How NC State regrouped to win ACC title in historic fashion 

WASHINGTON — As NC State graduate guard Casey Morsell climbed the blue and yellow Werner ladder after the Wolfpack knocked off top-seed North Carolina to claim the ACC championship, his mind went back to what he and his teammates went through this season. 

The Wolfpack dropped seven of their last nine games entering the ACC tournament, but it quickly rebounded to win five straight games en route to NC State’s first league title in 36 years. He thought of the “dark moments” of NC State’s losing streak down the stretch and the challenges the team faced. 

Fans were on social media looking for a new coach, while most around the country gave up on the Pack’s chances in March. That all came storming back as he stood atop the world inside Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on Saturday night. 

But when he cut the net, Morsell realized the accomplishment he and his teammates did. The Wolfpack lifted the ACC tournament trophy in historic fashion becoming the first team to win five games in as many days on its way to the championship. 

“To come here and to pull every game out one by one, it’s an amazing story that I think it’s the best thing I could be a part of,” Morsell said.

Before NC State even arrived in Washington, D.C. for the league tournament, it had a team meeting. The Pack set its goal: win the conference crown and punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament. That was the only path to the Big Dance, and the Wolfpack was determined to do so. 

First it had to correct the mistakes it made along the way. Extended scoring droughts. Missed assignments on defense. Lackluster shooting performances from the field. 

At the time, it seemed like a tall task from the outside. The Wolfpack was coming off a four-game losing streak to close the regular season. It included losses at Florida State, North Carolina, home against Duke and at Pittsburgh to end the campaign. 

That didn’t provide the optimal momentum the Wolfpack would need to make a run in the ACC tournament, but instead of folding, the opposite happened.

For Morsell, the losses were an opportunity for the team to grow — as long as it was able to get past those errors that cost the Pack games. 

“I never thought of an L as a loss, it was just a lesson that we wanted to learn from heading into the tournament,” Morsell said. “We did that, literally. Day after day, we got better and better. We were connected. We faced adversity throughout the year, but we never got divided.”

Instead of a fractured locker room, NC State’s group banded together. When they arrived at the arena Monday, the goal was laid out after practice. Win. That’s it. They believed in it from the beginning. 

Junior forward Mohamed Diarra bought into that. He was so into the Wolfpack’s mindset that he thought the team was the ACC champions already. 

“We said, ‘We’ve got nothing to lose,’” Diarra said with a wide smile on the court after the title win over the Tar Heels. “I started to believe Monday.”

The Wolfpack was confident it could win the title because it was in the field. The games are not decided by a team’s seed, rather on the court. For graduate guard Michael O’Connell, a Stanford transfer that had not won the Pac-12 in his time in California, hope was all the Pack needed to make a run. 

“We still knew had a chance to win the ACC championship,” O’Connell said. “We still had a chance to make March. When you have that end goal in sight, you don’t want to give up. You want to play for each other.”

NC State did just that.

The Pack was able to skate past 15-seed Louisville 94-85 in the first round after falling behind by 12 in the early going. Step one was complete. NC State then blew by 7-seed Syracuse in an 83-65 win in the second round Tuesday. Check. 

Then came the tall tasks. Second-seed Duke? They beat the Pack twice in the regular season, but NC State got the last laugh with the 74-69 win. It knocked off third-seed Virginia a 73-65 win in overtime in the semifinals to make the title game. 

NC State beat North Carolina to earn the title, but it did not seem to be rattled by the Tar Heels. It led for 33:07 of game time. Belief is a magical thing, and it fueled the Wolfpack in its run to the crown. 

“We came into this tournament with a goal, with a mission,” graduate guard DJ Horne said. “Everybody was connected, everybody was disciplined with what we were going to come here and do. We won the first game, we didn’t get too excited from that. We knew that wasn’t what we came here for and we kept stacking wins until we got what we wanted: a championship.”

Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts, who earned a two-year extension for winning the title, was impressed by his team’s ability to regroup and grow through each tournament game.

“When we got on the plane to come to D.C., we talked about winning one game at a time, and there would be a big picture, would be a prize at the end of it,” Keatts said. “You could tell our guys were getting a lot stronger every game that we played. It’s weird because we’re the team that played, and we were the one who played every game, but it seemed like every second half we got a little bit stronger than the other team.”

While the Pack knew it could do it, it had to stick together as one unit. That was a challenge, which included multiple players not traveling to the tournament for personal reasons. NC State rallied anyways. 

Morsell, a five-year veteran in college basketball, said this year’s Wolfpack squad is the most connected team he has been a part of. How does he know? They proved it in the nation’s capital.

“We’ve tested it,” Morsell said. “This team’s been through so much and everyone could have checked out and gave up. It was easy. Whether it be injuries, guys leaving, guys not playing, different rotations. Everything possible that could go wrong, happened. We stayed together, kept believing. We love each other. We talk every day. We’re brothers and that bond will never be broken.”

NC State pushed through the tournament field to become the first double-digit seed to claim the title in ACC history. One person familiar with winning ACC tournament titles was in attendance: NC State women’s coach Wes Moore. 

He won three in a row and nearly nabbed his fourth in five years this season. He witnessed NC State’s ability to band together and the run through the league tournament was impressive to the accomplished coach. 

“His team, and his players, you could just tell,” Moore said. “They played together, they played really hard. To do it five nights in a row, it’s never been done in the ACC. It just tells you how special this group is.”

The Wolfpack punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament for the second straight season and it did it in the historic way. NC State is just the second Power Six team to win five games in five days in the league tournament, joining the 2011 UConn team, led by Kemba Walker. 

It’s good company to be in, and NC State’s ability to stick together was key. Junior forward Ben Middlebrooks, who transferred in from Clemson, was awestruck by the accomplishment.

“The amount we’ve come together these last five days, the adversity we had. The things behind the scenes we had to deal with to come through to win these fives games,” Middlebrooks said. “I love these guys so much. I don’t think any other team in the country could do something like this.”

No other team did it this season. It took 13 years for it to happen since the Huskies did it, and it likely will be another decade plus before it happens again. But for now, the Wolfpack can bask in the glory as a record-setting squad.