‘I’m very loyal to NC State’: How Breon Pass became a rarity in college basketball’s current landscape as a four-year player

As NC State hit the court for a preseason practice at the formerly-known PNC Arena ahead of the 2021-22 campaign, a wide-eyed freshman Breon Pass stared into the rafters. He looked past the 19,500 empty red seats and gazed at the accomplishments of the past.  He saw the 1974 national championship that was powered by David Thompson, placed next to the 1983 one led by legendary coach Jim Valvano. The 1987 ACC Tournament championship banner, the most recent addition to the group, wasn’t far away either.  It didn’t take Pass long to set a goal for himself and the program.  “I’m going to help hang two banners up there,” Pass pointed to the ceiling as he told James Johnson, who was in his final of five seasons as an assistant on the Wolfpack’s staff, at the time.  Sure, that’s what every freshman wants to say. That doesn’t always mean they’ll be able to follow through — or if they’ll even be on the roster long enough to have a legitimate chance to do so. But here Pass was, looking at the banners that had hung for decades without another championship for more than three decades. The 6-foot, 175-pound guard, however, was determined to help be a reason why the Pack had to make room for more banners more than 100 feet above the hardwood playing surface sitting on top of a pristine ice rink. The building’s other tenants, the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, put the last championship banner in the rafters after winning the 2005-06 Stanley Cup.  It was time for a new banner or two, Pass believed. And, well, he was able to accomplish a rare feat in college basketball. For one, he helped hang a pair of $795 banners as a part of NC State’s ACC Tournament Championship team that appeared in the Final Four during the 2023-24 campaign. He also will have spent his entire collegiate career with the Wolfpack, despite having a limited role for a majority of his time in Raleigh, sticking with a program that many in his position ran from.  Pass, who is set to be celebrated as a part of the Pack’s Senior Night festivities on Wednesday, is just the second Kevin Keatts high school recruit to have spent his entire eligibility at NC State. Only Jericole Hellems, who played for the Wolfpack from 2018-2022, can say that as well. “For me to be here for four years, I love NC State,” Pass said recently, still wearing his Wolfpack practice uniform sitting inside the team’s film room on the bottom floor of the Dail Basketball Center. “I’m very loyal to NC State — no matter what I went through during my time here.”