NC State men’s basketball team excited to still be playing basketball
N.C. State missed the NCAA tournament in Indianapolis. That doesn’t mean the Wolfpack isn’t excited about playing in the NIT in Texas.
The music didn’t stop for N.C. State (13-10) after it was eliminated by Syracuse in the ACC tournament last week.
N.C. State will face Davidson (14-9) on Thursday (7 p.m., ESPN) in the opening round. This is the second trip to the NIT under Keatts for the Wolfpack, which has an overall record of 18-13 in NIT games.
The NIT field this season was cut from 32 teams to 16 and all the games will be played at UNT Coliseum in Denton, Texas. N.C. State ended the regular season on a five-game winning streak and was one of the hottest teams in the ACC.
A couple of wins in the ACC tournament might have gotten it to Indianapolis, but the Wolfpack came out flat against Syracuse and lost by 21.
An NIT invite came a few days later, a chance for the team to keep playing and get the taste of the ACC tournament game out of its system. But it wasn’t an easy yes when the invitation arrived. Keatts needed to know that his guys wanted to keep playing.
Every team wants to make it to the Big Dance and the key to advancing in the NIT could be just as much between the ears as it is physical traits on the court. Guys have to want to be there. So Keatts sat down with seniors D.J. Funderburk and Braxton Beverly, junior Jericole Hellems and sophomore Manny Bates, the voices of the locker room, to gauge how they felt about spending some extra time in Dallas. It was a unanimous yes.
“I wanted to get a feel, or temperature for those guys, what they thought about advancing,” Keatts said. “Would there be the same excitement if there is not the NCAA (tournament)? And all four of those guys actually said yes.”
Just to be sure, Keatts doubled down, asking the group of experienced players the same question again two days later. The first time he asked them individually, the second time he got them together on a Zoom. Their answer was still the same.
Bringing the right mindset
After a long, trying season, the players could have easily said no. And who would have blamed them?
N.C. State had to deal with COVID issues just like everyone else and extra games meant more testing, more isolation, being away from home for longer stretches. The Pack played 23 of the 31 games scheduled. N.C. State missed almost two weeks of action in December while in COVID protocol. Arriving in Texas brought on more daily testing and the cloud of having to be careful anytime the players left the hotel. That’s an extra stress on the team that didn’t have to be put up with if it didn’t want to. But the team wants to extend the season, and Keatts feels that mindset may give them an edge in the long run.
“You have teams who are really let down because they didn’t get in the tournament,” Keatts said. “From what I’ve seen with our guys the last couple of days, I see excitement, I see guys that want to play.”
Keatts added the N.C. State was “blessed” to be one of the 84 teams left playing college basketball.
Extra television time, especially if the Wolfpack keeps advancing, doesn’t hurt in recruiting either.
“People get the chance to still watch us play on television,” Keatts said. “To see the system that we play, to see how I interact with the guys.”
Building for the old and the new
Keatts said his team is broken into three segments: The seniors (Funderburk and Beverly), the middle guys (Bates and Hellems) and the freshmen.
Four of the six freshmen on the roster were in the regular rotation. By the end of the season two of them — Cam Hayes and Dereon Seabron — were starters. Hayes and Seabron started a combined 19 games, showing flashes down the stretch of their future potential. Shakeel Moore started two games but was the only freshman, and just the second player on the roster, to appear in all 23 contests.
Being able to get those young guys extra games, in a postseason tournament, can only be viewed as a positive. Keatts knows upperclassmen are what drives teams in postseason play, so if Hayes, Seabron and Moore can get that taste now, they will be better prepared down the road.
“So I want to see the growth, because as we move forward as we advance, you want to see that next opportunity they have next year to be able to play in some postseason, whether it becomes the ACC tournament or NCAA,” Keatts explained, “They’ve already had that under their belt, like we can’t teach it what they’ve never been through and so with these guys it’s new to them.”
Seniors Funderburk and Beverly have played in a combined 246 games in Raleigh. But in an uncertain season, with things not ending how they wanted in Greensboro, they couldn’t pass up a chance at game No. 247.
“It’s just another opportunity to play basketball,” Beverly said. “I love playing in general, but especially this year when it was so up in the air. Any opportunity to get a few more games in was really exciting, so I wanted to make sure to take full advantage of it.”
N.C. STATE vs. DAVIDSON
WHEN: 7 p.m., Thursday
WHERE: UNT Coliseum
WATCH: ESPN
