Tim Peeler: Putting NC State’s postseason into context

By Tim Peeler

Now that the 2023-24 basketball seasons are over, what did it all mean for NC State and its devoted followers?

Putting the dual Final Fours into proper perspective could only happen after both the men’s and women’s teams finished their remarkable runs into the postseason last weekend in Glendale, Arizona, and Cleveland, Ohio, respectively.

It’s a fairly monumental task for a pair of programs that are, historically, among the most elite in all of college basketball, in both on-the-court success and off-the-court personalities.

For the men, coached by Kevin Keatts, the story is twofold:

First, the nine-game winning streak in the ACC and NCAA championships matches the second-longest streak in school history with the 1983 national championship team and is one behind the 1974 national championship team, two of the most iconic seasons in school history.

Second, it removes the tired parenthetical of “which hasn’t won an ACC title since 1987” from the program forever, whether the Wolfpack wins it again next year or waits another 37 years before winning another.

For the women, going to the Final Four for the second time in school history brought back fond memories of Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow for current head coach Wes Moore, who broke out in tears when talking about his former mentor the day before his team’s semifinal game against South Carolina. Yow’s only visit to the Final Four was the 1998 tournament in Kansas City.

For Moore’s team, the runner-up in the ACC women’s tournament, success in conference play has become regular. He and his program are just two years removed from winning three consecutive ACC titles from 2020-22, something neither program had done since the men won their first three titles from 1954-56.

Advancing to the final weekend of the national tournament, however, was something none of those teams accomplished.

To do that after preseason expectations had the women picked eighth in the conference is an amazing accomplishment, almost as impressive as the five consecutive games the men won in five days to bring home the ACC title.

After beating Connecticut early in the year and recording other big wins over ranked teams, Moore’s squad has spent most of the calendar year ranked in the Top 10, finishing at No. 4 in the final end-of-season poll released Tuesday by the Associated Press.

It was significant that the men also ended up No. 10 in AP’s final poll and No. 13 in ESPN’s coaches’ poll.

Much was made online about the two teams ending up in the top 10 of the last poll of the season because it has never happened before. That’s a little bit of false glory since this is the first time the AP has produced a national poll after the NCAA men’s tournament since 1975, when the Wolfpack men finished at No. 5. (The AP women’s poll didn’t begin until 1978.)

All other final polls since then were released before the start of the NCAA tournaments, which is why the 1983 national champions have a final ranking of No. 16 and Houston is No. 1. We all know what happened when they went head-to-head in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the night of April 4, 1983.

The men didn’t appear in the poll until the end-of-the-season poll, making Keatts and his squad the first team in AP Top 25 history, which began in 1988-89, to make its only poll appearance in a season in the Top 10.

The only team that came close to matching that was back when the AP rankings only included 20 teams (1947-1988). Louisville, following its 1986 national championship, opened the 1986-87 season ranked No. 2 in the preseason, promptly lost its first three games, fell out of the Top 20 and never returned again.

Significantly, the men finished in the final Top 10 with North Carolina (No. 4) and Duke (No. 8). It’s the first time since Jan. 9, 1979, that all three Triangle schools have appeared in the Top 10 of any poll (preseason, in-season or postseason) at the same time.

Wolfpack fans certainly enjoyed the run, from those who made unexpected trips to Phoenix and Cleveland to the hundreds who stood in line at Wolfpack Outfitters and the Red & White Shop to buy ACC Championship, Sweet 16 and Final Four gear to the thousands of students and spry alumni who gathered at the Memorial Tower for celebrations unlike anything seen around Raleigh since the Reagan era.

Every NC State fan who lived through the last month knew this was something special.

Now, they can quantify it.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.

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