NC State basketball to play Texas Tech in March Madness bracket, 2024 NCAA Tournament
NC State basketball's improbable path to an ACC Tournament Championship earned the Wolfpack an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The Wolfpack (22-14, 9-11 ACC) were awarded the No. 11 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Sunday. It will play No. 6 Texas Tech in the first round Pittsburgh. NC State will try to make it out of the South region and will play the winner of a matchup between No. 3. Kentucky and No. 14 Oakland in the second round if it can get by Red Raiders.
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NC State has made the Big Dance 29 times in program history, but this will mark just its third appearance in the tournament in the last nine years. Kevin Keatts, who is in his seventh season as the head coach, is making his third appearance with the Wolfpack. It made it last season as an 11 seed and lost 72-63 in the first round to No. 6-seeded Creighton.
NC State has not made it out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament since a Sweet 16 run in 2015.
The matchup with Texas Tech will take place in Pittsburgh.
What seed is NC State in the NCAA Tournament?
The Wolfpack needed to win the ACC Tournament to have a chance to reach the NCAA Tournament following an up-and-down season. NC State sits 58th in KenPom Rankings and 63th in Net Rankings, which suggests it would be a fringe bubble team, if not for winning the tournament. The Wolfpack went 3-8 in quad-1 games, 6-5 in quad-2 games and were 13-1 combined in quad-3 and quad- games.
How did the Wolfpack get into the NCAA Tournament?
NC State was the No. 10 seed in the ACC Tournament, meaning it needed to win five games in as many days to capture the championship. In defeating North Carolina, it secured an automatic bid to go dancing. The Wolfpack is just the second team to win any conference tournament as a double-digit seed. It defeated No. 15 Louisville (94-85), No. 7 Syracuse (83-65), No. 2 Duke (74-69), No. 3 Virginia (73-65) and No. 1 UNC (84-76) over the five days.
The victories over the Blue Devils and Tar Heels represented two of the three quad-1 victories for the season for the Wolfpack. The wins over the Orange and Cavaliers were quad-2 wins and the victory over the Cardinals goes down as a quad-4 win.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: It's NC State vs Texas Tech in March Madness bracket, 2024 NCAA Tournament
