ACC Championship edition — Technician 3/21/24

TECHNICIAN

WHY NOT US?

ACC CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION, MENTAL HEALTH COLLABORATIVE

Why not us? NC State men’s basketball emerges victorious in ACC championship over No. 1 seed UNC

Colby Trotter Sports Editor

Why not us?

That’s the mantra NC State men’s basketball carried into the ACC Tournament, despite ending the regular season on a fourgame losing streak and having lost seven of its past nine games. At rst, it seemed like a corny catchphrase for a team looking for any sort of hope, especially given how poorly the Wolfpack was playing before the tournament.

But a er it overcame a double-digit de cit to Louisville in the rst round and took care of Syracuse in the second round, those three words didn’t just spark belief for members of the team, but all of Wolfpack Nation.

It gave NC State a seemingly delusional con dence that it could beat anyone, and it proved that when it took down Duke in the third round as heavy underdogs. e Wolfpack took down the Blue Devils despite playing its third game in three days, while Duke was playing its rst.

Why not us?

is message started to carry real weight a er the win over the Blue Devils, and despite Virginia having a two-day rest advantage in the semi nals, it felt like the Wolfpack was the favorite against the Cavaliers. While it needed a miracle shot from graduate guard

Michael O’Connell, the Pack moved on to the championship game against UNC-Chapel Hill.

Now, there was an overwhelming belief that NC State could raise the tournament trophy thanks in part to the team rallying around the question: Why not us?

And that irrational swagger culminated in an ACC Championship as the Wolfpack (22-14, 9-11 ACC) defeated the No. 1 seed Tar Heels (27-7, 17-3 ACC) 84-76 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

It makes NC State the rst team in ACC Tournament history to win ve games in ve days, and it’s the second school ever to win ve straight games for a conference championship. e other school was 2011 UConn, led by Kemba Walker — and all it did was win the national championship.

It also marks the Pack’s rst ACC championship since 1987 when Jim Valvano was manning the sidelines for NC State. Speaking of coaches, head coach Kevin Keatts was under re all season for what appeared to be another missed NCAA Tournament during his tenure. Rumors swirled that Keatts would be red if NC State didn’t win the conference title, so he decided he wanted to keep his job and won the whole thing.

In just ve days, Keatts went from public enemy No. 1 in Raleigh to Pack fans wanting to give him a lifetime contract. While it’s

not a lifetime deal, Keatts gets an automatic two-year extension for winning the conference crown.

While graduate guard DJ Horne and graduate forward DJ Burns combined for 49 points against the Tar Heels, NC State pulled o the miraculous feat of winning ve games in ve days with a full team e ort.

Junior forward Mohamed Diarra pulled down the most rebounds in ACC Tournament history and capped o his dominant run with an 11-point, 14-rebound performance against the Tar Heels. Diarra was the hardest working player on the court every game, all while observing Ramadan. His infectious energy and passion gave the Wolfpack life despite running on fumes the last couple of days.

Then there’s graduate guard Michael O’Connell, who suddenly emerged as a reliable scorer for NC State. e Stanford transfer scored in double gures in all ve games a er just doing it three times in the regular season. His o ensive explosion earned him the nickname “Tournament Mike,” and of course, he’ll forever be an NC State legend a er hitting the shot of all shots in the seminal.

By now, you know how improbable it is to win ve games in ve days and how physically taxing it is. It showed in the championship game, when graduate guard Casey Morsell

was in and out of the game with cramps and a groin injury. Despite running on empty, Morsell continued to ght, playing pest-like defense on Tar Heels superstar RJ Davis.

Davis scored a game-high 30 points, but Morsell made him work for every single shot, causing Davis to shoot just 10-26 from the eld and 4-13 from 3. While giving his all on defense and managing injuries, Morsell hit a clutch 3-pointer with just over minutes le to give the Wolfpack an eight-point lead.

Finally, there are the two DJs who have carried NC State all season and had their best performances in the biggest game. Burns poured in 20 points while also doing his best Nikola Jokic impression, dishing out seven assists with six of them coming in the rst half.

As for Horne, tears owed down his face after the final buzzer rang, realizing he brought a championship to his hometown a er a gutsy 29-point game in the nal. A er missing the rst round due to injury, Horne looked no worse for wear the rest of the way, scoring 16 or more in three of the four games he played.

Now, NC State will try to end its season on an 11-game winning streak, needing to win six in a row for the National Championship. And one thing’s for sure, the Wolfpack will continue to rally behind three words.

Why not us?

Kevin Keatts is a winner COLUMN

Noah Teague Assistant Sports Editor

A er seven years, NC State men’s basketball head coach Kevin Keatts is o cially a winner.

The now-ACC championship-winning coach was doubted by countless Wolfpack fans heading into this season’s ACC Tournament. NC State was tasked with winning ve games in ve days to even qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Many people, myself included, did not believe it was possible — but Keatts and his team did, and that’s all that mattered.

e Wolfpack entered the ACC Tournament on a four-game skid and nished 10th in the conference in the regular season. It would’ve been easy for the Pack to fold up shop and take an early exit. However, the Wolfpack took another path. e red-andwhite chose to look at the opportunity ahead and asked a simple question — why not us?

Why couldn’t the Wolfpack win the ACC championship? Again, the easy answer is because NC State hadn’t done so in 37 years and the Wolfpack came in needing to win ve tough games in a row. e Pack didn’t let this faze it. Instead, Keatts’ squad entered the tournament with a clean slate and complete control of its NCAA Tournament destiny.

Not only did the Pack believe, but it also delivered. NC State found itself trailing ACC bottom-dweller Louisville at hal ime. e

red-and-white found a way to survive and advance despite the Cardinals’ Skyy Clark scorching the nets from deep all night. Awaiting NC State in its next game was Syracuse, who swept the Pack in the regular season.

Everything was on the line for NC State against Syracuse. With o season uncertainty abounding, the red-and-white played one of its best games of the season. A er battling against the Orange for 20 minutes, the Wolfpack broke through in the second half and eviscerated Syracuse.

Once in the ACC quarter nals, and poised to take on a fresh Duke team with national title aspirations, almost everyone brushed o the Wolfpack. While NC State was dismissed as a threat, its season was still alive. No double-digit seed had advanced to the ACC semi nals since 2010, so surely this would be the end of the road for the red-andwhite. However, Keatts and the Wolfpack had other plans.

NC State stunned its tobacco-road rival in the quarter nals. At every point, Keatts knew who to have on the court to take and hold the lead. Managing a team that was playing its third game in three days, Keatts balanced a ne line between keeping players fresh and having the best lineups on the oor. For the rst time in a long time, an NC State basketball coach outcoached a Duke basketball coach.

e challenge only ramped up in the ACC semi nals, with NC State facing a physical, defensive-minded Virginia squad that had only played one game all week. Meanwhile, the Pack was on its fourth game in four days. Additionally, junior forward Mohamed Diarra was continuing to observe Ramadan, which meant he could not eat or drink all day.

Once again, the Pack stayed in the game against a seemingly superior opponent and remained calm in the face of adversity. Down six with under a minute to play, Keatts helped his team remain composed and improbably tie the game to force overtime.

Once in overtime, Keatts put on another coaching masterclass. e Pack identi ed a mismatch between graduate forward DJ Burns and Virginia’s Jordan Minor. The Wolfpack exploited the advantage as Burns racked up seven points in overtime alone.

e Pack secured the win and faced its nal challenge — none other than its most heated rival, UNC-Chapel Hill.

By this point, the Wolfpack was rolling with an opportunity to not just salvage its season but to make it one for the history books. A er a season where the roster never seemed to click, every player seemed to have a de ned role. Burns was the focal point of the o ense, scoring and distributing from the post. Diarra was tasked with protecting the paint and graduate guard DJ Horne was

a microwave scorer.

Keatts had turned a collection of individual talents and molded it into a connected team that was ready to compete for a championship.

e Wolfpack started hot against the Tar Heels and seized a 10-point lead early. However, tired legs seemed to set in for NC State, and UNC stormed back to take the lead going into hal ime. Trailing a er seemingly everything had gone right, many teams would’ve thrown in the towel. A er all, the Wolfpack had already made one of the most incredible runs in ACC Tournament history — but that wasn’t enough for NC State.

Whatever was said in the locker room at hal ime worked to perfection. Keatts again leaned on Burns to score in the paint as Horne picked up a questionable fourth foul that limited the Wolfpack’s o ense. Keatts then trusted Horne down the stretch to avoid fouling and bring a spark to the court — and Horne delivered. At long last, NC State was atop the ACC as Keatts successfully guided NC State past North Carolina.

While the road was di cult, Keatts proved his worth as a coach in this year’s ACC Tournament. Despite all the outside noise, the challenging opponents and the fatigue, Keatts steered the ship to the promised land. With everything on the line, Keatts put on a coaching masterclass and cemented his legacy at NC State as a champion.

The legend of ‘Tournament Mike’ COLUMN

Connor VanDerMark Correspondent

The Cardiac Pack is back.

NC State men’s basketball’s championship run was nothing short of a miracle. A team that lost nine of its last 13 games proceeded to win five games in five days, a feat only done one other time in the history of the NCAA.

Not only that, but the Wolfpack downed Tobacco Road rivals Duke and UNC, both top ten in the NET rankings. The only way for the Pack to make the NCAA tournament was to win the ACC Tournament, and it was able to punch its ticket in dominant fashion.

The historic run was full of incredible moments, from graduate guard DJ Horne’s 29 points in the championship to junior forward Mohamed Diarra’s record-breaking 60 rebounds across all five games. However, the most memorable moment came in the conference semifi-

nals against Virginia.

A back-and-forth game eventually led to Virginia’s largest lead at seven points with four minutes to go. The battle continued, and the Wolfpack was down three points with 17 seconds remaining. After missing the game-tying 3-pointer, the red-andwhite was forced to foul and send Virginia’s best shooter to the line, shooting one-and-one free throws from the stripe.

After missing the first free throw, NC State rebounded the ball and found itself with one final chance at tying the game with 5.3 seconds left. The Wolfpack had shot just 2-16 from beyond the arc. Instead of giving the ball to Horne, the most consistent 3-point shooter, the ball was placed in the hands of graduate guard Michael O’Connell.

What happened next was one of the most defining moments in NC State history. The 28-foot, heavily contested shot banked off the backboard and rolled

around the rim twice before dropping through the hoop, keeping the Wolfpack’s tournament hopes alive. The Pack would go on to win the game in overtime and eventually win the ACC Championship, all because of a single shot.

Though the shot was the most impactful play of the run, O’Connell was making plays throughout all the matchups. The Stanford transfer originally came off the bench as the sixth man but found himself in the starting rotation late in the season.

Before the tournament, O’Connell scored in double digits just three times during the regular season. But with his team’s back against the wall, he came to life, scoring in double digits in all five games while shooting 56% from beyond the arc.

Though averaging just 5.7 points this season, O’Connell’s awakening is one of the key reasons his squad found so much success in the postseason. He settled

into his role on the team and proved a clutch shooter when needed. His performance was so impactful that he earned the nickname “Tournament Mike,” and rightly so. Without his historic shot, the Wolfpack wouldn’t have made it to the ACC Championship, beat UNC or even made the NCAA Tournament.

Every player will need to be playing the best basketball of their career to achieve a run in the NCAA Tournament, and it all starts with O’Connell. If he continues playing at this high of a level, it is hard to imagine the Pack will falter. His playmaking and sharpshooting have carried the team this far, and have the potential to take them even further.

The No. 11 seed Wolfpack will face off against the No. 6 seed Texas Tech Raiders in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 21. Tip-off is set for 9:40 p.m.

COMMENTARY

Inside the mindset of NC State men’s basketball’s ACC championship run

Colby Trotter Sports Editor

Graduate guard Casey Morsell stood dejected in front of his locker a er a devastating home loss to Duke on senior night. To everyone outside the Wolfpack locker room, it seemed to be the nail in the co n for NC State’s NCAA Tournament hopes.

Make no mistake, Morsell and the rest of the team were disappointed in the performance they put on in front of Wolfpack Nation, but there was still a sense of hope inside the locker room. Morsell put his belief into words, and at the time it just seemed like a motivational cliche to make it look like he still believed NC State could turn it around.

“It’s just part of our story,” Morsell said. “I think this team has a lot of potential to get momentum, and, I think heading into D.C., I think we’re gonna be in a good position, these low times are going to be part of our story.”

Yeah, alright, Morsell, this Wolfpack team that was on a three-game losing streak and looked disconnected on the court was going to make some miraculous run in the ACC Tournament. It sounded like a delusional fantasy—but that’s the kind of mindset you need to win ve games in ve days.

Doing something that no other ACC team has done in tournament history and becoming the second team ever to win ve games in ve days takes irrational con dence. No one else believed NC State would make it

past round two, but Morsell’s mindset radiated with everyone on the team, and it all stemmed from the head coach.

Head coach Kevin Keatts was bashed all season long for keeping this seemingly phony sense of belief that his team could win the conference despite crumbling down the stretch. His upbeat attitude began to annoy fans of NC State, but Keatts didn’t let that a ect his mindset.

“We still have some opportunities in front of us,” Keatts said. “And if I thought that the league was so top-heavy going into the ACC [Tournament] my mindset would be a little bit di erent. But I don’t think that there’s anyone on our schedule that we can’t beat.”

Keatts understood heading into the ACC Tournament that his team had a fresh slate. It would take the entire team playing its best in March, but NC State still had a shot to continue its season.

“So I think in our situation it’s not just only us; it’s 10 teams that are gonna have this conversation, like we got to get hot and get hot at the right time,” Keatts said. “And we got to try going in and win a tournament. at’s the way it’s gonna happen.”

roughout his press conference a er the Duke loss, Keatts continued to reiterate that his squad had a chance to win the conference championship. Of course he said his team had a chance in front of the media, but the di erence was that he shared those same beliefs behind closed doors. If a coach

doesn’t believe his team can win, then there’s no chance that team can win.

In college athletics, players o en look to their coach for motivation and take on the attitude of their head coach. Despite everyone outside the locker room making fun of Keatts’ happy-go-lucky attitude while the Wolfpack was faltering, he never changed who he was. Keatts laid the foundation of belief, and his players were there right by his side believing they could win it all, no matter how tall the odds were stacked against them.

Funny enough, during the same press conference, Keatts laid out exactly what the Wolfpack needed to do to raise the conference title, and what he said makes me think he’s some kind of time traveler. Key players such as junior forward Mohamed Diarra, junior guard Jayden Taylor, graduate guard DJ Horne, graduate guard DJ Burns and graduate guard Michael O’Connell were going to have to do what they do best in order to win.

“We need everybody to be on their game,” Keatts said. “Like, Mo [Diarra] has to rebound the basketball, that’s his game. [Taylor] has got to be really locked in defensively and drive the ball and get to the free throw line. DJ Horne’s got to make shots for us. DJ Burns got to be able to score the ball and also be e cient passing the basketball. Michael [O’Connell] has to be solid,” Keatts said. “We don’t need anybody to be anyone else. We just need the best version of them.”

And that’s exactly what they did.

It’s incredible how spot-on Keatts was. Diarra broke the ACC Tournament record for rebounds, and Taylor played lockdown defense while having to score the ball in the rst two rounds when Horne wasn’t 100%. When Horne returned, he was the team’s goto scorer and Burns dominated in the post while being the team’s best passer. Then there’s O’Connell, who did just a little better than play solid. “Tournament Mike” didn’t just hit the “shot,” he scored in double gures all ve games a er doing so just three times in the regular season.

Keatts believed in the squad he had, and it rewarded his faith by making him look like the smartest man on the planet. Performances like this don’t just come naturally; there has to be a strong sense of con dence in oneself, and everyone on the team had it despite being the No. 10 seed.

While it seemed like the entire city of Raleigh had given up on the Wolfpack, the red-and-white still wanted to do everything it could to bring a championship back to the 919. Everyone understood how starved the fanbase was for some type of hardware a er 37 years of su ering since the last men’s conference title. While trying to build up a sense of belief a er a heartbreaking loss, Morsell still had the city he played for in the front of his mind.

“Hopefully we can get things together and hang a banner because this city deserves it,” Morsell said.

Fans revel in ACC championship triumph

Emily Vespa Managing Editor

The moment NC State men’s basketball downed UNC-Chapel Hill in a momentous ACC championship win Saturday night, a quiet Hillsborough street seemed to hold its breath.

And then it erupted in raucous excitement.

Students poured onto the sidewalks and the road median amidst a chorus of car horns, charging toward the Belltower. Some gleefully cheered as they hung out the windows of packed cars. A few leaped over bushes and brick walls, their arms outstretched with wolfies displayed on their hands.

At the end of the exodus, there the Belltower stood, triumphantly bathed in resplendent red light: The symbol of a victory 37 years in the making.

In the earliest moments after the game, the crowd was mostly students. But by 11:30 p.m., it was fans of all ages. A family in bathrobes and slippers beamed as they posed for pictures. Young kids in NC State gear grinned atop their parents’ shoulders. Hundreds of fans teemed around the monument and in the street, chanting “Wolfpack” and cheering.

To Jonathan Rand, an NC State alum, celebrating at the Belltower — and later, at Player’s Retreat — next to generations of NC State fans was unforgettable.

“It’s so cool, those environments, because you’re hugging people and highfiving people that you’ve never met before, but you all have State things on, so it’s that family,” Rand said.

As a first-year student, Keller Thomas, who’s studying political science, said he didn’t expect such a lively crowd at the Belltower.

“Probably the most memorable part was that even in a crowd that big, people would still find each other,” Thomas said. “And they’d just turn around and recognize someone they know. … That sort of community was really an important thing.”

NC State Police were at the Belltower early in anticipation of a win and restricted nearby traffic, said Mick Kulikowski, NC State spokesperson. There were no arrests made or injuries reported in connection with the event.

About two hundred miles away, in Washington, D.C., NC State alum Andrew Bates said the scene in Capital One Arena after the final buzzer was just as special.

“People were both being rowdy, but they were also really taking in the moment,” Bates said. “People were sort of seesawing between looking at the confetti coming down, the billboard saying, ‘Champion,’ seeing the players cut the nets down — they alternated between cheering exuberantly and then being quiet because we had all waited for a long time.”

Bates, who’s the White House deputy press secretary, said after he watched the Pack down Virginia in the semifinals, he knew he had to be at the championship game.

“The President was speaking at an annual dinner that the press holds called the Gridiron, and we all go as members of the press office to help celebrate the freedom of the press and their contributions,” Bates said. “But after we beat UVA, there was just no way I was going to miss that.”

By halftime against the Heels, Bates said he could tell NC State fans were optimistic that the red-and-white would prevail.

“They just held together so impressively and so unbreakably that there was kind of a twinkle in the eyes of some of State’s fans, like an understated kind of confidence,” Bates said.

NC State’s entire tournament run — with five consecutive wins in five days, a first in ACC tournament history — was an incredible way to close out the season before three new teams usher in a new era for the conference, Bates said.

“We closed out in literally the strongest way you possibly could,” Bates said. “I think that there is something profound about that being the last championship of this version of the ACC.”

CATE HUMPHREYS/TECHNICIAN

Students chant in celebration of the NC State men’s basketball team winning the championship game of the ACC Tournament at the Memorial Bell Tower on Saturday, March 16, 2024. The NC State men’s basketball team had not claimed a title since 1987.

ANNA HANSEN/TECHNICIAN

Fans raise wol es as they sing The Star-Spangled Banner at the Belltower on Saturday, March 16, 2024. NC State men’s basketball’s Saturday victory is its rst ACC championship win since 1987.