NC State Basketball
This is Why You Never Give Up
NC State lost 10 of their last 14 games to close out the regular season, 7 of the final 9, and 4 straight heading into the ACC Tournament.
Many coaches and many players would give up, or at least, their confidence would be so rattled, finding any success in the ACC Tournament would be hard to come by. It would be hard not to believe the critics. It would be easy to split and crack as a unit.
This team didn’t ever stop believing in themselves, when no one else did, and as a result, they have done what no one else has done.
Since 1984-85, when the field expanded to 64 teams, there have been 2,784 instances of a Division I team losing at least 10 of its last 14 games to end the regular season.@PackMensBball is the only one of those to reach the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament that same year. pic.twitter.com/KH2AI8Qnyz
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) March 22, 2024
No team that lost 10 of 14 to close the regular season had ever reached the Round of 32.
NC State zoomed past the Round of 32 to the Final 4.
No team that has ever lost 14 games in a season has ever made the Final Four.
NC State just did.
Only 1 other team in college basketball history has won 5 straight games in their conference tournament to win the conference championship, and that was UCONN in 2011. NC State became the 2nd a couple of weeks back.
UCONN just so happened to go on to win the National Championship in 2011.
That 2011 Huskies squad was 21-9 headed into the Big East Tournament, and they were the #9 seed. They had lost 7 of the last 11 regular season games. The went on to win 5 games in 5 days to win the Big East Title, and followed that up with 6 more wins in the NCAA Tournament to bring home the hardware.
That’s why you don’t ever give up.
Arguably, what NC State has done this season is more impressive than what UCONN did in 2011, heading into the Final Four, and if the Wolfpack were to match their accomplishment, they will have to go through steeper competition.
UCONN played #4 seed Kentucky in the Final Four, and #8 seed Butler in the Championship Game.
NC State has #1 seed Purdue in the Final Four on Friday night.
The Wolfpack haven’t shown any signs of being intimidated during this 9-game winning streak.
Why would that start on Friday?
Purdue isn’t invincible. They lost to Northwestern, Nebraska, Ohio St. and Wisconsin this year.
‘Why Not Us?’ has been the mantra of this miracle run in March for NC State.
Really, it’s just another way of saying ‘Never Give Up.’
What happened in the regular season is irrelevant. In the postseason, NC State is playing like one of the Top-4 teams in the country, and Purdue just so happens to be the next opponent.
It doesn’t matter that the odds were stacked against them.
It doesn’t matter that a #11 seed has never made the NCAA Championship game (lowest is #8 seed).
Why Not Us?
It doesn’t matter that a #11 seed has never won an NCAA Title (lowest is #8 seed).
Why Not Us?
Everything is there for the taking, and anything can happen when you lace up your shoes and the ball is tossed in the air at tipoff.
This is why you never give up.