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Last week, NC State was able to bounce back from their poor showing at Virginia Tech by winning two straight games at home against Miami and ACC-hot-team-of-the-week Clemson.
The latter performance really surprised, especially how the Wolfpack were able to fend off the inevitable Tiger comeback. That trend of giving up leads late in games is still worrisome, and will come back to bite the Pack sooner rather than later. Against VT, the Pack scored the first 10 points of the game, and ended up losing by 14. That 24 point (ugh) swing was hard to watch in real time. By contrast, with 15 minutes left in the second half, State had stretched their lead on Clemson to 18 points; but the Tigers kept chipping away at the lead and making runs that the Wolfpack fended off, notably with a corner three by Braxton Beverly in the final minute.
Which of these two teams will show up tonight at Virginia and at Georgia Tech on Saturday? Having CJ Bryce back at full strength clearly made a big difference, but with a potentially hurt Manny Bates, will the Pack have enough manpower (and size) to handle paint-dryingly boring UVA style?
BTP contributors chipped in with their score predictions, plus their thoughts on how the games may play out.
Opponent: Virginia
Date: Monday, January 20, 2020
Home/Away: Away
TheRealEssad
Prediction: 59-64 (L)
Comment: “UVA gets their UVA all over the Pack as the game slows down to a molasses pace and the forced shots aren’t falling.”
JEOHankins2
Prediction: 56-62 (L)
Comment: “Another good interior game for DJF & mid-range CJB but lack of depth, 3-Point shooting plays into UVA’s hands”
Steven
Prediction: 51-53 (L)
Comment: “This is gonna be so lame.”
KenPom Projection: 57-60 (L)
BTP Staff Cumulative Prediction: 56-60 (L)
Opponent: Georgia Tech
Date: Saturday, January 25, 2020
Home/Away: Away
TheRealEssad
Prediction: 71-66 (W)
Comment: “Sweet revenge on the road leads to ice cream”
JEOHankins2
Prediction: 76-68 (W)
Comment: “Theme from me here: DJF is playing at a supremely high level, he was missing last time...GT will wish he got booted again”
Steven
Prediction: 66-58 (W)
Comment: “I figure we gotta be due for a decent road performance. Probably won’t be pretty though.”
KenPom Projection: 70-71 (L) (Note: booooo!)
BTP Staff Cumulative Prediction: 71-66 (W)
Staff Season Predicted Record (started week of Jan 6th):
TheRealEssad: 2 - 2
JEOHankins2: 4 - 0
Steven: 3 - 1
PirateWolf: 2 - 0
no23sports: 2 - 0
KenPom: 3 - 1
Actual: 3 - 1
So what do y’all think? Give us your predictions below!