NC State 'embraced' its underdog role in the ACC tournament

WASHINGTON — NC State had seen this story before. Get swept in the regular season by an ACC foe and meet them in the league tournament. A year ago, it was Clemson. This time around, it was Syracuse. 

But unlike what the Tigers were able to do last year, NC State made sure the Orange did not finish the season sweep with a third loss. The Wolfpack’s 83-65 win over Syracuse in the second round of the ACC tournament on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena was personal. 

“That’s revenge,” junior forward Mohamed Diarra said with a wide smile after the game. “We lost twice to this team and we say, no we can’t lose a third time. We’ve got this mindset of revenge and we’ve got to win. That’s what we’ve done.”

Diarra wasn’t alone in that thinking. Syracuse walked into PNC Arena and dropped a 55-point first half on NC State’s heads on Feb. 20. Graduate forward DJ Burns, who is usually a reserved person after games, felt a little different after the Pack’s 18-point win over the Orange. 

The Wolfpack returned the favor that the Orange dealt just under a month ago. 

“When we played them at home, they took the life out of us,” Burns said. “It feels real nice to take the life out of them for once.”

NC State, which entered the ACC tournament on a four-game losing streak, has appeared to be a new team on the court. The team has a confidence that oozes on the bench, while it whips the ball around on the floor. 

A revenge tour plays into that, sure, but so does NC State’s ability to connect as a team. The Wolfpack logged 16 assists in the win over the Orange and six different players had at least one — Diarra had six in the victory. 

Where did this version of the team come from? The Wolfpack thinks it has been there the entire time, but it is clicking on all cylinders now. 

“This is all about learning from our mistakes in the regular season,” graduate guard Casey Morsell said. “I feel like in the regular season we weren’t consistent. Right now, we’re applying and executing things at a high level. We just have to keep that going.”

While Morsell has been through a loop with the Pack, going from an 11-21 season in his first campaign in Raleigh to an NCAA tournament appearance last season, graduate guard Michael O’Connell is new to the NC State experience. But it is finally all coming together for the Pack. 

“There’s a little more sense of urgency I would guess,” O’Connell said. “Honestly, we’ve just been playing our game. We’ve been making more shots, getting more stops on defense. We’re just flowing naturally like we should have been all year. I just think right now we’re really clicking.”

NC State is clicking at the right time. It has to win five games in five days to earn the ACC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and that’s the goal. Anything short of that means the team’s season is likely over. 

That mentality has fueled the Wolfpack through the first two rounds of the conference tournament.

“We came in with the mindset we wanted to be champions,” junior guard Jayden Taylor said. “We’ve been preparing like champions before the game. … It doesn’t just start when we get here. It starts at the hotel, in film, what we eat. That’s what we’re doing. We came here to win.”

The Pack arrived in Washington, D.C., with a clear goal and it has forced its way into the league quarterfinals against Duke on Thursday night. Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts had not won two games in the ACC tournament in his five previous trips — excluding the COVID-canceled edition — but his team has embodied him. 

He is not going down without a fight, and neither are his players clad in the Wolfpack’s red and white. 

“We’re fighting,” Keatts said. “We’re fighting. I’ve got guys in that locker room that really believe, and we’re talking at nighttime and every day about what it takes to win and the will to win, and I think our guys understand that part of it.”

NC State was down 12 to 15-seed Louisville on Tuesday night, but it fought its way past the Cardinals. It handled its business against Syracuse, where it avoided an early hole that it has become accustomed to and quieted the large Orange contingent in the crowd. 

Now, the Wolfpack has another date with the second-seeded Blue Devils with a chance to make the team’s first ACC semifinal appearance since 2014. 

And the team is wearing a rather large chip on its shoulder going into its second bout with Duke of the 2023-24 campaign.

“We embrace who we are,” Morsell said. “We’re the underdogs. We love being in that position, being the dark horse. I hope you can tell by the way we play, our passion out there, we have a lot of potential and we’re taking full advantage of it.”

“We’re here,” Morsell added. “We’re here and we’re very dangerous.”