What This Week Holds For NC State Men's Basketball
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RALEIGH. — NC State suffered two losses in the Southwest Maui Invitational and dealt with major defensive breakdowns in those games. It forced the Wolfpack to do some soul-searching as it fell out of the AP Top 25 and came in ranked No. 40 on the first release of the NET Rankings.
Now, Will Wade and the Wolfpack face a critical stretch of the season that begins with two games in this week. If the Pack wants to be a formidable option for the committee come March, it will need to find a way to fix some of the major issues it showed over the last week and win at least two of three critical games in December.
What's on deck this week?
The first week of the daunting December schedule includes one of the most important games of the season and likely the most critical non-conference bout for the Wolfpack. NC State will travel to Alabama to face No. 20 Auburn in the ACC/SEC Challenge, which enters the game with a 6-2 record. The Tigers, coming off a Final Four appearance last season, remain one of the more formidable teams in the SEC.
Wade's squad already dropped one game to an SEC team, losing 102-97 to Texas in the fifth-place game in Maui. It was by far the Wolfpack's worst defensive performance of the season, as the Longhorns made 16 of their 32 threes in the win. Wade called the loss an "all systems breakdown" and vowed to get back to the drawing board defensively.
Neville Arena, also known as the Jungle, is widely considered one of the most difficult places to play in all of college basketball. The Tigers have been one of the best home sides in the sport over the last few seasons and finished 13-2 in their own building in the 2024-25 season. The two losses came to a ranked Alabama team and the future national champions, the Florida Gators.
The Wolfpack will need to play at a level it has yet to show in the very short Wade era. While NC State looked like a serious threat during its 4-0 start, it showed tremendous flaws during the Maui trip. Superstar forward Darrion Williams regaining his form would go a long way for the Wolfpack in its trip to the Plains. The Auburn game is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 9:15 P.M. EST on ESPN.
The Wolfpack will have a chance to tweak things back at the Lenovo Center on Saturday, as it will host another in-state program, UNC-Asheville. The Bulldogs are off to a 3-4 start under head coach Mike Morrell, another member of Shaka Smart's staff at VCU along with Wade.
That game is scheduled for Saturday at 1 P.M. EST and can be watched on the CW.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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