As college basketball fans we all love the cinderella run story of NC State making it to the elite 8 this season, and the chance they have to beat Duke and go to the final four is a great storyline. However, just 3 weeks ago the Wolfpack was tied at 75 against 8-22 Louisville with a high chance of their season ending that day.
— Barstool Louisville (@BarstoolCards) March 30, 2024
NC State ending up pulling away from Louisville in the final 2 minutes of that game, but if they didn't, NC State would likley be watching the tounrey from home and Kevin Keatts may have been fired as the head coach of the program.
Which is a total 180 from what could have been for the Wolfpack.
Skyy Clark dropped 36 points in Louisville's final game, hitting 7 threes in the process, but even that was not enough to defeat NC State in the end. All in all, it was for the better, as Louisville would likely have lost their 2nd round ACC Tourney game, and NC State would have not made the tourney.
Instead of all that negative drama we have had a great ACC cinderella run and another middle of the pack SEC team was kicked out of the tournament (thankfully).
Louisville winning that game would have been nice in the moment, but I think we are all glad the Wolfpack were able to win and go on this amazing run in March.
It is an interesting "what if?" for how this postseason could have gone for NC State, and interestingly enough for it to be Louisville to put an end to them is the ultimate cherry on top for the Kenny Payne era in a painfully ironic way here at Louisville.