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Published Mar 1, 2021
Women's Basketball Notebook: NC State looks to defend ACC Tournament title
Justin H. Williams Β β€’Β  TheWolfpackCentral
Staff Writer
Twitter
@JustinHWill

NC State women's basketball finished the regular season 17-2 overall and 12-2 in ACC play, and will now move on to postseason play.

The Wolfpack will seek to repeat as ACC Tournament Champions this week; their first game is Friday.

NC State earned the No. 2 seed and will face the winner of Thursday's 7-10 game between Virginia Tech and Miami. The Pack tied Louisville with only two conference losses this season, but the Cardinals won two more ACC games due to differences in cancellations and therefore earned the No. 1 seed.

Virginia Tech was one of two teams to defeat NC State in the regular season, but the Pack was without star junior center Elissa Cunane in just its second game back following a three-week COVID pause in January.

Third-seeded Georgia Tech and fourth-seeded Florida State round out the other two teams to earn double byes to the quarterfinals Friday.

The Wolfpack will play its first game of the tournament in Greensboro Coliseum this Friday at 6:30 p.m. on RSN. If NC State wins, the Pack will play its semifinal game on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on ACC Network. The championship game will be played Sunday at noon and will be nationally televised on ESPN2.

Due to new relaxed COVID restrictions in the state of North Carolina, a limited number of tickets are available for sale to the general public.

Week in reviewΒ 

NC State won both of its contest this week to finish the regular season on a five-game win streak.

The Pack first defeated Pittsburgh 83-53 on Senior Day in Reynold Coliseum on Thursday. All five of the Wolfpack's starters finished in double figures.

NC State ended the regular season with a 68-61 road win over Syracuse on Sunday. Cunane led the Pack with 17 points, and also posted nine rebounds and three assists.

Sophomore forward Jada Boyd recorded a double-double, scoring 16 points and reeling in a team-high 10 rebounds in the victory.

Quote of the week

"Every year is a new year, every team is a new team. We know every game is going to come down to a possession or two, and that's what you have to focus on. Being as good as you can in each possession and playing as hard as you can in each of those.

"Somebody said, 'Well, does that put more pressure on you because you won it last year?' I don't really think so. In fact, I think it could work in the reverse. At least we know we can do it.

"You go in with that confidence that we've been able to win it. We know our routine, we know our preparation, the process we go through that week, we know it can work. We also know it's tough. I think it'll be very similar except hopefully we'll have confidence.

"That's the tough part about having a having a double bye. Your first game is going to be a really tough game. People that have already played before, got a game under their belt, I think it's definitely to their advantage in the first half to have had that game and get it out of the way, get the tournament jitters over.

"Obviously, the double bye helps you if you are able to win and keep playing, it can help you down the stretch of the tournament. But you got to get there first. No matter who it is, we're going to have a big challenge." β€” NC State head coach Wes Moore on his team's mentality entering this year's ACC Tournament as defending champions.

Weekly NET report

These are the sorted rankings used by the NCAA Tournament committee (with sorted being the key word). What is most important is the quadrant rankings below them. This is the most recent standing of where the Pack compares to the opponents on its schedule:

*Through games as of March 1, 2021

4. South Carolina β€” W (road)

6. Louisville – W (road)

8. NC State

27. Virginia Tech – W (home), L (road)

32. North Carolina – W (home), L (road)

33. Georgia Tech – W (road)

42. Syracuse – W (road)

49. Florida State – Canceled (road)

51. Wake Forest – W (home), W (road)

52. Notre Dame – Canceled (home)

55. Duke – Canceled (home and road)

69. Clemson – W (home)

72. Miami – W (home)

83. Boston College – W (home), W (road)

117. Pittsburgh – W (home)

166. Elon – W (home)

226. Virginia – Canceled (home and road)

235. North Florida – W (home)

280. NC Central – W (home)

331. Coastal Carolina – W (home)

***Note: there are 353 teams in the NET.

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

Quadrant 1 (Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Road 1-75): 6-2 with 0 remaining

Quadrant 2 (Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Road 76-135): 6-0 with 0 remaining

Quadrant 3 (Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Road 136-240): 1-0 with 0 remaining

Quadrant 4 (Home 161+, Neutral 201+, Road 241+): 4-0 with 0 remaining

Tweets of the week

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Highlights of the week

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