NC State is No. 6 in Sports Illustrated’s preseason ACC basketball power rankings

Sometimes I see positive takes on the basketball team from impartial sources and feel like I’m missing something, which may just be a sign that I’m conditioned to extremely gun-shy toward basketball optimism. I blame the basketball results from this entire century.

But it is decidedly not crazy to believe that NC State could finish in the top six of the ACC this upcoming season, as the very accurate and true people at Sports Illustrated explain in their preseason conference power rankings. When I sit back and actually think about it, that seems like a fine opinion.

Syracuse and Clemson finished with NC State in the ACC’s chewy center last season and both are losing a lot of production, so the Wolfpack should leapfrog past both of ‘em. From there, who knows. It’s wide open beyond the Duke/UVA/UNC/Louisville tier.

We’ll begin to get a better idea of how everybody stands once the college basketball season gets underway next week. [holds finger to earpiece] ... I’m being told it’s June, in fact months from basketball season. I see. Well anyhow.