For NC State, was there an emotional cost to winning the ACC championship?
It still boggles the mind: five games in five days — and five wins — in the ACC Tournament.
Winning it that way is improbable but N.C. State has improbably done it. The Wolfpack earned its way into the 2024 NCAA Tournament, digging deep, finding a way to win five times to take home the ACC trophy for the first time since 1987.
But at what cost?
Physically, it was a strain. It had to be. Winning took 205 minutes of hard work, including the overtime victory over Virginia in the semifinals.
And emotionally? It’s easy to get caught up in the exhilaration of the ACC Tournament. It can be draining.
Facing North Carolina in the championship game brought out the best in the Pack, which led most of the second half in an 84-76 victory at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
“It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said Sunday. “I don’t think the ACC could have scripted it any better than to have us and Carolina there.”
The confetti rained down after the Wolfpack won. Once was not enough for State center D.J. Burns, who scooped up a handful off the floor and merrily tossed it high in the air again.
“This is why you play basketball, to play under the brightest lights,” Wolfpack guard D.J. Horne said Sunday. “It was a Cinderella run, what ‘March Madness’ is all about.”
But the brightest of the bright lights come on this week. It’s the NCAA Tournament, with all its trappings and demands, physically and emotionally.
Can the Pack, after using up so much emotion over five days, be at the right emotional level for the NCAAs?
“I hope so,” Keatts said.
No one can say for certain until Thursday night, when the Pack takes the floor in Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena for its first-round game against Texas Tech in the NCAA South Region.
There’s always what could be called the “Randolph Childress Effect.” The former Wake Forest star played the ACC Tournament of his life in 1995, the Demon Deacons beating North Carolina in the championship game for their first ACC title in 33 years.
Childress was the tournament MVP, scoring 107 points in three games, hitting 23 of 44 three-pointers in an amazing display.
“No one ever played harder or better,” former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said. “He was the driving force for us. He gave all he had, held nothing back.”
But Childress wasn’t the same player in the 1995 NCAA Tournament. He was 9-of-24 on his 3’s, scoring 58 points in three NCAA games as the Deacons lost to Oklahoma State in the regional semifinals. He wasn’t bad but he wasn’t great.
“The ACC Tournament probably took more out of Randolph than any of us wanted to admit,” Odom later said.
Such is the danger. As several ACC coaches have said in the past, you can try to downplay the ACC Tournament and its significance, and harp about the bigger games coming later. But once the players are on the court facing off against their ACC rivals – picture Burns vs UNC’s Armando Bacot – the adrenaline kicks in and emotions can run high.
The Wolfpack players surely will say all the right things about being emotionally refueled, and did Sunday as the Wolfpack gathered at Sports & Social restaurant in Cary to watch the NCAA selection show.
“For us to win the ACC Tournament we all came together with one common goal and worked our tails off every day,” guard Michael O’Connell said. “I think we’ll all be ready for it. If we all do the right things, we’ll be in good shape.”
Horne was at Arizona State a year ago and said the team met at the home of Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley for the selection show. ASU was an at-large pick, starting in the NCAA “First Four” in Dayton, Ohio.
“We all ran and jumped in the pool,” Horne said.
This year, after the Pack’s selection was shown on the huge video screens, Horne and the players were serenaded by Wolfpack fans and already had spent much time posing for photos and selfies – the ACC trophy close by.
And come Thursday and Texas Tech?
“We have a very mature group,” Wolfpack guard Casey Morsell said. “We know what it takes to win in the postseason. Just stay together. That’s it.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "For NC State, was there an emotional cost to winning the ACC championship?."
