NC State is 10-9 overall and 6-8 in ACC play entering its final stretch of the 2020-21 regular season.

The Wolfpack had a rough go in early 2021 beginning in January but has found some momentum in mid-February after winning back-to-back games for the first time since December.

The Pack lost eight of its first 10 games in 2021.

Combine that with a second COVID pause this season after losing by 32 points at Florida State on Jan. 13 followed by fifth-year senior guard Devon Daniels’ ACL tear in State’s first victory of the calendar year (against Wake Forest on Jan. 27), and it’s enough to make any Wolfpack fan’s hair turn gray.

But NC State has continued to fight despite its fair share of adversity in conference play. After close calls in losses at Syracuse and against Virginia, the Pack has won three of its last five, including its best road win of the season at Pittsburgh last Wednesday.

Time is running out in the 2020-21 campaign, but there’s still some relevant basketball to be played.

Here is a look at the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the Wolfpack down the stretch:

The most obvious best-case scenario for NC State would involve a magical run in Greensboro to win the ACC Tournament, picking up an automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament in the process.

While anything is possible, the odds are considerably stacked against teams that don’t receive a double-bye by earning one of the top four seeds in the tournament’s modern format.

Since the league expanded from nine to 11 programs beginning in the 2004-05 season, only one team has won four games in four days to win the tournament without an automatic bye to the quarterfinals.

That team was fifth-seeded Duke in 2016-17, who had to defeat three of the tournament’s top four seeds, all of which were ranked in the AP Top 25, before beating Notre Dame 75-69 in the championship game. The Blue Devils were led that year by freshman standout Jayson Tatum, who went on to become the No. 3 overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft.

NC State coined the term “survive and advance” in its 1983 NCAA Tournament title run, but even in a down year in the conference, winning four games in four days is an incredibly unlikely scenario.

And as it is, the Pack may have to win five games in five days under the current tournament format.

So let’s go with a somewhat realistic best-case scenario for the Wolfpack, even if it remains quite unlikely.