No more magic: NC State basketball out of ACC Tournament after Notre Dame beats Stanford
N.C. State will not have a chance to duplicate its 2024 miracle run this spring.
The Wolfpack (12-18, 5-14 ACC) was eliminated from ACC Tournament participation Wednesday after Notre Dame (13-17, 7-12) defeated Stanford, 56-54, in South Bend, Indiana.
The Cardinal led by as many as nine points, but a 15-0 run late in the second half allowed the Irish to take a six-point lead with 3:28 remaining. Notre Dame and Stanford traded buckets in the final minutes, but a 3 by the Irish with 18 seconds left sealed the win and dashed N.C. State’s hopes of making the conference tournament next week in Charlotte.
N.C. State has one game remaining in the regular season and cannot move out of the bottom three of the ACC standings, even with a win or with losses from other teams. Miami and Boston College will also be out of the field.
The result came a little more than two hours after the Wolfpack defeated Pitt, 71-63, at Lenovo Center to remain in contention for the final spot.
Dontrez Styles said after the win that words can’t describe what it would mean to slide into the tournament field.
“It’s my last season. I want to go out there and just have a have a chance,” Styles said. “I’m praying for some good news later on today, so we’ll see.”
Keatts said he didn’t plan to watch the Irish and Cardinal play, and would wait to hear the result.
“I‘m just waiting for somebody to call me,” Keatts said. “We can only control what we can control.”
The Wolfpack struggled through its nonconference schedule, but things finally came to a head during ACC play. It lost nine straight games, which tied the program record for its longest losing streak, and they were the most consecutive losses under Keatts.
N.C. State’s issue all season has been consistency and offensive production.
The Wolfpack is averaging 69.6 points per game, which is on track to be the lowest-scoring team under Keatts. It is also N.C. State’s lowest output since 2009-10, when the team averaged 66.6 points per game.
Meanwhile, Marcus Hill is averaging 11.6 points per game for the season. That would make him the lowest leading scorer for N.C. State since Adam Harrington led the team in 1998-99 with 11.6 points per game.
The Wolfpack has been held to fewer than 70 points in 17 games this season, including a season-low of 57 points against SMU. That’s led to zero wins away from Raleigh, including an 0-10 record in true road games. It’s won four games in 2025, one of which came against Notre Dame.
N.C. State’s struggles have led to a number of close losses. It held a second-half lead in 14 of its 19 ACC games this season, including nine of its 14 conference losses. Additionally, it was within one possession with under four minutes to play in seven of its losses, and the Pack led in the final four minutes of four of its ACC losses.
N.C. State plays on the road against Miami at noon Saturday to close the 2024-25 season.
“Just knowing that we we’re not giving up, I feel like any other team would have gave up by now,” Styles said. “The fact that we didn’t, it tells us a lot about us as a team, as people. We’re going to continue to go out there and compete against Miami Saturday and get the win.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 12:05 AM.
