The Wolfpacker's weekly NET report
For the most part, it was a good week for NC State basketball in the NET rankings that are used by the NCAA Tournament's selection committee to sort teams.
Of course, it starts with the Pack winning three straight ACC games. That played a large role in NCSU improving seven spots from a week ago to 45th in the updated release Wednesday morning. There were other positive developments however:
• Last week, NC State had just one quad-one victory, a home win over Wisconsin (NET 22). Now, it has three.
UNC Greensboro improved eight spots from No. 79 to 71, which has changed NCSU's buzzer-beating road win over the Spartans from a quad-two win to one in quad one. Also, Virginia had improved its standing prior to playing NC State, jumping from the fringes of quad one for a road win (was No. 74) to more solidly in the group (it was No. 60 when it hosted NC State, then fell subsequently to 66 after the loss).
The result is NC State now has a 3-3 record in quad-one contests. Last year it was just 3-9 in that tier.
• Notre Dame climbed 14 spots to No. 75, and the Pack's home win over the Irish currently now qualifies as a quad two (75 is the cutoff for home games).
• Little Rock made a huge jump from 184 to 147, and in the process NC State gained a quad-three victory, whereas it had been classified a quad-four win last week. Florida International also made a huge jump, improving from No. 194 to 165. It needs to get to No. 160 to move NC State's win over them up to quad three.
FIU is at Old Dominion and at Charlotte this week. One road win might be enough to make that leap into the top 160, but two would certainly do the trick.
• A couple of future opponents also improved their standing. The home game against Pittsburgh Feb. 29 is now in quad two after the Panthers climbed seven spots to No. 69, and the road tilt at Syracuse Feb. 11 gained quad-one status after the Orange jumped 14 spots to No. 70.
Pitt plays at Syracuse on Saturday.
NET Rankings Update
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 as of Tuesday:
6. Duke — TBD (road, home) (no change from a week ago)
10. Louisville — TBD (home) (up five)
13. Florida State — TBD (home) (up one)
20. Auburn — L (road) (down 15)
22. Wisconsin — W (home) (up one)
26. Memphis – L (neutral) (down one)
43. Virginia Tech — L (road) (down seven)
45. NC State (up seven)
66. Virginia — W (road) (up eight)
69. Pittsburgh — TBD (home) (up seven)
70. Syracuse — TBD (road) (up 14)
71. UNC Greensboro — W (road) (up eight)
75. Notre Dame — W (home) (up 14)
76. Clemson — L (road), W (home) (down one)
92. Miami — W (home) TBD (road) (down nine)
97. Georgia Tech — L (home), TBD (road) (down 11)
106. Wake Forest — W (road), TBD (home) (up six)
118. North Carolina — TBD (home, road) (down three)
147. Arkansas-Little Rock — W (home) (up 37)
165. Florida International — W (home) (up 29)
171. Boston College — TBD (road) (down 18)
194. Appalachian State – W (home) (down seven)
260. Alcorn State — W (home) (up 37)
288. Detroit Mercy — W (home) (up 19)
311. St. Francis (Brooklyn) — W (home) (down three)
315. The Citadel — W (home) (down 26)
Note there are 353 teams in the NET.
Quads/Strength Of Schedule
Broken down by quadrants the NCAA committee uses (quadrant-four wins are disregarded by NCAA committee):
Quadrant 1 (Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Road 1-75): 3-3 with five remaining
Quadrant 2 (Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Road 76-135): 2-1 with four remaining
Quadrant 3 (Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Road 136-240): 3-1 with three remaining
Quadrant 4 (Home 161+, Neutral 201+, Road 241+): 6-0 with none remaining
Non-conference strength of schedule: No. 70
Overall strength of schedule: No. 57
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