The NC State men’s basketball team released its full 2018-19 schedule on Thursday. The Pack will play 31 regular season games, including 19 home games as NC State aims to return to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season under second-year head coach Kevin Keatts.
The 2018-19 schedule features 10 games against opponents that made the NCAA Tournament last season.
The Wolfpack opens the season with six consecutive home games inside PNC Arena. NC State’s regular season opener will be on Tuesday, Nov. 6 against Mount St. Mary’s and they will return to the court on Saturday, Nov. 10 against Maryland Eastern Shore. The next two weeks follow the same Tuesday-to-Saturday pattern as the Pack will host UNC Asheville on Tuesday, Nov. 13, Maine on Saturday, Nov. 17, Saint Peter’s on Tuesday, Nov. 20 and will close the season-opening homestand on Saturday, Nov. 24 by hosting Mercer. The games against Maryland Eastern Shore, Maine, Saint Peter’s and Mercer are all part of the Wolfpack Classic.
The Pack will play its first road game of the season when it travels to Madison, Wis., to take on Wisconsin on Tuesday, Nov. 27 as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The game against the Badgers starts a streak where NC State will play Power-5 opponents in four of five games.
NC State will start off December by taking on Vanderbilt on Saturday, Dec. 1 in Miami, Fla., as part of the HoopHall Miami Invitational. The Pack will return to Raleigh and host Western Carolina on Wednesday, Dec. 5 in the annual Heritage Game played at Reynolds Coliseum. After a 10-day layoff to complete the fall academic semester, NC State will head to Atlantic City, N.J., to play Penn State on Saturday, Dec. 15 in the Boardwalk Classic. The Pack will close the non-conference portion of the schedule with three consecutive home games, hosting Auburn on Wednesday, Dec. 19, USC Upstate on Saturday, Dec. 22 and Loyola University Maryland on Friday, Dec. 28.
Start times and television designations for non-conference home games have not been determined and will be announced at a later date.
For the fourth consecutive season, the Wolfpack opens ACC play on the road as the Pack begins conference play on Thursday, Jan. 3 at Miami.
The Pack will host rival UNC-Chapel Hill on Tuesday, Jan. 8 in its ACC home-opener and stay home to host Pittsburgh on Saturday, Jan. 12.
After the two-game homestand, NC State will play its next three games on the road as the Pack will travel to Wake Forest (Tues., Jan. 15), Notre Dame (Sat., Jan. 19) and Louisville (Thu., Jan. 24).
NC State will then enter the portion of its schedule that will see it play six of its next seven games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament last season. They open with three consecutive home games against NCAA Tournament teams as the Pack will host Clemson on Saturday, Jan. 26, Virginia on Tuesday, Jan. 29 and Virginia Tech on Sat., Feb. 2. NC State will return to the road to play at UNC-Chapel Hill on Tuesday, Feb. 5 and Pittsburgh on Sat., Feb. 9 and close the stretch with a home game against Syracuse on Wednesday, Feb. 13 and a road contest at Duke on Saturday, Feb. 16.
The Pack closes the month of February with home games against Boston College on Wednesday, Feb. 20 and Wake Forest on Sunday, Feb. 24.
In March, NC State will finish the regular season with a road contest at Florida State on Saturday, March 2, host its final home game of the season on Wednesday, March 6 when Georgia Tech visits and complete the ACC schedule with a game at Boston College on Saturday, March 9
The ACC Tournament will be played in the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. and will run from March 12-16.