March Madness Darling NC State Heads to Elite Eight After Dominating Marquette

The unpredictability of March Madness makes the men's NCAA tournament iconic, but legends arise out of the nonsensical.

North Carolina State shouldn't be doing this.

As the regular season ended, the Wolfpack had limped to the finish. They'd tangled with an uninspiring ACC and trudged to a 17-14 overall record and 9-11 conference mark, which ranked 10th in the 15-team league. Seventh-year coach Kevin Keatts found himself on a warming seat.

NC State had dropped four straight games—as well as seven of the last nine contests—entering the ACC tournament. The team's profile screamed "early exit" with no chance at an at-large NCAA bid.

Yet here we collectively sat on Friday night, watching the Wolfpack seal the program's first Elite Eight appearance in 38 years. They basically controlled the entire Sweet 16 clash with second-seeded Marquette, racing out to a 13-point halftime lead and ultimately a 67-58 win.

So, yeah, the Pack shouldn't be doing this. But they are.

Prior to Friday's contest, Keatts offered a simple explanation for NC State's recent—and, to most, unexpected—success.

"What changed? We got smarter," he told reporters. "We got the same players who are playing with a little bit more confidence, but when we went back—and let's start with the ACC—and we went back and looked at every team that we lost to, it didn't have a lot to do with them. It was more about what we didn't do, understanding scouting reports."

Quantifying "smarter" is not easy. Identifying the greatest statistical difference doesn't take much effort, however.

During the late-season slide, opponents shot 48.8 overall with a 37.2 clip from the perimeter. Since the Wolfpack began their shocking five-game ACC tournament run, those numbers have dropped to 41.9 and 31.5, respectively.

The marked defensive improvement has propelled the 11th-seeded squad to three victories in the Big Dance. They toppled Texas Tech, bounced upset-minded Oakland in overtime and solidly outplayed Marquette—which misfired on 27 of its 31 three-point attempts, including a devastating number of open looks.

Forget the stats, though. The story is better.

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Last season, NC State also landed a No. 11 seed in the NCAA tourney but immediately lost to Creighton. Keatts and his staff needed to replace the Wolfpack's two 17-point scorers, along with four transfers who reasonably would've been expected to contribute on this roster.

North Carolina State picked up seven newcomers to form what's effectively a transfer-filled rotation.

Casey Morsell joined the program in 2021. DJ Burns Jr. followed in 2022 before DJ Horne, Jayden Taylor, Mohamed Diarra, Michael O'Connell and Ben Middlebrooks this season. That seven-man group accounted for every single stat in the box score against Marquette.

Sure, the roster didn't coalesce as quickly as hoped, but it certainly has at the perfect time.

It's true the Pack aren't a traditional Cinderella team, given their place in a high-major conference. Fair enough.

Still, they're clearly the March Madness darling of 2023-24.

Keatts silenced the simmering hot-seat conversation when NC State defeated Louisville, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia and North Carolina en route to an ACC tournament title and a bid to the Big Dance. That crown triggered an automatic two-year contract extension, too.

The roster has become a model of a well-executed headfirst dive into the transfer portal. The team is a case study in the fallacy of "you have to be playing your best basketball in March to make a deep run."

Burns has become a fan favorite with his gap-toothed grin and lovely passing skills for a bulky post player.

The list goes on—and it'll all be displayed in Sunday's showdown against Houston or Duke with a trip to the Final Four at stake. The program hasn't reached the NCAA tourney's final weekend since the 1983 squad coached by the beloved Jim Valvano won a national title.

Come to think of it, that Wolfpack team shouldn't have been there, either.

NC State might just have a thing for the nonsensical, and March Madness is providing the Pack another opportunity to create a legend.