It’s been 37 years since NC State won anything of significance.

As much as fans have tried to hold on to it, and as much as the school has continued to celebrate it, the magic of ’74, ’83 and ’87 was fading away. The newer generation of Wolfpack fans only heard stories or seen statues of David Thompson or Jim Valvano. They never had a dose of that magic, that once tasted, would hook a fan for life.

It had actually been the opposite. They had grown up in the era of “NC State Sh*t” and “The Law of the Wolf” which were jokes that over time had become self-fulfilling prophecies. Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong. If there was a way to lose, NC State could find it. Whenever there was expectation, it’d be followed by disappointment. Les Robinson, Herb Sendek, Sidney Lowe, and Mark Gottfried had all failed to bring home a banner. Then came Kevin Keatts, who wrote a check with his mouth that Wolfpack fans desperately wanted to believe he could cash.

But after 7 years it looked like that was just another empty promise.

Any fan that can vividly remember 1983 is now at least 50. And any fan that was there for the 1987 run is at least 45. Trying to explain to kids what those magical runs were like wasn’t easy. Some might argue that the grainy footage from 1983 has become more associated with Jimmy V’s battle against cancer than about the historic run that NC State made. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, the point I’m making is that the dream, the passion and the belief that NC State could bottle up that magic again and become king of the ACC, well…it was all but gone.

Older NC State fans were panicking. They had come to the conclusion that maybe it was time to go out and over-pay for a well-known coach. Maybe that coach would somehow come in and change the program. Maybe he would put together a roster that would consistently beat UNC and Duke and maybe NC State would become a national powerhouse again.

That’s what NC State fans wanted. But it turns out, that’s not what they needed.

Going that route would be unchartered territory for the Wolfpack, and while it sounds nice, it’s not who we are. It’s never been who we were. What has made NC State so special is that our most magical moments have come with the odds stacked against us.

Norm Sloan was a former Wolfpack player who become the coach. No one expected a national championship when he was hired, but he delivered one. Jim Valvano was basically a nobody from Iona who had a few good seasons at a mid-major, no one knew that his run would re-define the Wolfpack forever.

Kevin Keatts was supposed to be the next version of this. The up and comer from Wilmington who could catch lightning in a bottle once again in Raleigh.

But after 7 years of uneven results, his NC State tenure was all but dead. The media, the fan base, and allegedly the administration had pretty much decided that it was probably time to go a different direction. The school whose entire history was built on ‘against all odds’ success stories were ready to throw in the towel.

And that’s when the magic showed back up.

See, that’s the thing with ‘world-beaters’ , they’re only able to be ‘world-beaters’ once they whole world is against them. And while the NC State fan base considers themselves ‘world-beaters’ the truth is, we’ve really only been witness to this phenomenon, a by-product of the process, and while we’ve shared in the joy and pain that comes along with it I’m not sure we really understand the dynamics of it all. Sure, we are a piece of the recipe. Our inability to forget the past and our demands to return to greatness once again, prevent apathy from setting in, but it also creates a pressure-vacuum that not every coach is built to handle. At the end of the day, we need a leader who has what it takes to take on EVERYONE..even when we are part of the opposition.

Kevin Keatts was left for dead, by all of us. NC State basketball was left for dead, by all of us. Say whatever you want to say, but you know in your heart you didn’t really believe, on Tuesday, that Kevin Keatts would be hoisting that trophy over his head for the first time in 37 years, on Saturday.

I’ve been called a Keatts apologist for years. I’ve written articles about Kevin Keatts that I looked back on and wondered what I missed, or how I could have been so wrong about him. I thought it was over, and this year, for the first time, I was admitting that maybe it was time to move on.

But Kevin Keatts was able to filter out the noise, ignore those that he had trusted that had seemingly abandoned him, and continued to believe that his vision for this program was correct and that despite the ups and downs, he was in fact, a winner who would give us the ACC championship we desperately craved.

Keatts and the Wolfpack just made history. 5 games. 5 days. Running an absolute gauntlet, knocking off the 3 seed, the 2 seed and then bitter-rival, UNC, the #1 seed. Doing it with an under-recruited guard back in his hometown out to prove he was over-looked, with a highly touted big-man who was cast off by Tennessee and had to build back his reputation at Winthrop before getting a chance in Raleigh. Coached by a guy who was being pushed out the door by his own fanbase.

Last night, Keatts hoisted NC State’s first ACC Tournament Championship trophy in 37 years. He did it against all odds. He did it when nobody but him and his team thought they could. That takes unwavering belief. That takes unflappable confidence. That takes a bunch of world-beaters with a chip on their shoulder.

Kevin Keatts isn’t he leader we wanted. He is the leader we needed. Maybe he was the guy built for this. Maybe most of us couldn’t recognize it, because the road here was bumpy, long, and sometimes felt like it was leading nowhere. Maybe it’s because we had been here before and it didn’t work out, and maybe that’s because we didn’t have a leader who had it in them to take on this pressure. Maybe because they didn’t have that in them, they couldn’t recognize players who also shared that inner-dog-mentality.

Maybe this this was the perfect storm of adversity we had to overcome to find that magic again.

Sure, NC State could have given up and gone the traditional route. They could have fired Keatts and tried to build the program with big money and top-tier recruits getting big time NIL deals, but would it really be the same NC State that you fell in love with? Would it really have ever captured the magic that has produced one of the most passionate fan bases in college basketball?

You know the answer to that. It’s a big no.

NC State would have loved things to just have worked out. For Keatts to have walked in and turned the Pack into contenders on day 1. That’s what they wanted…but it’s not what they needed.

What NC State needed was a against-all-odds run like this. To have all of that patience, all of that belief, all of that pain, rewarded with the loudest ‘I told you so!’ in the past 37 years.

Kevin Keatts and NC State bottled that magic once again. Now this generation understands. Now this generation can learn to believe. Now this generation knows that “Don’t Ever Give Up!” was always more than just a slogan.

Kevin Keatts didn’t just lead NC State to their first ACC Tournament Championship in 37 years. Kevin Keatts may have just saved NC State basketball fandom as we know it. And he did it against ALL odds…just as we always wanted needed it.