It's Now or Never Time For Wolfpack's NCAA Hopes

The next two games, against Duke and Florida State, will go a long way toward determining NC State's postseason fate

Rob Kinnan/USAToday sports

As damaging as Sunday's loss at Boston College was to NC State's NCAA tournament hopes, it was hardly a deal-breaker.

Even if it had won, the Wolfpack would still have likely needed at least one victory in its three upcoming games against ACC frontrunners Duke and Florida State to get itself onto the right side of the NCAA bubble.

It's a now or never stretch that begins Wednesday against the third-ranked Blue Devils at PNC Arena.

Barring a miracle ACC tournament run, State's postseason fate will almost certainly be determined over the next few games -- a reality for which coach Kevin Keatts and his 16-9 (7-7 ACC) team are all too aware.

"We don't talk about it a lot because I'm not sure if those guys can handle that pressure right now," Keatts said Monday on the ACC's weekly coaches teleconference. "We really just try to concentrate on the next game and we understand that coming down the stretch, we've got some really good teams.

"We're going to play against at least two of the teams that are above us in the top of the standings and we understand that in order for us to be successful, to have the chance to advance, we've got to be able to win some of those games."

The Wolfpack played as though it was feeling the pressure during the first half of Sunday's game.

Unlike it's two previous games, road wins at Miami and Syracuse, it shot poorly -- especially from behind the 3-point line -- committed too many live ball turnovers and had trouble keeping BC point guard Derryck Thornton away from the rim.

It wasn't until it fell behind by 12 with 7 1/2 minutes left that it finally began playing with the urgency usually associated with a team fighting for its NCAA tournament life.

Although the improved second effort wasn't good enough to pull out the victory in Chestnut Hill, Keatts is hopeful it will carry over to Wednesday night when the Wolfpack returns home for what is undoubtedly it's most important game of the season to date.

"Obviously we had a tough game at Boston College," he said. "But unfortunately at the end it didn't go our way. I thought we had a really good, inspirational second half where we played well and put ourself in a position to win."

While Sunday's loss is generally considered to be a bad one because of the Eagles' 143 NET ranking, Keatts countered that looks can be deceiving.

He said that people outside the ACC -- especially those that fancy themselves as "bracketologists" -- are mistaking the parity of the league this season for a lack of quality. He said talk of the ACC getting only three teams into the NCAA tournament is "outrageous."

"This league is as good as any league in the country," Keatts said. "It's unfortunate, because when you look at the league from last year, we got less than 50 percent of our teams in, which was seven and I thought the league deserved to get at least nine in last year.

"Then when you look at this year. Everybody is saying that now we have three teams that are locked in and then a bunch of teams that are trying to get bids and the most that you ever hear is a possibility of four or five out of 15 teams. That’s not fair. 

"I hope the committee definitely looks at all of our programs and looks at the fact that there is parity and there may not be a big-time superstar, but these guys, all of our teams that will get in the NCAAs are capable of making a big run in March."

First though, teams such as his Wolfpack still have work to do just to get into the 68-team field.

It's a task for which State, even after Sunday's loss, still controls its own destiny.

"I like where our guys are mentally," Keatts said. "Our league has a lot of parity in the league and us sitting at 7-7, we have some great opportunities right in front of us."