WASHINGTON, D.C. — Down three, NC State’s season hanging by a thread, Michael O’Connell stole a peek at the shot clock: 5.3 seconds left.
Just enough time.
O’Connell’s played enough basketball, 124 games between his four seasons at Stanford and NC State, to understand the situation: a Virginia one-and-one, with Friday’s ACC tournament semifinal effectively hanging in the balance. If Isaac McKneely — UVA’s best shooter, who had already torched the Wolfpack for 20 points by then — made his first free throw?
Game over. Season over. Possibly his college career, over.
But O’Connell couldn’t think like that. He and his NC State teammates — the ones who won three games in three days to even reach this point — just needed a miss. The rebound thereafter would be easy; Virginia didn’t send anyone else back with McKneely.
And then?
“We gotta get a 3 up,” junior Jayden Taylor said. “That’s all I’m thinking.”
O’Connell had the perfect vantage point, right next to McKneely on the free-throw line. He saw McKneely’s release … and watched the ball clank off the front rim, then the right side, before falling back into play. There was a chance. He took off immediately, sprinting down the left side of the court while Casey Morsell — a DMV native playing against his former team — first fumbled the rebound, then kicked it ahead to him.
Another glance at the shot clock.
Time winding down.
Any hope for a miracle, quickly extinguishing.
“You’ve obviously,” O’Connell said, “just got to get the shot off, right?”
So as O’Connell dribbled past his head coach — he was inches, if that, from Kevin Keatts and NC State’s bench — that’s exactly what he did: launching the prayer of all prayers, a ball that rose so high not even television cameras could capture it. “Felt like it was in slow motion,” junior Ben Middlebrooks said. And then all of Capital One Arena watched in awe as the ball meteored back down to earth, banked off the backboard, rolled around the rim … and, finally, swirled through the nylon.
Pandemonium.
“Just the basketball gods blessing him,” senior DJ Horne said, “and blessing this team.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME 🤯😲
OVERTIME HERE WE COME
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— ACC Men’s Basketball (@accmbb) March 16, 2024
What came next — NC State outscoring Virginia 15-7 in overtime, en route to an eventual 73-65 win — matters, of course, but O’Connell had the moment. The shot. Arguably NC State’s most iconic make since Lorenzo Charles’ game-winning dunk in the 1983 national championship game.
Because it has been almost that long since the Wolfpack had mojo quite like this. NCSU has historic basketball bona fides, but… older ones. Much older ones. NC State hasn’t won an ACC tournament title since 1987; the program’s only even played in four championship games since then, losing two apiece to North Carolina (1997, 2007) and Duke (2002, 2003). Most of the current roster was in elementary school the last time the Wolfpack made it this far.
And yet, so continues NC State’s miracle run, the one appropriately stirring ghosts of ’83. Keatts’ team lost seven of its last nine games entering this week, but now is the third team in ACC tournament history — after Duke in 2017 and Virginia Tech in 2022 — to win four games in four days. Both of those teams won the title.
“I’ll just be real honest with you: Not a single person outside of this locker room expected us to be here,” said graduate center DJ Burns, who led the team with 19 points. “Some of our parents didn’t expect us to be here.”
Which is why, fairly or not, Keatts entered this week facing questions about his job security. In his seven seasons leading the program, Keatts has just two NCAA Tournament appearances and no wins. There were rumblings, entering Tuesday’s opening-round game vs. Louisville, that a loss to the Cardinals would force the administration’s hand — force the Wolfpack to reset (again), with another coach chasing Jim Valvano’s magic from four decades ago.
But maybe Keatts has found some of his own.
“He shut all the haters up,” Taylor said. “He shut everybody up. That’s what you live for in this sport.”
That NC State is now 40 minutes from an improbable second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth — if it can pull another upset Saturday against rival North Carolina, the ACC’s top seed and regular-season champ — is borderline unthinkable. Especially so, when you consider the team’s extenuating circumstances this week alone.
Horne, the team’s lone All-ACC selection and leading scorer, entered this week questionable to play at all with a lower-body injury; he missed the Louisville game, and came off the bench vs. Syracuse in NC State’s second win. Forward Mohamed Diarra, a practicing Muslim, has been observing Ramadan and therefore unable to eat from sunrise to sunset; the Wolfpack’s staff subbed him out exactly at sunset on both Wednesday and Thursday, feeding him energy gels and granola bars on the bench, his first food of the day. A late 9:30 tipoff on Friday meant he could eat pregame for the first time this tournament — pasta and chicken, mixed with white sauce — and Diarra delivered, posting a game-high 12 rebounds. Middlebrooks, who scored more points (12) than he had in seven games against Virginia, almost blew the Duke win on Thursday with a late missed dunk that became a hanging-on-the-rim technical foul.
And consider how NC State was able to erase a six-point deficit in the final 51 seconds. It took Virginia fouling a 3-point shooter, missing four of its final five free throws, — the Cavaliers rank 332nd nationally in free-throw percentage for a reason — and allowing O’Connell to get off his buzzer-beater.
“We understand that our journey has been different,” Keatts said, “but we do have the opportunity to be there.”
Now, the real question: Can NC State complete this run for the ages, and steal a spot in the Big Dance?
It seems unlikely. Almost impossible, to be frank. North Carolina will be a No. 1 seed come Selection Sunday — not exactly a creampuff opponent for your fifth game in five days. But the Wolfpack have been doing things like that all week now.
Maybe it’s time to stop doubting NC State, and just play the games.
“Everybody expected this to be Carolina and Duke,” Keatts said. “Well, it’s Carolina and NC State. We play pretty good basketball at NC State, too.”
If Keatts wins Saturday, a provision in his contract will trigger an automatic extension. But it would be hard to fault NC State fans — who endure a generation’s worth of sports misery seemingly every calendar year — for wanting to give him a lifetime extension if his team actually pulls this off.
And, sure: even Keatts admitted postgame that this week’s run has borne some unique superstitions. He’s eaten the same lunch every day this week. His son, KJ, a sophomore on the roster, has two: getting a bag of cheddar Ruffles for teammate Cam Woods on the bus ride home, and then skipping the team’s celebratory ice cream after each victory. “I went upstairs to take a shower (on Tuesday) and I missed when the ice cream came,” KJ said, “so I’m not allowed to get ice cream.” If NC State wins, though? You bet he’ll be diving into his favorite strawberry sorbet. Horne, whose clutch free throws in overtime sealed the whole thing, has scheduled a pregame nap — no more than 90 minutes — into his routine at the same point every gameday.
Whatever works, right?
Inside NC State’s euphoric locker room, where Horne proudly proclaimed that O’Connell would “be the best man at my wedding,” a certain comparison was outwardly mentioned: 2011 Connecticut. Spearheaded by Kemba Walker, those Huskies — who were their conference’s No. 9 seed — won five Big East tournament games in five days.
NC State is the ACC’s No. 10 seed.
And tomorrow makes five in five.
“Trust me: a lot of my coaches already said, have the little Kemba-type run,” Horne said. “So I’ve definitely been tuned into that.”
(Photo of Michael O’Connell’s game-tying 3: Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
