What NC State’s new championship banners mean to coach Kevin Keatts, Pack players

By Noah Fleischman

It’s been 35 years since NC State men’s basketball lifted a new ACC Championship banner to the rafters. Five different head coaches have commanded the sidelines since Jim Valvano was at the helm for the 1987 ACC title. And the Pack has since relocated to Lenovo Center, which has had three names in that period, from Reynolds Coliseum. 

So, yeah, it’s been a while. But finally, after more than three decades of waiting to put a new piece of fabric above the Wolfpack’s game court, that will finally come true Monday night. 

NC State, which won five games in as many days to claim its 18th league tournament title in program history, will honor the 2023-24 campaign with banners for its ACC Championship and its Final Four appearance moments before it tips off a brand-new season against USC Upstate at 7 p.m. The two new additions to the rafters will be unveiled above the Pack’s home basket, right next to NC State’s two national championship banners from the 1974 and 1983 squads in a fitting fashion. 

The few minutes that the Wolfpack’s five returning players — guards Michael O’Connell, Jayden Taylor, Dennis Parker Jr. and Breon Pass, and forward Ben Middlebrooks — will have before the next season begins are likely to be impactful. 

For O’Connell, who helped save NC State’s season with a buzzer-beating three-pointer in the ACC Tournament semifinal against Virginia as he exploded into a scoring machine in the nation’s capital, the banner moment will be one he never forgets. 

“It’s going to be unbelievable, the fact that we get to start the season off with the first game and have a quick reminiscence of what we did last year,” O’Connell said. “To see that accomplishment hanging in the rafters, it’s going to be pretty cool.”

The Pack’s court general isn’t alone in that thinking either. Taylor, a lockdown defender, couldn’t put it into words as he thought about putting the final bow on one of NC State’s most magical postseason runs in program history. 

“It’s going to be surreal that something I was a part of is going to forever be a part of the building,” Taylor said. “I’m really excited, honestly.”

While the banner moments will give NC State’s players, coaching staff and fan base a final opportunity to reflect on its unprecedented run, it also will be a motivator for this season. The Pack, which played with house money for its entire postseason as the ACC’s 10-seed, is eager to get back to college basketball’s final weekend again. 

It took 41 years for NC State to get to the Final Four again, and the Pack does not want to have to wait that long to return to the biggest stage in March. 

“Having that taste of success, we understand what it takes to get there and the level you have to play at,” Middlebrooks said. “It’s going to be big for us. It’s going to help us. We’ve got a lot of things to learn, a lot of things to build on. … Just trying to prepare for that. We’ll enjoy that moment and then get ready to move on after.”

This season, however, will be different. NC State has eight new players, including five with previous collegiate experience, and a trio of freshmen. None of them were along for the ride as the Pack ran through March, but they have intimate knowledge of the team’s success. Many of them watched up close, including Louisville transfers Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Mike James, who were the first victims of NC State’s nine-game winning streak to reach State Farm Stadium in Phoenix. 

NC State has laid its goals out for this season and more banners are on the top of the list. The team’s newcomers are well aware. 

“With all of our transfers coming in, our main goal is to try to get back to that Final Four and actually win the championship this time,” Pass said. “It’s very important, so I know all of the guys are very locked in.”

But in the meantime, the Wolfpack will take in its final moments of reflection on the Pack’s magical run. NC State coach Kevin Keatts, who declared himself a “winner” when he accepted the job in 2017, pulled through on that take with the hardware from March. 

The eighth-year coach isn’t taking the postseason success for granted, and he was happy to give NC State’s fan base a new men’s basketball memory to hold on to. 

“When you’re making history at your school, that goes a long way. And we’re making history. We’re hanging banners. This particular group will be forever known. A lot of the folks growing up that went to NC State or have current kids or grandkids, have never had a chance to experience anything like it. Now, they do.”