The North Carolina State Wolfpack, who face the Wisconsin Badgers on Wednesday night in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, have been known for making a sneaky run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament every now and then. The specific details: North Carolina State has made three Sweet 16s in the previous 15 college basketball seasons, once under Herb Sendek and twice under Mark Gottfried.
The three Sweet 16s were never closer than three years apart (2013 and 2016 under Gottfried). They also never came as a seed higher than No. 8. North Carolina State was not an unfamiliar face on the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. If you compare that to Wisconsin’s body of work in the first nine years under Bo Ryan, there is a small to modest degree of similarity. Ryan made three Sweet 16s in his first nine years (with one of them turning into an Elite Eight, interestingly due to a Sweet 16 win against North Carolina State in 2005 in Syracuse). Those Sweet 16s also did not come in consecutive seasons. Wisconsin’s NCAA seeds from 2002 through 2006 were no higher than No. 5.
Fine — those similarities exist. Yet, the larger profiles of the two programs are and have been profoundly different this century. Whereas North Carolina State has endured noticeable NCAA Tournament droughts, Wisconsin is an annual NCAA Tournament team. Whereas Wisconsin eventually moved past the “mid-level-seed” identity under Ryan and became a top-three seed in several NCAA Tournaments, North Carolina State — when it makes the NCAA Tournament — is still a road-team Dance guest. In other words, N.C. State almost always wears the road jerseys of a lower seed in the NCAAs, occupying the 9-12 seed range and occasionally being an 8, which gets a home jersey in round one but not in any subsequent round of the tournament.
N.C. State’s lack of high-end NCAA Tournament seeds is borne out in another substantial difference between the Wolfpack and the Badgers: the number of seasons with single-digit losses. North Carolina State hasn’t had a season with fewer than 10 losses since 1989 under the man himself, Jim Valvano. Wisconsin has had NINE seasons with fewer than 10 losses this century alone.
Imagine yourself in 1989 — when everything about Wisconsin sports was about to change and enter a golden era — saying that Wisconsin would clearly surpass North Carolina State as a program. The arrival of Dick Bennett in 1995 was still six years away. Valvano led N.C. State to the Sweet 16, and the Wolfpack very nearly defeated top-seeded Georgetown with Alonzo Mourning. Yet, it can’t be any plainer: Wisconsin is in much better shape than N.C. State on a larger level.
Only if Kevin Keatts shows substantial proof of a sustained turnaround will the Wolfpack begin to change perceptions and reality in the ACC, and on a national level. This year’s NCSU team has clearly failed to make significant early-season statements. North Carolina State has lost its two most important games of the young season, to Georgia Tech and Memphis. The effort has been there but the execution has not. Yup, sounds like N.C. State. The Sendek and Gottfried teams could be so good when at their best, but the “best” didn’t materialize very often. Playing to the competition, not making the simple play, and enduring prolonged shooting droughts have all been part of the N.C. State portfolio to varying degrees over the past few decades. The 2019-2020 Wolfpack are trying to begin to create a cultural shift in Raleigh.
Wisconsin just got roughed up in Brooklyn. The Badgers do not stand on especially solid footing as they travel to the Carolinas. Yet, Wisconsin’s long-range body of work gives the Badgers the benefit of the doubt. N.C. State is still trying to earn it heading into Wednesday night’s game.