At the start of the ACC tournament, the NC State Wolfpack were in need of a championship if they wanted to dance in March. It seemed impossible, there was supposedly no path for them to win. Well, after wins against Louisville, Syracuse, and Duke, they found themselves in the semifinals, 2 games away from a surefire March Madness bid.
Hope looked bleak as they trailed Virginia by 3 with the Cavaliers' best free throw shooter at the line with under 10 seconds left. He missed that free throw, though, and Michael O'Connell ran down the court and banked in a wild 3 to send the game to OT, keeping hope alive for just a little bit longer. They won in overtime, and proceeded to trample a previously dominant UNC team, sending themselves dancing as an 11 seed after securing 6 wins in as many days.
Less than 50% of people had them making the second round, and they did that after beating a 6 seeded Texas Tech team. For their efforts in both the ACC and March Madness tournaments, NC State was rewarded with a brawl against 14 seed Oakland in the second round. Despite their low seeds, this was one of the most exciting games of the entire tournament, with the Wolfpack prevailing in overtime.
Next came a seemingly uneven matchup with Big East powerhouse Marquette. It seemed like the end of the road, they couldn't keep this play up for much longer, right? Around 9 PM on Friday, March 29th, NC State toppled Marquette and officially put the nation on watch. They moved into the Elite 8 against ACC rival Duke, who they had to beat just to get into the NCAA tournament. In their second March bout, the Wolfpack looked weak in the first half, finally looking like the 11 seed they were "supposed to be". That didn't last long though, as Kyle Filipowski and strong play from big man DJ Burns pushed this team along and made them one of the last 4 teams remaining in the battle for the championship.
It doesn't get any easier, however, as they now will play 1 seeded Purdue. If they *somehow* are able to win their, they will almost certainly play number 1 overall seed UConn. No matter how much farther they make it, however, this has certainly been a run to remember for NC State, and they will live in March Madness spirits forever.
Eli Knight
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