The Wolfpack have won eight straight, after going 4-10 over the final six weeks of the regular season. All eight have been in postseason play.
NC State finished 17-14 in the regular season, 9-11 in ACC conference play. The Wolfpack finished 10th, losing all four games to ranked opponents on their schedule to that point. The top five teams in the ACC (North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Pittsburgh, and a three-way tie between Clemson, Syracuse, and Wake Forest) were a combined 8-1 against Keatts’ squad. The only win was a split with Wake Forest.
The Wolfpack took down Boston College in the first round of the ACC tournament, then upset Syracuse to reach the quarterfinals. Not a reach, as wide-open as the middle of the ACC was going into the conference tournament. It was the upset of then-#11 Duke that got people talking. The discussion was not whether NC State was bolstering enough of a resume to get into the NCAA Tournament field, but rather would the early loss knock Duke out of a top-four seed in one of the regions.
Instead, NC State took down Virginia in the semifinals, and completely stunned #4 North Carolina to claim their first ACC tournament championship since 1987.
While Syracuse and Pittsburgh declined an invitation to the NIT Tournament after being two of the “first four out,” NC State had punched an automatic ticket to the field of 68. Seeded 11th in the South Region, the Wolfpack dispatched Texas Tech by 13 in the first round. Surprisingly enough, the 11-seed came into question, as there were some that thought their miracle run and subpar conference play should have earned the Wolfpack a date in the First Four matchups in Dayton earlier in the week.
The committee did right by giving a power conference tournament champion a decent opening matchup, albeit knowing now the seeding may have been much lower than what NC State was capable of.
A second-round matchup with Oakland, who stunned Kentucky in the first round, nearly slipped away, as the Wolfpack let a late lead slip away, before ultimately prevailing in overtime.
Playing in their first Sweet 16 game since 2015, there was an overwhelming consensus from media outlets the run would end against Marquette on Friday night in Dallas. After all, this was a Marquette Golden Eagle team that was seeded second, and just a few weeks prior had slapped top-overall seed Connecticut around by 30.
The Golden Eagles took a 5-4 lead with 17:05 left in the first half. It would be the last time they would lead the rest of the night. NC State opened up a lead of as many as 16 in the second half, before coming away with a 67-58 win. Marquette closed the lead to as little as six with just over 3:30 left, but could get no closer.
With the Final Four to be decided within the next 48 hours, there are three teams from the ACC, including a rematch between the Wolfpack and Duke on Sunday. Clemson and Alabama meet in the West Regional Final in Los Angeles, leaving many to be reminded of their legendary football playoff rivalry a few years ago.
A win would make NC State the fifth-overall 11-seed to reach the Final Four, and the first since UCLA in the Covid bubble of 2021. None of the previous six (Syracuse was a 10-seed in 2016) made it to the Championship Game, however. The irony that Keatts’ Wolfpack denied Chaka Smart’s Golden Eagles a chance to play for the Final Four, when Smart was the head coach of the VCU team that was seeded 11 in the Southwest Region back in 2011, and went to the Final Four.
-JC24