ESPN’s latest way-too-early look at the 2026-27 men’s basketball season has NC State back in the NCAA Tournament picture, and the projection is a strong early nod to Justin Gainey’s first year in Raleigh.
The Wolfpack is slotted as a No. 10 seed in ESPN’s updated bracketology, which would send it into a first-round matchup with No. 7 seed Villanova. NC State is also sitting in ESPN’s “Last Four Byes,” so the Wolfpack would be safely in the field without having to go through the expanded First Four.
That group also includes Texas A&M, Creighton and Ohio State.
For a new head coach who has pieced together a roster almost entirely through the Transfer Portal, landing in the bracket this early is a meaningful sign of national confidence.
ESPN’s projection also paints a broad picture of the ACC’s tournament outlook. The network currently has seven league teams in the field: Duke as a No. 1 seed, Louisville as a No.
2, Virginia as a No. 3, North Carolina as a No.
7, Miami as a No. 8, NC State as a No. 10 and Clemson as a No.
Clemson is currently listed among the Last Four In, while Florida State and Virginia Tech are on the outside looking in as part of the Next Four Out.
At the conference level, the SEC and Big Ten are again projected to set the pace with 12 bids apiece. The Big 12 follows with 10, while the ACC and the Big East are each projected to send seven teams to the tournament.
The July bracketology obviously doesn’t lock in anything for March, but it does show how the national view of NC State has started to take shape. ESPN’s read is that Gainey’s rebuilt roster has enough talent to make an immediate push, with the group led by Preston Edmead, Christian Hammond, Kyle Evans, Darius Adams, Emeli Yalaho, Robert Jurkovic and Paul McNeil Jr.
If that mix clicks, ESPN believes the Wolfpack can get back to the NCAA Tournament right away under its new coach.
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Chase Bond is one of the names to watch. The junior end arrived with a strong high school rsum and has flashed enough in limited college action to suggest there is more there, even after playing only a modest snap total last season. Now he enters camp with a chance to turn that promise into a starting job, and how quickly he does it will go a long way toward determining whether NC States front can generate the kind of pressure it needs early in the fall. [Read more 🡒]