biggest understatement ever typed, things have not gone well for the Wolfpack this season. They finish conference play only ahead of lowly Boston College in the basement of the ACC. Mark Gottfried has already been fired but is coaching out however many games his team has less, which may very well be only one.
Things sort of turned sour for NC State early on when they lost to Illinois in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge toward the beginning of the season. From there, the Wolfpack mainly beat teams they were supposed to until blowing the doors off Virginia Tech in Raleigh. The Hokies were fresh off a beatdown of the Blue Devils, which made what State was able to accomplish kind of impressive at the time.
Snow fell over the majority of North Carolina just ahead of State’s trip to Chapel Hill, delaying the game by one day. Debbie Yow voiced her displeasure over the postponement and guaranteed that her team would be ready to play whenever Carolina deemed fit.
The Tar Heels put a beatdown on the Wolfpack that was truly a sight to behold. The game was never in question, and UNC would win the game by an astounding 51 points. NC State would go on to drop their next two games on the road at Boston College and in Raleigh against Georgia Tech, likely out of shame.
Just when you thought the Wolfpack were left for dead, they managed to beat Duke. When the “highlight reel” (if you can call it that) of NC State’s 2016-2017 season is played, that may well be the only clips used. They went on to lose each of their next seven games before salvaging one against Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
For the most part, it looks like the NC State players have checked out on the season. Dennis Smith Jr. is packing his bags for the NBA and their coach is packing his bags for...maybe another job? There are a lot of bad feelings in Raleigh right about now.
NC State would need to win the ACC Tournament to receive a bid in the NCAA Tournament, and that doesn’t seem at all possible with the way the team has played as of late. They’ll play at least one more game, however, on the opening day of the ACC Tournament. After that, we’ll probably be forced to sit back and wait on the outcome of their coaching search. Should be a good time.