Friedlander: The only thing more improbable than the ACC championship matchup is the way NC State got there

WASHINGTON, DC – Two teams from North Carolina are playing for the ACC Tournament championship Saturday night.

Just as everyone expected.

Right?

Not exactly.

While the championship trophy and the league’s automatic NCAA bid will be decided by rivals located in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle, playing for the 3rd time this season, it won’t be the North Carolina-Duke rematch we all anticipated.

The top-seeded Tar Heels held up their end of the bargain by holding off Pittsburgh 72-65 in Friday’s first semifinal at Capital One Arena. But thanks to NC State and a magical run that would be considered improbable had it been pulled off by any team other than the Wolfpack, the script has been altered dramatically.

Coach Kevin Keatts’ 10th-seeded team didn’t just defy the odds by winning 4 games in as many days, beating the 2nd-seeded Blue Devils along the way, to become only the 2nd double-figure seed to make it to the championship round. It earned its shot at the title by overcoming fatigue both mentally and physically, a late 7-point deficit and a Virginia team known for its defense to win 73-65 in overtime.

It took a miracle 3-pointer from Michael O’Connell as time expired in regulation to extend the game before DJ Burns took over in the extra period by bullying his way to 7 of his team’s 15 points for a victory so incredible even Keatts had trouble finding words to describe it.

“I mean, I don’t know what to say,” he said when asked to make an opening statement at his postgame media conference.

“In order to have the chance to win this, you’ve got to be able to be in the game. And just the opportunity to be able to play in the game, I think it means a lot to us. Everybody expected this to be Carolina and Duke. Well, it’s Carolina and NC State. We play pretty good basketball at NC State, too.”

That might be true in the broad sense. The Wolfpack do have 2 national championship banners hanging from the rafters of PNC Arena and they have won 21 games this season. But they weren’t playing very good basketball in the 3 weeks leading up to the ACC Tournament.

In fact, they looked to be headed for an early exit after losing their last 4 regular-season games and losing leading scorer DJ Horne to a hip injury that kept him out of State’s opener against Louisville here in DC on Tuesday.

After falling behind by 12 early against the Cardinals, the Wolfpack caught fire. They won that game, got Horne back and took care of Syracuse – a team that had beaten them twice previously – before taking down Duke.

Now after a victory that would have Mr. Never Give up himself, Jim Valvano, smiling proudly, the impossible dream of winning 5 straight games and stealing the tournament championship no longer seems quite so daunting.

“We’re just trying to embrace the moment as much as possible,” senior wing Casey Morsell said.

Morsell and his teammates could easily have declared victory, been satisfied with changing the narrative surrounding their season and getting Keatts off the hot seat and gone quietly into the good night – or in this case, the early morning – after Isaac McKneely hit his 3rd straight jumper to put UVa up 53-46 with 4:19 to play.

But State wasn’t ready to call it a season.

And it got a little help from the charitable Cavaliers, who fouled Morsell while attempting a 3-pointer, missed 4 of 5 free throws in the final 70 seconds and inexplicably decided not to use any of the 3 fouls they had to give on the Wolfpack’s final desperation possession.

O’Connell used the opportunity to dribble quickly up the sideline, pull up from just outside the 3-point arc and rattle home the most consequential NC State basket at least since BJ Anya hit a buzzer-beating hook shot to upset LSU in the 1st round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

“I was just trying to get down the court and get up a shot. We were down 3,” O’Connell said. “I felt confident stepping into it. And thankfully it went in.”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME ??

OVERTIME HERE WE COME

? ESPN2 | @PackMensBball pic.twitter.com/TBXJwtPkZc

— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) March 16, 2024

While the feat the Wolfpack have a shot at accomplishing is unprecedented, at least as far as the ACC Tournament is concerned, it has been done before. In 2011, Kemba Walker and UConn won 5 games in 5 days to sweep to the Big East title before going on to win the national championship.

It was almost as amazing a feat as State’s 1983 Cardiac Pack, which needed to win the ACC Tournament just to get an NCAA bid, then pulled off an even more amazing run to a natty.

O’Connell didn’t want any part of that comparison when he was reminded of it.

“We’re just focused on winning the next game at hand,” he said.

That game is going to take all the focus the Wolfpack have left. Not only is North Carolina on a mission to cut down the nets as ACC champions for the first time in 8 years and lock up a No. 1 seed in the next tournament, but the Tar Heels are to State what Kryptonite is to Superman.

UNC has won 6 of the past 7 meetings and 11 of the past 13, including a pair of wins this season. The Tar Heels are also the team that ended the Wolfpack’s last 2 miracle runs to the final in 1997 and 2007.

State is a 9-point underdog across most of the best betting apps. But then, given the odds it’s already overcome just to get this far, it’s probably not a wise move to bet against them.

“We’ve done it the untraditional way,” Keatts said. “We’re here. We’re a 10 seed and that’s where we want to be.”

Just as we all expected.