NC State did what it had to do. If it hadn’t? ‘We would’ve been in real trouble’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- N.C. State defeated Pitt, 98-88, to help protect its likely NCAA Tournament bid.
- Wolfpack coach Will Wade said win was essential to avoid being 'in real trouble' for bid.
- NC State senior Qadir Copeland led the team with 24 points and eight assists.
Even more than a win Wednesday in the ACC Tournament, N.C. State needed not to lose.
The seventh-seeded Wolfpack accomplished that by shooting the lights out in the Spectrum Center, outgunning 15th-seeded Pittsburgh, 98-88, in an entertaining afternoon matinee in Charlotte.
N.C. State (20-12) needed this one to ensure an at-large NCAA Tournament bid on Sunday.
“There would probably be no next week if we lost today,” N.C. State coach Will Wade said, referring to a bid to March Madness. “So this was important, or we would’ve been in real trouble for next week.”
Maybe the Wolfpack would have made the NCAAs anyway, but losing to the tournament’s 15th seed that barely made the ACC tournament field in the first place would have undeniably hurt their chances. Now Wade thinks N.C. State is in and most other bracketologists do, too — and this win may well have also kept N.C. State away from playing in the First Four. Now, something like a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament seems more likely.
Said Wade: “I know teams with our profile make it about 90 percent of the time, so I would feel pretty good. I would not have wanted to risk it by losing today.”
It’s a good thing N.C. State doesn’t have its NCAA Tournament chances totally dependent on defeating No. 2 seed Virginia Thursday in an ACC Tournament quarterfinal. The two teams have played twice this season, and Virginia clobbered N.C. State by 15 and 29 points.
As Wade put it: “We’ve gotten our doors blown off twice.”
In the postgame press conference, I asked Wade to preview Thursday’s game a little more.
“I’m trying to enjoy this win,” Wade cracked. “Why do you want to talk about that? Look, they’re massive. They’ve blocked a ton of our shots in both games…. Coach (Ryan) Odom does a great job, and they’re massive. We’re not the biggest. A lot of our defensive issues is (that) our positional size isn’t very good, so there’s not a lot of answers sometimes with that… But we’ve been outclassed both times.”
N.C. State was far from outclassed Wednesday. The Wolfpack weathered an early storm, with Pitt hitting 8 of its first 12 3-pointers. The Wolfpack led 51-50 at halftime, then surged ahead early in the second half to a 10-point lead. It stayed around there for most of the rest of the way.
Senior guard Quadir Copeland led the Wolfpack with 24 points, eight assists and several highlight-film plays. “This is our last shot,” Copeland said. “Let’s go make something happen. We ain’t going to get none of those moments back. Looking at this 5-6 years from now down the line, we don’t want to have no what-ifs…. So, back against the wall: Full throttle down.”
Could this be a repeat of N.C. State’s remarkable run to the 2024 ACC Tournament championship? Unlikely. Then again, so was everything about that postseason.
As for this N.C. State team: When you’ve gone 1-6 over your previous seven games going into the ACC Tournament, you have to start somewhere. N.C. State did that Wednesday, taking care of business in a way it really hadn’t since its 24-point blowout win over North Carolina on Feb. 17.
“Our metrics are really good,” Wade said. “Everything is really good. We needed to avoid a tough loss today, on top of some of the other ones. Certainly, I’d like to have a couple more wins. We’re 2-5 in one-possession games, which is terrible coaching on my part…. We’re not going to take anything for granted. We’re going to put everything we have into seeing if we can find a way to chip away at Virginia (Thursday), see if we can hang in there for a little bit and see what happens.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 3:34 PM.
