NC State basketball players, coaches feel mile high after selection to NCAA Tournament
It all happened quickly for N.C. State, and thankfully so.
The Wolfpack had finished up a basketball practice Sunday afternoon at the Dail Center and the players and coaches had gathered to watch the NCAA Selection Show.
Then, just like that, there it was: N.C. State versus Creighton.
Cue the players wildly jumping about, the joyous smile on the faces of guard Jarkel Joiner and others, the hugs all around. A short video clip on Twitter quickly went viral.
“It was a lot of emotions, happiness and joy, after all the hard work we’ve put in,” Joiner said Monday. “It paid off.”
It was an anxious time leading up to the Selection Show at 6 p.m. Was N.C. State safely in? Might the Pack be left out?
“Even the coaches who know they’re in the tournament as an at-large, there’s still some anxiety to the whole deal,” Keatts said Monday on a media call. “I think it’s a great shoutout to the (NCAA) committee, not making us wait a long time. It was really good to see your name in the first bracket that came out.”
The Pack (23-10) will be the 11th seed of the South Region and the Bluejays (21-12) seeded sixth in the Friday game at Ball Arena in Denver. Game time is set at 4 p.m. and will be shown on TNT.
As soon as the NCAA announced the at-large selection, the Pack’s crash course on Creighton basketball began. Keatts is aware of the program that Bluejays coach Greg McDermott has built at Creighton, of the Bluejays’ NCAA history, of their success this season in the Big East Conference.
“They’re historically a really good team,” Keatts said.
Keatts also said the Pack made a few recruiting calls to Creighton big man Ryan Kalkbrenner, although noting, “I don’t think we were ever really involved with him.”
Both teams prefer a quick pace. Neither team is hesitant to take the 3-pointer and both are averaging more than 76 points a game.
“They shoot a lot of 3’s,” Pack guard Terquavion Smith said Monday. “Even in transition they’re trying to get 3’s.”
Playing in Denver’s mile-high altitude is always a concern, but doesn’t figure to change either team’s run-the-floor strategy too much.
“They’re really good offensively and they get out in transition,” Keatts said. “Going into the game, you would say it is two teams that really like to play fast, so it could be a high-scoring game.”
The Wolfpack streaked up and down the court and scored 97 points in beating Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament last week. The Pack then was held to 54 points in a slog of a loss to Clemson, which beat N.C State three times this season and “should” have been picked for the NCAAs, Keatts said Monday.
Looking at the South Region bracket, the Pack-Creighton winner will take on the winner of the Baylor-Santa Barbara game on Sunday. Should the Pack win two games and reach the round of 16, it could run into the No. 2 seed, Arizona. The top seed in the South is Alabama, and Virginia is in Alabama’s half of the region as the No. 4 seed.
Keatts said Monday that he still is unsure about the availability of forward Greg Gantt, who injured a knee against Virginia Tech, saying it might be a “game-time decision.” Keatts said Gantt did not practice Sunday but he was hopeful Gantt might be able to play Friday.
It all appears a bit daunting for the Pack, but it is the 40th anniversary of N.C. State’s scintillating run to the 1983 national championship, beating Virginia and Ralph Sampson along the way and then the high-powered “Phi Slama Jama” Houston Cougars and Hakeem Olajuwon in the championship game.
It’s the NCAA Tournament. If All-Americans are made in the regular season, heroes are made in March. Anything can happen.
The Pack’s Casey Morsell and D.J. Burns have been in the NCAAs before transferring to N.C. State -- Morsell with Virginia, Burns with Winthrop. For everyone else, including Joiner and Smith, it will be a new experience.
“They’ve been telling me to be ready, to stay calm, don’t let it get to you,” Smith said.
The Pack is just happy to be a part of it again. After the dismal 11-21 season a year ago, to have 23 wins and be picked for the NCAA Tournament is satisfying. On Sunday, it was exhilarating after the NCAA selection.
“We kind of got our swag back this year and it was really good to see that,” Keatts said. “It’s good to be on this side of it, I’ll tell you that.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 1:13 PM.
