The Texas Tech Red Raiders and North Carolina State Wolfpack will face off in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Basketball Tournament. Texas Tech enters March Madness as a 6-seed out of the Big 12, whereas North Carolina State needed a miraculous run in the ACC Tournament to clinch an NCAA Tournament berth. The Texas Tech vs NC State prediction will be a difficult one to make, as the Red Raiders have been a consistent quality team most of the year, while the Wolfpack are one of the hottest teams in the country.
Below, we will preview this NCAA Tournament college basketball game, showing analytics, trends and breaking down both teams. Which school will win and keep their hopes of winning the championship trophy alive?
Texas Tech vs NC State Prediction and March Madness Expert Picks
2024 NCAA Tournament
No. 6 Texas Tech Red Raiders (23-10) vs. No. 11 North Carolina State Wolfpack (22-14)
Date: Thursday, March 21, 2024
Time: 9:40 PM EST
Venue: PPG Paints Arena — Pittsburgh, PA
Coverage: CBS
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Texas Tech vs NC State March Madness Odds
All college basketball betting odds for Texas Tech vs NC State can be found at BetUS Sportsbook.
Moneyline: TTU: (-220) | NCS: (+180)
Point Spread: TTU: -5 (-110) | NCS: +5 (-110)
Total: Over: 145.5 (-110) | Under: 145.5 (-110)
KenPom Rankings | Bracketology
KenPom Rankings are from KenPom.com
Team | Rk | AdjO | AdjD | AdjT |
Texas Tech | 24 | 117.9 (23) | 99.4 (45) | 66 (234) |
NC State | 58 | 114.4 (47) | 101.3 (89) | 68.1 (137) |
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Texas Tech vs NC State College Basketball Trends
- Texas Tech is 11-2 in non-conference college basketball games this season.
- North Carolina State is 8-3 in non-conference college basketball games this season.
- The OVER is 19-14 in Texas Tech games.
- The OVER is 21-14-1 in NC State games
- Texas Tech has reached the Sweet 16 three times since 2018.
- North Carolina State has not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2015.
Texas Tech vs NC State Prediction | March Madness Expert Picks
If I had to describe this Texas Tech basketball team with one word, it would be “solid.” The Red Raiders do just about everything well, but nothing particularly great. They are efficient on both ends of the floor, however, they lack the top-end talent to truly excel offensively. Pop Isaacs leads the team in scoring, with 15.9 points per game, and four other Red Raiders average double digits. They only have one loss outside of Quad-1 and for the most part have been very consistent.
Their first-round opponent, the Wolfpack of North Carolina State, has been extremely inconsistent. NC State entered the ACC Tournament as losers of five of their last six games, and it appeared as though head coach Kevin Keatts was on his way out. Then, the Wolfpack did the impossible: winning five games in five days to secure the auto-bid from the ACC. To close their run, NC State knocked off fellow tournament teams in Duke, Virginia and North Carolina. The 275-pound center D.J. Burns has a chance to become a March Madness legend, and guard DJ Horne averages 16.9 points
This is a really interesting Round 1 matchup that, in my opinion, comes down to which iteration of North Carolina State shows up. If it’s the one from the 31 regular season games, Texas Tech is the significantly better team and should cruise to a comfortable victory. However, if the ACC Tournament version of the Wolfpack is who they are now, they have a great chance to advance against a beatable Texas Tech team. I will choose to believe in the 31-game sample size as opposed to what NC State displayed last week in Washington D.C. With that being said, for our Texas Tech vs NC State prediction, we are picking the Texas Tech Red Raiders to win and move on in the NCAA Tournament.
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