Who would have thought that a buzzer-beater in a conference tournament would have such a ripple effect? NC State has officially slain two blue bloods on their way to a Final Four berth in March Madness. First, DJ Burns and DJ Horne demolished the duo of Armando Bacot and RJ Davis in the ACC Tournament. Next, they steamrolled their way in the NCAA Tournament against Texas Tech, Oakland, and Marquette. Now, they have also slain another mighty blue blood in Jon Scheyer's Duke basketball program.
Yes, you are not dreaming. NC State is back in March Madness' Final Four for the first time since 1983. DJ Burns and the rest of the Wolfpack are headed to Phoenix in the NCAA Tournament where they will be met with another dominant big man in Zach Edey. This NC State squad also became the first program to win their region despite suffering 14 losses throughout their regular season run. If someone is looking for the greatest example of a mid-season turnaround, just point them toward Raleigh, North Carolina.
The shoe still fits for Cinderella
Only 1.94% of brackets picked the Wolfpack to go this far into the NCAA Tournament. This meant that there were a lot of reactions when they were pummeling Duke before the final buzzer made them stop.
A lot of fans were just glad they got a good March Madness game on Easter, “That NC State vs Duke game was amazing. Both NC State’s Women’s and Men’s basketball teams are going to the final 4. Go Wolfpack!!!”
Other members of the NC State faithful rejoiced because of how their brackets are doing, “This is March Madness and I can’t get enough of it!! And on at least 3 of my brackets, I had it down to UConn and NC State!! The darlings of the tourney and I absolutely love watching DJ Burns Jr play! Let’s go Wolfpack.”
When one side is happy in March Madness, another fan base is clearly disappointed. A lot of the Blue Blood fans shared those sentiments with a few exceptions, “Up and down season for my Blue Devils honestly wasn’t expecting them to get this far in the tournament but I’m extremely proud of this team!”
Some even took jabs at Coach Jon Scheyer for the NCAA Tournament loss, “Favorites in the NCAA tournament should never shoot more 3s than their opponent. It creates completely unnecessary, avoidable loss variance. Guess Scheyer didn’t take any math courses at Duke. That’s all it is, just math”
NC State keeps dancing because of their DJs
Being 10th in the ACC did not at all matter for this squad when they had DJ Burns and DJ Horne. Burns managed to score 29 points on a Duke frontcourt that featured Mark Mitchell and Kyle Filipowski. Meanwhile, Horne managed to thrive despite the switches he got on the perimeter. Whether it was Jared McCain, Tyrese Proctor, or Jeremy Roach, he got a shot off which led to him scoring 20 points.
Michael O'Connell was still the glue guy for NC State. He did just about anything from grabbing 11 rebounds, dishing out six dimes, and scoring six points. Will all of this remain intact against the Boilermakers?
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