Image taken by matimix for istockphoto.com
North Carolina State has an early victory to start off March Madness in the U.S. North Carolina now won five games in a row in the NCAA tournament. After a series of losses, the college basketball team went on a winning streak. The college basketball team has not won the ACC tournament since 1987.
The win comes after a series of losses for the team; the winning streak was long awaited. They are now known as only the second-ever team to compete in the AAC tournament from a tenth-seed ranking of fifteen teams. Today, we’ll look at what this win means for the university. The team’s recent wins feel like nothing short of a Cinderella story.
The NC State Basketball team had a strong win on Saturday night with a win over North Carolina University (84-76). Tom Schad wrote an article for “USA Today”. Schad wrote, “The Wolfpack lost seven of its last nine regular-season games. They came to Washington as the No. 10 seed in the ACC tournament.
The team needed to win five games in five days to prolong its season” (Schad). The team desperately needed this win to stay in the tournament. What’s more, is that the team had yet to compete in the ACC tournament since 1987. It’s safe to say that this streak was a long time coming. The win also came for a well-deserved game against a rival team with a respectable record.
The official N.C. State basketball website wrote an article to overview the game. The article read, “The Pack was leading by 12 points in the second half. The Tar Heels got to tie the game at one point in the game. With less than four minutes in the game, Horne made a pair of free throws to move the Pack ahead by 11 points, ultimately proving the lead too much for the Tar Heels to overcome” (gopack.com).
The game overview shows a dominant team that refused to go down without a fight. N.C. State ultimately came out on top and became AAC champions for the first time in 37 years. It is a win for both the team players and the coach.
N.C. State basketball coach, Kevin Keatts, won just as much as his players. In an article for the Associated Press by Stephen Whyno, Keats’ story is told. Whyno wrote, “Talk about Keatts losing his job will likely die down. Next, the Wolfpack will try to pull off the NCAA Tournament win they couldn’t last year when they lost to Creighton. Keatts earned a two-year contract extension through 2028” (Whyno). The win did not only save a team’s legacy, but it might have saved a coach’s job. The win then seemed to revitalize the entire team going into March Madness starting on March 17th. Let’s just hope that this energy can be carried into the coming weeks of the competition.
North Carolina State will go up against Texas Tech. On March 21st to continue in the tournament.
One can only hope that our Cinderella story can continue after their first NCAA match of the season on March 21st. Their competition will be fierce and they can win by keeping up the same determination and energy that brought them the ACC win this year.
Let’s hope that the wave of wins brings the team the kind of energy needed to win the NCAA tournament this year. The team has shown so far that they certainly have the drive and focus to win this year and bring home their first NCAA win since the year of 1983, when they last won.
Image taken by matimix for istockphoto.com
This article was edited by Aadrita Halder
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