NC State’s new challenge: Build on unexpected success

The world of college basketball kept spinning Sunday. Connecticut and Purdue practiced in an emptied State Farm Stadium ahead of Monday night’s title game. N.C. State spent the day flying home, returning to Raleigh without another game to play.

After everything that happened over the span of a month, the death-defying 10-game tightrope walk that concluded with Saturday night’s loss to Purdue, this is the first opportunity the Wolfpack — players, program, fans, community — has had to take a deep breath and reflect in a long time.

“This doesn’t happen every day,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said Saturday night.

And yet in a very real sense, the work is only beginning.

As wild and historic as this journey was, as many decades of thirst were quenched, this long-awaited success is a challenge as much as an opportunity. As important as it was for N.C. State basketball to get itself back on the map, to reinsert itself into the Triangle rivalry conversation at the highest level — the 919 area code now accounts for six of the past 36 Final Four participants — it’s even more important to build on it.

This can’t be a one-off. This has to be more than a once-in-ageneration event. This has to become the norm, the way it is at North Carolina and Duke and once was at N.C. State. This run has given the Wolfpack a desperately needed leg up, but the end of it has to be the beginning

of a new era.

“We built something here,” Jayden Taylor said. “N.C. State basketball, we brought it back. It’s now fun, it’s now popular, it’s now a thing. Obviously there’s excitement here and I’m happy for N.C. State and the fans that they got to taste it. That’s what we’re chasing every time now, now that we got a taste.”

Built, rebuilt, it all depends on perspective. N.C. State has been waiting decades for this kind of momentum. It’s absolutely imperative to capitalize, a message the players who have definitely played their final game in a Wolfpack uniform — D.J. Burns, D.J. Horne, Casey Morsell — made sure to relay even in the disappointment of losing an eminently winnable game Saturday.

“I think we tried to set a standard,” Horne said. “We set expectations for the teams that follow us.”

If the core players who can potentially return come back to N.C. State, there’s a foundation in place: Michael O’Connell and Taylor in the backcourt along with incoming freshman Paul McNeill, Mohamed Diarra and Ben Middlebrooks up front. Breon Pass is an invaluable depth player. Dennis Parker Jr. showed flashes before illness cut his season short. The question is what Keatts and his staff can add to that group over the next few months.

That’s already started. Even while in Arizona for the Final Four, the Wolfpack landed an intraconference transfer, Louisville’s Brandon Huntley-Hatfield — 24 days after the Cardinals nearly ended this run before it even began. That shores up the frontcourt, adding a strong rebounder and elite athlete. And with Horne and Morsell gone, there’s still a glaring need for at least one more highvolume shooter.

But the conversation has changed completely. Last year, with the Wolfpack back in the NCAA tournament, Keatts called recruits from the floor of Denver’s Ball Arena, standing under the David Thompson banner. He hadn’t had that platform since his first season at N.C. State, five years earlier. That pales when compared to the platform he has now. How many players will take his call today who wouldn’t a month ago?

As Keatts is quick to point out, it’s not just the ACC title or the run to the Final Four. Of the ACC’s five NCAA bids the past two seasons, Duke, N.C. State and Virginia are the only teams to go twice.

“I hope people understand that we have a heck of a basketball program,” Keatts said. “We play a unique style. We’ve got a great culture. … I think the run will help people understand this. But it’s also special for graduates, the current student body, folks that remember the great one with ‘83. When you sit back and look at what we’ve done, man, you’re going to be amazed at it.”

People are going to remember what happened in Washington and Pittsburgh and Dallas and Phoenix for years and years and years. As they should. N.C. State doesn’t need to do this every year, win an ACC championship or be one of the last teams standing. But a school that cares this deeply about basketball needs to get back to the days — the decades — when a run like this wasn’t unexpected.

Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at tinyurl.com/lukeslatest to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.

Luke DeCock’s Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports