NC State men's basketball bracketology update: Feb. 1
Welcome to February, the final full month of the men’s college basketball regular season. NC State added another impressive victory to its NCAA Tournament resume with an exciting two-point win over Wake Forest on the road, cementing the program in the overwhelming majority of bracket projections.
BracketMatrix.com includes the Wolfpack in all 87 of the surveyed brackets with an average seeding of 8.15, a drop from last week’s 7.64 mark. NC State, which stands 17-5 overall and 7-4 in the ACC, appears as high as a No. 6 seed in one bracket and as low as the No. 10 line in another.
ESPN moved NC State down slightly to a No. 8 seed in Tuesday’s update. Joe Lunardi picked the Wolfpack to play No. 9-seeded Iowa in the round of 64 in Birmingham, Alabama, before a potential matchup with Houston, the No. 1 seed in the West Region. NC State is one of seven ACC programs in Lunardi’s bracket, the third-most bids out of any conference. The Big 12 boasts eight teams in the field, and the Big 10 leads the nation with 9 bids.
CBS Sports updated its bracket Monday morning, and NC State held steady as a No. 8 seed. The Pack would play No. 9-seeded Auburn in a round-of-64 matchup in Des Moines, Iowa, in the East Region. The program would likely play Kansas State, the region’s No. 1 seed, in the round of 32 if NC State beat the Tigers. A total of eight ACC programs made Palm’s bracket, including several teams the Wolfpack has already beaten this year— Duke, Miami and Virginia Tech.
The Washington Post features six ACC teams, including the Wolfpack, in its bracket. After dropping to the No. 9 line last week, The Post kept NC State there this week. The publication matched the Wolfpack up with No. 8-seeded Iowa in Birmingham, Alabama, so this is a very similar projection to ESPN. If NC State won its first-round showdown, the program would likely face Alabama, the No. 1 seed in the South Region. This bracket was updated Tuesday morning.
Fox Sports’ Michael DeCourcy still considers NC State a No. 8 seed. He picked the Wolfpack to play in the Midwest Region, matching up with Northwestern in the round of 64. Alabama would once again be the most likely opponent waiting in the round of 32.
The Athletic last updated its bracket Jan. 27, so it does not take Saturday’s win over Wake Forest into account. With that said, the news outlet dropped NC State down from its prior mock bracket to the No. 8 line and also sending the program to Birmingham. The Wolfpack would face No. 9-seeded Arkansas with a likely round-of-32 matchup against Houston looming for the winner of that game in the West Region.
