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Carolina’s visit to N.C. State Saturday has ramifications for both.
Last season, you may remember, the Tar Heels swept the Wolfpack and then met again for the ACC Tourney championship after State had won four games in four days at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
The Pack had struggled to a 15-14 record in the regular season that upped the heat on sixth-year coach Kevin Keatts. Reportedly, the school had raised money to buy Keatts out of his contract.
For UNC, which had captured the ACC regular season title, the Heels were not only playing for a No. 1 NCAA seed but their first ACC Tournament championship since 2016. They blew out Florida State on Thursday and held off Pitt in the Friday semifinals.
State had beaten Louisville and Syracuse to reach the Thursday quarters against heavily favored Duke and led the 11th-ranked Blue Devils by two at the half. Behind All-ACC tourney picks D.J. Burns and D.J. Horne, they held off Duke to win 74-69.
In the semifinals against Virginia, scrappy guard Michael O’Connell banked in a 3-pointer to force overtime where State beat the Cavaliers 73-65. The Wolfpack was trying on the glass slipper heading for Saturday night’s championship game.
Only UConn had ever won five games in five days to win its conference tournament. State was playing for its first ACC title since 1987 and, as it turned out, to save Keatts’ job. The Wolfpack beat Carolina 84-76 and Duke again in the Elite Eight to reach its first Final Four since the 1983 Cardiac Pack. Keatts got a new contract.
That one win over its archrival saved the coach’s job, which could be on the line again at the Lenovo Center, where the Tar Heels will be in their own struggle to earn a second straight NCAA bid under Hubert Davis, who has had his own share of criticism for his 10-6 team.
Carolina has a NET ranking of 40 after its impressive win over SMU (No. 45) Tuesday night. The Heels are 3-1 in ACC play and will be heavily favored over Cal and Stanford in their next two home games. So they could be 6-1 before a brutal stretch that starts at Wake Forest, home and home against Pitt, at Duke and at Clemson, which will have a bearing on their own NCAA chances.
State, which is 9-6 and 2-2 for a NET 131 and would be a very bad loss for Carolina, no longer has the two D.J.s and two other starters. The money raised to pay off Keatts went to NIL, which helped them land former Tar Heel Dontrez Styles who transferred from Georgetown and averages 9.6 points and a team-high 4.5 rebounds.
The status going into the 4 p.m. tip-off is that Keatts is back in hot water for not being able to recruit better freshmen and transfers after making the Final Four. So it could be another one game season to save the head coach.
Featured image via Associated Press/Karl B. DeBlaker
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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