The Wolfpacker’s weekly NET report
A tough weekend for NC State basketball resulted in a pretty good hit to the Wolfpack’s individual NET rating. Losses to Georgia Tech (64-58) and North Carolina (75-65) dropped NC State from No. 45 in the NET entering Saturday’s defeat in Atlanta to the Yellow Jackets to No. 59 as of Wednesday morning.
Yet despite those losses and the fall in the ratings, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still had the Wolfpack as one of the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament in his updated mock bracket Jan. 28. CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm also had NC State among his last four in, but he has not done an update since the UNC game.
One reason why is that it is important to remember that more significant than the NET rankings is the quad records (broken down below). With that metric, NC State is 2-2 in quad one games and 3-3 in quad two contests. A 5-5 combined quad one/quad two mark is not great but also not bad, especially when you get deep into the bubble teams.
Concerning for NC State at this point is it has a pair of quad three losses — home setbacks to Georgia Tech (82-81 Nov. 5) and North Carolina, but overall NCSU’s quad records are not out of line with what the last four teams in the field had last year:
| Team | Quad One | Quad Two | Quad Three | NET ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Belmont |
2-2 |
3-1 |
3-2 |
47 |
|
Temple |
2-6 |
6-2 |
7-1 |
56 |
|
St. John's |
5-7 |
5-3 |
3-2 |
73 |
|
Arizona State |
3-3 |
8-3 |
5-2 * |
63 |
As bleak as the end of January was for NC State, February is loaded with opportunities and less pitfalls. NC State only has two quad three games on the schedule (as of now) — a road date at Boston College and a home tilt against Wake Forest. Half of its remaining games are quad ones, with three of them at home. It also has three quad two contests left, including one at home.
One cautionary tale on the quads is the number of teams that are on the borderlines. Both wins over Wisconsin and UNC Greensboro and the loss to Memphis in Brooklyn, N.Y., have teetered between quad one and quad two. The quad two win at home over Notre Dame is not far from being a quad three, and the future home date with Pitt is squarely on the cutoff for a quad two/three.
A development that would help NC State is if the trio of Little Rock, Florida International and Appalachian State can finish strong enough to all be in the top 160 of the NET, thus counting as quad three wins and keeping NCSU’s non-conference strength of schedule ranking (No. 49) on solid ground.
Currently Little Rock is No. 146, but both FIU (No. 171) and Appalachian State (No. 176) have some work to do to get there.
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 of Tuesday:
6. Duke — TBD (road, home) (no change from a week ago)
12. Louisville — TBD (home) (down two)
18. Florida State — TBD (home) (down five)
25. Auburn — L (road) (down five)
32. Wisconsin — W (home) (down 10)
51. Memphis – L (neutral) (down 25)
54. Virginia Tech — L (road) (down 11)
56. Virginia — W (road) (up 10)
59. NC State (down 14)
62. Syracuse — TBD (road) (up eight)
71. Notre Dame — W (home) (up four)
74. UNC Greensboro — W (road) (no change)
75. Pittsburgh — TBD (home) (down six)
81. Clemson — L (road), W (home) (down five)
86. Georgia Tech — L (home), L (road) (up 11)
92. North Carolina — L (home), TBD (road) (up 26)
102. Miami — W (home), TBD (road) (down 10)
110. Wake Forest — W (road), TBD (home) (down four)
146. Little Rock — W (home) (up one)
157. Boston College — TBD (road) (up 14)
171. Florida International — W (home) (down six)
176. Appalachian State – W (home) (up 18)
283. Alcorn State — W (home) (down 23)
289. Detroit Mercy — W (home) (down one)
297. St. Francis (Brooklyn) — W (home) (up 14)
327. The Citadel — W (home) (down 12)
Note: There are 353 teams ranked by the NET.
Quads/Strength Of Schedule
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): 2-2 with five remaining
Quadrant 2 (Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Road 76-135): 3-3 with three remaining
Quadrant 3 (Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Road 136-240): 3-2 with two remaining
Quadrant 4 (Home 161+, Neutral 201+, Road 241+): 6-0 with none remaining
Non-conference strength of schedule: No. 49
Overall strength of schedule: No. 84
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