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N.C. State has a rare big moment on the biggest stages.
I went to my one Hurricanes hockey game each year, as my friend from New England Chip Hughes takes me when the Boston Bruins come to town. Each time I go to the PNC Arena, I am amazed at what a great facility it is and how rabid their fans are for professional hockey and college basketball.
The Canes are a favorite this season to win the Stanley Cup, which would be their second after the franchise survived a tough move from Hartford, Connecticut.
That Lord Stanley’s Cup was hoisted in 2006, which was decades after the State men’s basketball team won their two NCAA championships.
Early in the Canes’ 4-1 loss to the Bruins, the picture of the Wolfpack men and women who are in their respective Final Fours drew a large roar when it appeared on the giant video boards.
What an amazing accomplishment for Kevin Keats and women’s coach Wes Moore. The fans of UConn are used to that double play, but State is the second school in the ACC besides Duke to ever do that in the same year.
I also wondered about the State men who are mostly transfers playing their last year of college basketball, catching lightning in a bottle for a program with veterans D.J. Burns and D.J. Horne that will have to rebuild again after this season.
How has the State program not been better than that?
Besides playing in a state-of-the art building, the men have a rich history that goes all the way back to David Thompson and the 1974 national champions and nine years later to Jimmy V ‘s NCAA Cardiac Pack.
State is clearly making a move in football, but playing basketball in the tradition-rich ACC should be easier to compete for conference and national honors.
The Carolina-Duke rivalry has dwarfed UNC-State in the interceding 50 years. The Pack has had five coaches since the late Valvano, who despite the trouble he got into at the end of his tenure is still the standard.
Finally, Keatts has pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the historic late-season run. But, win or lose in Arizona, State has a chance to build on this exciting experience so the Pack might be able to do it again rather than slipping back into mediocrity now that the two DJ’s have turned the table in the right direction.
State has a chance to beat Purdue in the men’s semifinals in Phoenix, but whoever wins that game will be a serious underdog against defending NCAA champ UConn, the only school whose men own five national championships but have had more than twice that success with their women.
Featured image via Associated Press/LM Otero
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.
