NC State basketball schedule for 2022-23: What do we know?
In 2019, NC State basketball could only watch the NCAA Tournament because the Pack was instead participating in the NIT.
While NC State made a fun run to the quarterfinals with three exciting games at Reynolds Coliseum, head coach Kevin Keatts may have been in The Big Dance instead had the Wolfpack not had the worst-rated non-conference strength of schedule in the country.
This season, NC State did better in that regards.
While the non-conference strength of schedule of No. 217 may not impress, the Pack’s overall slate held up well. Last week, Colgate (Patriot League), Richmond (Atlantic 10), Texas Southern (SWAC) and Wright State (Horizon League) won their respective conference tournaments. Louisiana Tech (Conference USA) made it to the championship game.
All those teams came to Raleigh.
Neutral-court contests against Purdue and Oklahoma State nearly resulted in two quad one games, as Oklahoma State was one spot away at No. 51 from joining the Boilermakers in that designation.
Even Nebraska made a late push up the NET to give the Pack a quad three home win.
Here are the final regular season NET rankings of the NC State basketball opponents this year:
13. Purdue
51. Oklahoma State
81. Richmond
98. Louisiana Tech
128. Colgate
141. Nebraska
191. Wright State
197. Texas Southern
334. Bucknell
338. Bethune-Cookman
345. Central Connecticut State
The key to move the non-conference strength of schedule up further for NC State is less games like the three in the NET 300s and replacing one of those with a top-75 opponent while moving the other two to be on caliber with the Wright States and Texas Southerns, at a minimum.
Of course, that’s easier said than done in the world of modern college basketball. Predicting what teams will do is not easy. For instance, NC State’s neutral-court game in the aforementioned 2019 season against Vanderbilt was supposed to be a quality game, and instead the Commodores went a surprising 0-18 in the SEC.
Here is what we know already about next season’s NC State basketball schedule:
Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament at Paradise Island in the Bahamas, Nov. 23-25
NC State played in this event in 2017, upsetting second-ranked Arizona before losing to Tennessee and Northern Iowa.
This upcoming year’s event is tentatively scheduled to also have Butler, BYU, Dayton, Kansas, Tennessee, USC and Wisconsin.
Here are those teams’ NET rankings:
6. Kansas
7. Tennessee
24. Wisconsin
35. USC
54. BYU
58. Dayton
121. Butler
The quad cut-offs for neutral court games are 1-50 for quad one, 51-100 for two and 101-200 for three.
Kansas, Tennessee, Wisconsin and USC made the field of 68 on Selection Sunday, while Dayton and BYU are in the NIT. Dayton was the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament this year.
When NC State participated in the fall of 2017, it also hosted a game against Presbyterian as part of the event.
Home game against Saint Louis for NC State basketball
Last season, when college basketball scrambled to get schedules done on the fly because of COVID-19, NC State scheduled a road game at Saint Louis. When the agreement was announced, details of a return date to NC State for 2022-23 were also revealed.
Saint Louis is 23-11 this season, including 12-6 in the Atlantic 10, and No. 64 in the NET. It is also playing in the NIT.
Saint Louis would have represented a quad-two home contest, which is better than anybody NC State hosted in its recently completed season. Saint Louis made the NIT last year and the season before was probably NCAA Tournament bound for a second straight time had it not been for COVID-19 canceling The Big Dance.
Other notes
NC State basketball has annually been able to count on a Big Ten/ACC Challenge game, but that may not be the case this fall. Traditionally, the last-place team in the ACC does not compete in the Challenge since the Big Ten has one fewer team in its league.
NC State would have been likely slated for a road game, the best bet against a team like Minnesota, Nebraska or Northwestern, who were due for home games after playing on the road in 2021.
This past season was the first time Keatts had originally scheduled more than three non-conference games away from home. Will NC State go for another neutral-court or true road game to make up for not playing in the Challenge? Could the Pack look for a game in Charlotte since that is the host site of next season’s ACC Tournament?
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