After a historic second-weekend shutout, Triangle’s hoops teams look for NCAA redemption
The question was posed last March, after the Triangle was shut out of the second weekend of the men’s NCAA tournament for only the fifth time since 1979, but the second time in three years: Was this the beginning of a trend, or a historical aberration?
It was hard to tell then. The state of the North Carolina program was up for grabs after crashing from the national-title game to out of the tournament entirely. Duke won an ACC title in Jon Scheyer’s first season, but exited the NCAA tournament meekly in the second round. And N.C. State was finally back in the conversation, but no one knew for how long.
It didn’t help that all three women’s teams exited quickly as well, making it a true outlier, a basketball comet not seen in this night sky for 17 years.
Here we are, almost a year later, and UNC is a No. 1 seed for a record 18th time. Duke, as a No. 4 seed, is at least expected to advance through the first weekend. And N.C. State, after its underdog run to the ACC championship, is clearly capable of anything.
We have our answer.
Even if there’s another regional-round shutout, it’s already safe to say now that it’s not a trend. All three programs put themselves in position this season to make runs in the NCAA tournament. At least one should make a long run. All three might.
They do face some unique challenges. North Carolina earned its No. 1 seed, but would face a tough second-round opponent in Charlotte in the Michigan State-Mississippi State winner, then has to go west to Los Angeles. The ACC title-game loss to the Wolfpack, in which UNC looked strangely complacent at times before a late shooting slump doomed the Tar Heels to defeat, should provide a welcome kick in the pants and jolt of motivation.
For how big Duke’s losses to North Carolina and N.C. State felt, they were only by a total of 10 points. The Blue Devils certainly have some work to do to get their mojo back, but this is also a team that had been busy blowing the doors off Virginia and the Wolfpack before that. The road ahead is tough — if Duke gets past Vermont, Wisconsin and Houston may be next, but hardly insurmountable.
And then there’s the Wolfpack, which somehow found a way to do something only Connecticut, in 2011, had ever done before: Win five games in five days in a conference tournament. UConn, famously, went on to win its next six games as well, but that team was ranked in the top 10 for most of the season before a late slump. That said, the way N.C. State shot the ball in Washington, who would want to test the Wolfpack? N.C. State should have a considerable size advantage against Texas Tech, but Kentucky looms.
As for the women, only N.C. State would be expected by seed to advance, and the Wolfpack is hosting at Reynolds Coliseum while Duke and North Carolina have to go on the road, but that’s only marginally different from last season. There’s work to do, but not impossibly so.
Either way, either gender, the standard is the standard. This is a place where college basketball is defined by national championships and Final Fours. We’re long overdue on the women’s side at 17 years, N.C. State’s near-miss in 2022 notwithstanding. Getting to the second weekend is just where the bar is set on the men’s side.
We talk about March, and that’s fine, but around here it’s really about getting to April.
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