The Wolfpacker's weekly NET report

Going into Tuesday night's game at Syracuse, CBSSports.com bracketologist Jerry Palm wrote the following about the implications for NC State basketball and its tournament hopes:

"This is the second of three straight road games for the Wolfpack and the toughest of the three as well. NC State is a .500 team against Quadrants 1-2 and a loss tonight would extend that to Q1-3. Picking up a road win over a team one is contending with is always good."

The win that NC State landed over Syracuse improved the Wolfpack to 3-2 in quad one games, and impressively all three of its victories have come on the road: Virginia, UNC Greensboro and Syracuse. Overall, NC State's 5-4 road record is shaping up as another plus on its team sheet.

Yet the Pack's quad one record is fluid because several teams are a few losses away from slipping, and there's a couple of teams that could move up from the second quadrant with a few wins.

Here's the rooting interest for NC State fans over the next several weeks:

Wisconsin: The Badgers scored an impressive home win over the weekend against Ohio State, and now Wisconsin is sitting four spots higher in the NET rankings (No. 32). Wisconsin is a fairly safe bet at the moment to make the NCAA Tournament field, so NC State's home win over the Badgers will have value regardless. However, if they could get back into the top 30 of the NET, they would add a quad one victory to the Pack's tally.

Wisconsin has seven games left, including four against teams ranked in the 30-39 range of the NET, plus one at NCAA Tournament bubble team Indiana (No. 64 in the NET). A winning record in those five games without slip-ups at Nebraska and home against Northwestern could do the trick for Wisconsin.

Syracuse and UNC Greensboro: Of NC State's three quad one wins, Virginia seems a fairly safe bet to remain there. The Cavs are up to No. 54 in the NET (top 75 games on the road are quad one), and its style of play is conducive to limiting big drops in the rankings even when it loses. Syracuse and UNC Greensboro though are far more vulnerable to slipping to quad two status.

UNCG has six games left, but only one against a top-100 NET opponent, a home date against Furman. Thus, the Spartans need to not only win to remain in the top 75 of the NET, but probably also do so with some authority in a few of their games.

The Orange could be a dicier situation. Five of their final seven games are on the road, starting with a brutal two-game stretch coming up at Florida State and then at Louisville, two of the ACC's three heavyweights this season. SU also had leading scorer Elijah Hughes miss the majority of the Wolfpack game due to injury, and need him healthy.

Boston College and Pittsburgh: These are two future NC State opponents, but for the moment both are quad three games. NCSU already has a pair of quad three losses, and suffering any more could be a sore data point on the Pack's team sheet. NC State's home losses to Georgia Tech and UNC are currently quad three defeats. While Georgia Tech could theoretically climb up a quad with a good finish, the Heels will almost certainly not.

However, both BC and Pitt are also not far from being quad two games, which would be helpful to NC State regardless of the outcome of those contests. Pittsburgh is at No. 78 in the NET, and would need to get into the top 75 to get bumped up a quad. Boston College is at No. 140, but since NC State is playing them on the road Sunday, it only needs to be in the top 135 to be a quad two.

Florida International and Appalachian State: Both teams are quad four games at the moment since they were played in Raleigh, and quad four wins tend to be disregarded by the NCAA Tournament selection committee. However, FIU (No. 165) and Appalachian (No. 167) only need a modest jump in the standings to get into the top 160, which would move them into quad three status.

One team that NC State fans probably should not root for is Memphis. The Tigers have fallen from quad one to two with some recent losses, which makes the Wolfpack loss to them in Brooklyn less appealing. Memphis is probably a few wins from getting back into the top 50, which is the cutoff for a quad one for neutral-site games.

However, Memphis is also a fellow bubble team, and their losses coupled with NC State wins are more important to the Wolfpack. Also, if Memphis were to stay in quad two, NC State's W-L record in quad one would be more impressive.

These are the sorted rankings used by the NCAA Tournament (with sorted being the key word) committee. What is more important is the quadrant rankings below them.

This is updated through games of Tuesday:

6. Duke — TBD (road, home) (no change from a week ago)

7. Louisville — L (home) (no change)

14. Florida State — TBD (home) (no change)

15. Auburn — L (road) (up one)

32. Wisconsin — W (home) (up four)

51. Notre Dame — W (home) (up eight)

54. Virginia — W (road) (up two)

58. Memphis – L (neutral) (down 12)

60. NC State (up three)

63. UNC Greensboro — W (road) (up five)

67. Syracuse — W (road) (down two)

78. Pittsburgh — TBD (home) (up three)

80. Virginia Tech — L (road) (down nine)

82. Georgia Tech — L (home), L (road) (down four)

96. North Carolina — L (home), TBD (road) (down one)

99. Wake Forest — W (road), TBD (home) (up six)

101. Clemson — L (road), W (home) (down three)

108. Miami — W (home), W (road) (up one)

137. Little Rock — W (home) (up two)

140. Boston College — TBD (road) (up seven)

165. Florida International — W (home) (up 11)

167. Appalachian State – W (home) (no change)

296. Detroit Mercy — W (home) (down three)

302. St. Francis (Brooklyn) — W (home) (down six)

320. Alcorn State — W (home) (down 28)

334. The Citadel — W (home) (down two)

Note: There are 353 teams ranked by the NET.

Broken down by quadrants NCAA committee uses (quadrant four wins are disregarded by NCAA committee):

Quadrant 1 (Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Road 1-75): 3-2 with three remaining

Quadrant 2 (Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Road 76-135): 4-4 with one remaining

Quadrant 3 (Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Road 136-240): 3-2 with three remaining

Quadrant 4 (Home 161+, Neutral 201+, Road 241+): 6-0 with none remaining

Non-conference strength of schedule: No. 56

Overall strength of schedule: No. 82

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