N.C. State needs help.

It’s not the position the Wolfpack thought it would be when the season began, but it’s where N.C. State (20-8) is with three games left in the ACC regular season.

At 9-6 in the ACC, the fifth-place Wolfpack needs to win out, starting with Sunday’s road trip to Georgia Tech, and it needs help from the teams in front of them in the conference standings to avoid the play-in round of the ACC tournament.

A top-four finish would mean the Wolfpack, the preseason pick to win the ACC, wouldn’t have to play on Thursday in the ACC tournament in Greensboro and it wouldn’t have to win four games in four days for its first ACC title since 1987.

“We’re definitely not satisfied with where we’re at,” senior forward Richard Howell said. “At the same time, we know we have plenty of chances to prove we are one of the top teams in the nation, which we definitely believe we are.”

The Wolfpack didn’t get any help from Clemson or Duke on Thursday, which has essentially left N.C. State with only one viable path to an opening-round bye.

Miami, Duke and Virginia have all but locked up three of the top four spots. N.C. State’s most likely scenario would be to finish in a fourth-place tie with North Carolina, and only North Carolina (it would lose all tiebreakers that involved Virginia or Duke).

If both N.C. State and UNC finish 12-6, and UNC loses on March 9 to Duke, the Wolfpack would have the tiebreaker over UNC based on the Wolfpack’s Jan. 12 win over Duke.

There are still a lot of moving parts that have to fall into place for the Wolfpack to get to that point, including N.C. State closing out the season with wins over Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Florida State.

Coach Mark Gottfried has been encouraged by his team’s play lately, winning four of the past five games, including each of the past two home games by 18 points.

“I think we’re playing better basketball right now,” Gottfried said. “I like the way in the last couple of weeks we’ve played. Now, we need to make sure we keep improving every day.”

The biggest room of improvement for N.C. State is on the road. The Wolfpack has lost five of seven ACC road games this season, compared to a 7-1 home record.

Of the Wolfpack’s four wins in the past five games, only one came on the road, at Clemson on Feb. 10. N.C. State’s last road trip was a 76-65 loss at UNC a week ago.

Stumbles at Maryland and Wake Forest are part of the reason N.C. State finds itself on the outside looking in for a Thursday bye. Howell said the team has gotten better on the road as the season has progressed.

“I feel like we’ve come a long way, from just a couple of games ago, but we still have a long way to go,” Howell said.

N.C. State at Georgia Tech

When: 6 p.m. Sunday

Where: McCamish Pavilion, Atlanta

TV : ESPNU

Projected starting lineups

N.C. State (20-8, 9-6 ACC)

G Lorenzo Brown 12.6 ppg, 7.0 apg

G Scott Wood 12.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg

F T.J. Warren 12.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg

F C.J. Leslie 15.2 ppg, 7.6 rpg

F Richard Howell 12.8 ppg, 11.1 rpg

Georgia Tech (15-12, 5-10)

G Mfon Udofia 14.4 ppg, 3.0 apg

G Chris Bolden 6.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg

G Marcus Georges-Hunt 10.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg

F Robert Carter 10.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg

F Daniel Miller 8.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg

Player to watch

Scott Wood, guard, N.C. State

The senior guard has finished the conference season strong with an average of 17.8 points over the past four games and he has made 21 of 44 of his 3-point attempts. Wood needs 11 3-pointers to pass Rodney Monroe for the school career record.

Observations: Georgia Tech hasn’t won consecutive games since beating Fordham and Chattanooga before the start of the ACC schedule. The Yellow Jackets beat Maryland, 78-68 on Wednesday, and has gone 5-5 in the ACC since an 0-5 start. … Wolfpack senior forward Richard Howell averages 12.3 rebounds in ACC play and 4.5 offensive rebounds, both of which lead the league.

Joe Giglio