After NC State clinched a series victory over UNC last night in Baseball, I thought it would be a good time to relish in how the Wolfpack has dominated the Tar Heels Athletic Program as a whole in 2023-24.
The Wolfpack Baseball team has won the first two games in the series against the Tar Heels, clinching a series victory over UNC for the first time since 2021. It marks the first time NC State has won a series against the Tar Heels in Raleigh since 2016.
NC State defeated UNC in Volleyball 3-1, winning in Chapel Hill for the first time in 25 years. The Tar Heels had won the last 5 matches against the Wolfpack.
The Wolfpack defeated the Tar Heels 39-20 in Football in Carter-Finley Stadium. It marked the 3rd consecutive win over UNC.
NC State lost both regular season games to UNC in Men’s Basketball, but when it mattered most, the Wolfpack defeated the Tar Heels in the ACC Championship Game 84-76, winning their first title since 1987.
The Wolfpack Women’s Basketball team lost to their rival in Chapel Hill, but defeated UNC 63-59 in Reynolds Coliseum. NC State has won 5 of the last 7 against UNC.
In Gymnastics, NC State defeated UNC 196.725-194.925 in Raleigh. This marked the 3rd straight victory for the Wolfpack over the Tar Heels.
NC State’s Men & Women’s Swimming & Diving teams both beat UNC. The Men won 258-93, and the Women won 196-157.
The Wolfpack Wrestling team defeated UNC 33-6 in Reynolds Coliseum. NC State has won 11 straight Duals against the Tar Heels.
The NC State Men’s Tennis team defeated UNC 4-0, winning against their rival in back-to-back years.
The Wolfpack Women’s Tennis team has defeated the Tar Heels 4-3 on two occasions thus far this season, and will face their rival again today.
The Cross Country teams didn’t have individual meets against UNC, but the Women obviously beat them, because they won the ACC Championship. The Men didn’t, finishing 8th in the Conference, with the Tar Heels finishing 1st.
The only other NC State athletic team that didn’t taste victory against UNC this year was the Women’s Soccer team, losing 0-4 in Raleigh.
Of course, each of these NC State athletic teams has much higher goals than just beating their rival, but there’s no denying how sweet it is to beat the Tar Heels.
Rowan, Yurtseven and Johnson deserve game balls. Dennis Smith,jr touched the ball 18 times in the last 5 minutes of the game which produced 2 turnovers, 2 foul shots (important) and 14 neutral exchanges. Said another way, his touches were net negative down the stretch. The offense runs better with Johnson running the show. DS,jr is too much dribble isolation.
It is also fairly difficult to dribble penetrate into a 3-2 zone, there are going to be many times when DSJR attacking the basket is the best option, but it was nice to see that we did not just settle for that on every single play.
We will be a better team next year if all we loose is DSJR.
Johnson is a quality player with great potential, and he had a great game last night, but from a plus/minus and win shares perspective (or any other measure that doesn’t involve an arm chair and a TV) there’s just no comparison between him and DSJ. We are almost unquestionably worse with DSJ on the bench.
Looks like you are in the minority concerning DSJR, YAK.
Thankfully internet commenters don’t make the decisions about playing time. You can count on our fan base to be self-defeating – it’s what we do best.
I don’t know what planet you came from. Our self-defeating attitude is based on what we have seen on the field and court. Lucky for me when I was in school, we were one of the dominant team in football, basketball, and baseball in the ACC. I am still waiting on a revival. You can just keep drinking the Kool-Aid.