Even on the night when N.C. State finally seemed to reach its full potential – three months late, but nevertheless – the Wolfpack was still left staggered and wondering what might have been.
For 31 minutes, it was impossible to shake the sense that this is what it should have been like all along. The final nine, and overtime, drove home just how fragile the Wolfpack really is, with the disturbing additional punch to the solar plexus that N.C. State’s last-last-last chance to turn its season around has passed.
After this 100-93 overtime loss, the Wolfpack, after blowing a 16-point lead on Syracuse, now faces the very real possibility of going 0-for-February, given not only a difficult schedule but its inability to close out an opponent that had yet to win an ACC road game.