Wave carrying NC State hasn’t broken. It’s taken Pack within a win of the Final Four
The wave hasn’t broken yet. N.C. State is crouched in the tube, swept along by powerful forces it might not fully understand but will happily enjoy as long as they last.
Ride it. Ride it as long as you can. See where it takes you. Why stop now?
The Wolfpack has been a game away from going home for three weeks and now it’s a game away from the Final Four.
N.C. State led by as many as 16 in the second half before holding on for a 67-58 win over second-seeded Marquette, and now the South Region lies at the Wolfpack’s doorstep.
After Friday’s late game, the 1974 reunion with Marquette will be followed by an ACC Tournament rematch with Duke, guaranteeing an ACC team in the Final Four no matter what else happens this weekend.
It’s an appropriate stew of history and overlapping connections and rivalry befitting a run that continues to confound all expectations and defy belief. Of course reminders of the Wolfpack’s greatest moments should be so close at hand. This run, however it ends, has officially joined them in the pantheon.
And even as the Wolfpack is swept along into history, it will continue to be fueled by something it can identify precisely.
“It’s the doubt,” N.C. State guard Jayden Taylor said. “Nobody thought we were going to be here. Nobody. Except us. We have an unbelievable faith that we can win this whole thing. It’s really just the doubt that’s pushed us, the naysayers, and us just believing.”
Here’s the thing about this latest not-an-upset-to-them: It wasn’t even that hard, no trouble at all compared to the overtime escape against Oakland. N.C. State pulled away late in the first half and Marquette was never able to close the gap late, parrying but never really threatening. D.J. Burns did D.J. Burns things, scoring or assisting on nine of N.C. State’s 26 field goals. Mo Diarra had 11 rebounds — in the first half. (He finished with 15.)
Seven Wolfpack players played, and seven Wolfpack players scored. But the spinning Wolfpack wheel of fortune landed on Casey Morsell in the first half, back where it started against Louisville when this all began, and D.J. Horne in the second half. Eight wins. Five different leading scorers.
“With every game, we’re getting more confidence,” said N.C. State forward Ben Middlebrooks, who had his star turn against Texas Tech. “We feel like there’s not a team out there that can really play with us if we’re doing what we have to do and if we’re focused. Honestly, there were a lot of big moments in the game where we had it comfortably and they kept fighting back and keeping it close, but there wasn’t a moment in the game where I felt like we didn’t have control and we weren’t going to do what it takes to win.”
If you want to know just how tidily the universe has lined up behind N.C. State, Burns was called for his second foul midway through the first half trying to pivot for space on the baseline. The officials went to the monitor, presumably to check for an elbow. They instead took the foul away from Burns and gave it to a Marquette player.
The kind of weird, improbable, convoluted event that always used to go against the Wolfpack instead went in its favor.
“It was big,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said. “I think it was a huge call, but it was the right call.”
If N.C. State (Stuff) wasn’t vanquished before, at some point in the preceding seven games, it was dead as disco then. Call it. 6:41 p.m. local time. Sign the certificate.
Maybe this really is like 1983 all over again. Or maybe it’s like Miami last year, the middle-of-the-pack ACC team that hit its stride at the exact right moment and carried the conference’s flag when others faltered. Or maybe this is something new and different and special in its own right, unfolding before our eyes.
At a school where basketball history is always lurking in the shadows, this N.C. State team has written its own chapter. Is writing its own chapter.
“Nobody did it this way,” Taylor said. “Nobody’s had this route.”
That’s all open to conjecture, especially if N.C. State can seize its destiny Sunday and extend this unlikely run all the way to the promised land in the desert. But for now, the Wolfpack will continue to ride this wave, wherever it goes, however long it lasts.
Ride it and see where it takes you. Ride it. Ride it.
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This story was originally published March 29, 2024 at 8:31 PM with the headline "Wave carrying NC State hasn’t broken. It’s taken Pack within a win of the Final Four."
