NC State in Final Fours
Three times in, twice as national champs, one more ahead, stories abound
If you’re like me and caught up in the excitement of the 2024 NCAA basketball tournaments—men’s and women’s—then you must be a NC State Wolfpack fan, or maybe a UConn Huskie supporter.
The two schools have teams in both tournaments, the Final Four of each. If the Wolfpack and the Huskies win semifinal games—the women on Friday and the men on Saturday—the two schools would play each other in the two NCAA championship games.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably already realized that, but we’re getting ahead of it, whatever “it” is.
This week, actually the last 20+ days or so, has offered a smorgasbord of story ideas for the general media and writers such as me (or is it “I”), especially when it comes to NC State.
While the effort by the Wolfpack on the women’s side has been fun and exciting, it takes a slight back seat to what the men’s team has done. Stories have been coming fast and furious after the Wolfpack lost seven of its last nine games of the regular season (one story idea), before sweeping the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship tournament (another idea), winning five games in five days for that title (another story idea), to make the NCAA field of 68 teams (yet another, when completely ruled out at one point), to win first and second round NCAA games and then win the regional to advance to the Final Four in Glendale AZ (a bunch of story ideas), bonuses and contract extensions coach Kevin Keatts gets for continuing to advance (another idea), and player profiles (a lot more stories).
The Wall Street Journal has a story about the odds of NC State’s men getting to Final Four and then winning the title. The headline says, This Final Four Team Isn’t a Long Shot. It’s a 23,512-to-1 Miracle. The subhead says, N.C. State has won nine games in a row. Now they’re two wins away from a national title. The odds of this happening: lower than the likelihood that you’ll be struck by lightning.
The story says if you place a $100 bet on NC State prior to the first ACC Tournament game and then rolled over your winnings after each game, that $100 now would be worth $660,000! Hindsight is wonderful.
Let us be reminded in 1983 Washington Post writer Dave Kindred penned: ALBUQUERQUE, April 3, 1983 -- Trees will tap dance, elephants will drive at Indy and Orson Welles will skip lunch before North Carolina State finds a way to beat Houston in the NCAA's college basketball championship game Monday night.
Wolfpack fans have been scouring the internet seeking such stories to affirm what’s out there in journalism to see if the home team is being treated properly. While the prose are interesting, including mine (I think!), just sitting back, taking it all in, thinking ahead to the next game, discovering that 99 percent of all airline flights to Phoenix are full is as good as it gets.
Within there have been multitudes of player and coach stories such as endless prose about DJ Burns, the NC State twinkle-toe center big man who dances around the defenders and scoring with such a soft touch that he could probably change a diaper without awaking the baby.
There have been stories about men’s coach Kevin Keatts, including rumors of his possible dismissal after the ACC tournament. Not going to happen any time soon.
The NC State’s men’s basketball team’s journey to the Final Four is simply amazing and just a level or two above the same accomplishment by the women. The men are now in their 4th NCAA Final Four and have a 2-1 record for winning the title when getting to the Final Four.
One story idea has been the Wolfpack men’s team other visits to the NCAA Final Four, two from which NC State extracted the title, and one where third place was the end result. That was in the 1950 post-season tournament. There were eight teams in that event: Four from the East; four from the West:
1950 NCAA EAST TEAMS:
CCNY, coach Nat Holman, Metro New York Conference
Ohio State, coach Tipper Dye, Big Ten Conference
Holy Cross, coach Buster Sheary, Independent
North Carolina State, coach Everett Case, Southern Conference
1950 NCAA WEST TEAMS
Baylor, coach Bill Henderson, Southwest Conference
Bradley, coach Forrdy Anderson, Missouri Valley Conference
BYU, coach Stan Watts, Mountain States Conference
UCLA, coach John Wooden, Pacific Coast Conference
1950 NCAA RESULTS:
In the East quarterfinals, CCNY defeated Ohio State, and NC State defeated Holy Cross.
In the West quarterfinals, Baylor topped BYU. and Bradley beat UCLA. In the tournament semifinals, CCNY beat NC State, and Bradley beat Baylor.
In the championship game, CCNY defeated Bradley. And, NC State claimed third place with a win over Baylor.
Overall record: 27-6
Southern Conference record: 12-2 (regular season)
Won the Southern Conference tournament (3-0).
Ranked 5th in the final Associated Press poll
The Wolfpack roster included:
Player/Class/Pos/Height/Points per game
Sam Ranzino/JR/F/6-1/18.8 Pts
Dick Dickey/SR/F/6-11/3.9 Pts
Paul Horvath/JR/C/6-7/11.1 Pts
Warren Cartier/SR/C/6-4/6.5 Pts
Vic Bubas/JR/G/6-2/5.5 Pts
Joe Harand/JR/G/6-5/4.9 Pts
Bob Cook/SO/6-4/2.4 Pts
Lee Terrill/SO/6-0/1.6 Pts
Charlie Stine/SR/F/6-0/2.0 Pts
Pete Jackmowski/6-2/0.9 Pts
Joe Stoll, SO/6-3/0.8 Pts
Bob Holt/6-3/0.0 Pts
It’s all interesting, especially if you like history along with present day stuff.
For more on the NC State Final Fours, click:
Hopefully the 2024 NCAA Tournament entry will be updated next week with the Wolfpack bringing home the championship trophies, men’s and women!
Go Pack!