North Carolina State has officially entered the chat.
The Wolfpack (22-14) secured a conference tournament championship Saturday evening, taking down rivals North Carolina 84-76 to earn an automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Tournament. While NC State might not necessarily considered a bid stealer in the traditional sense as the Wolfpack were on the bubble entering the ACC tournament, this complicates matters for several other squads who will be sweating out the selection show.
We can start the discussion with Michigan State and Virginia, two notable college basketball programs who are on opposite sides of the bubble per the latest bracketology projection by Joe Lunardi. The Spartans didn’t win their conference tournament, bowing out to Purdue in the quarterfinal. Michigan State also struggled down the stretch, losing to Iowa, Ohio State and Indiana. The win over Illinois might not be enough to put Tom Izzo in the dance now that NC State has an auto bid.
The Cavaliers were taken out by the Wolfpack Friday and don’t have much to complain about if they don’t get picked for the field of 68. Virginia lost to Pitt and Virginia Tech while failing to get a signature win over UNC or Duke to cap the regular season. NC State knocking off Virginia in the conference tournament likely ends the regular season for the Cavaliers.
In the Big East, both St. John’s and Seton Hall appear to be getting the short end of the stick with the Wolfpack landing an auto bid. The Johnnies could’ve added a big win if they beat UConn but they unfortunately ran out of juice late in the contest. The Pirates are in an even worse position, losing to St. John’s in the Big East tournament Thursday. That’s going to be a factor if the NCAA is considering both teams, regardless of how good Seton Hall’s resume is outside of Thursday’s game. At the moment, it appears NC State has knocked both teams off the bubble.
The most interesting cases will be teams who advanced far in the conference tournaments but didn’t go on to win the whole thing. Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Colorado all fit in this category. These teams were able to add some signature wins but don’t have the benefit of the automatic bid like NC State. According to Lunardi, all three are in but the Wolfpack closing out the run with a title doesn’t look great for these squads on the bubble. There’s a possibility one or more of these programs get left out of the field for failing to complete the task.