Steven: It’s been a minute since you could figure that an early-January basketball game could have actual stakes for NC State, but here we are. After Tuesday night, NC State has five straight against teams ranked lower in the Pomeroy Ratings. Getting past UNC gives the Pack a route to a potentially great first half of league play, and from there who knows? So yeah, this is big.
TheRealEssad: Dadgum heck yes. UNC tries to make it seem like these not-rivalry games mean more to us than them. But in this case, there is some truth.