NC State has ‘momentum’ going into heart of ACC play, road date at Virginia up first

As Kevin Keatts coached in his second-ever NCAA Tournament game with UNCW, he ended up getting a preview for what was to come over the next seven years to follow. The Seahawks, a No. 12 seed, drew Virginia in the first round of the 2017 March Madness. 

While Keatts and UNCW played Duke the year before, Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers presented a unique challenge with their pack-line defense. Virginia escaped that first-round matchup with a 5-point win, but it marked the first of 12 meetings between Bennett and Keatts. 

Now, after the two traded tightly-contested games over the years as ACC foes, including the conference tournament semifinal overtime win propelled by graduate guard Michael O’Connell’s game-tying buzzer-beater, Keatts is preparing for a new chapter against Virginia at the helm of NC State. 

Bennett, who coached the Cavaliers for 15 years, retired just before the season. That leaves a void in Keatts’ mind when it comes to playing Virginia as the national-championship winning coach was synonymous with the program. So when the Wolfpack takes the court at John Paul Jones Arena on Tuesday (noon, ESPN2), NC State’s eighth-year coach will miss seeing Bennett on the other side. 

“It will be a little bit weird not seeing him,” Keatts said, “but they’ll have their own identity and it is what it is.”

NC State, which knocked off Florida State in overtime to begin ACC play this season, is looking to log its second straight 2-0 start against conference opponents, which hasn’t been done since the 1987-88 and 1988-89 campaigns. 

And even though the league had a “down” non-conference slate with just one team inside the Associated Press Top 25 (No. 4 Duke), Keatts still knows it will be tough to win games in the ACC — especially on the road. Take Virginia, for example, who is 7-5 with an ACC loss at SMU under interim coach Ron Sanchez. The Cavaliers haven’t beaten a Power Conference opponent yet, but will welcome the Wolfpack to a hostile venue in Charlottesville, eager to avenge the ACC Tournament result from Washington, D.C.

Keatts, who is well-versed in the league and its ups and downs both in and out of the conference slate, isn’t taking any team for granted — no matter what the metrics say about the ACC as a whole. 

“It’s still tough,” Keatts said. “It doesn’t change that you have to go to great venues. It doesn’t change who you’re playing. It doesn’t change anything. We get a chance to play against one another. … It’s crazy because everybody defines how good a team is by what number they are in the NET. It still doesn’t change that you have to go to their place and play a really good basketball team.”

NC State enters the bout with Virginia off a nine-day break for the holidays. The Wolfpack most-recently downed Rider 89-63 in one of the team’s most-complete performances as a unit. NC State turned in 21 assists on 29 made baskets, while it used balanced scoring to coast past the Broncs.

That gave the Wolfpack a new sense of confidence entering the conference slate. 

“It gives us momentum,” senior guard Marcus Hill said afterwards. “It’s definitely going to give us momentum. We needed this win and we got better. So it’s going to be fun.”

While NC State has a boost, it also knows what it is capable of when every player is filling out their roles on the court. The Wolfpack is a team that relies on a group effort, not just one or two players to carry the load. That was on display in the Pack’s win over the Broncs, and it’s something the team wants to carry over into ACC play. 

“It’s an example of when we play together, how things can go,” O’Connell said. “Obviously, every game is going to be different, it’s not going to be perfect. But we know we’ve done it before and we have to make sure we work towards it every game. Just staying consistent, we know we can do that and we can beat good teams.”

For now, however, the Wolfpack’s entire focus is on the Cavaliers. NC State is aware of how valuable wins in conference play are, especially on the road, as it will need a strong showing in the league to position itself in the ACC Tournament to earn an NCAA bid. 

The non-conference slate, which was marred by an 0-4 showing against Power Conference opponents, is over. Now, the Pack has its full attention on the ACC — looking to build even more momentum through the most-critical stretch of the schedule. 

“We’re talking about, ‘Hey, your focus for the rest of the season is all ACC games,’” Keatts said. “We got off to a great start being 1-0, taking care of home, and now obviously we have 19 more of those games.”