Duke, NC State bandwagons full again after making the most of March
Kevin Keatts warned D.J. Burns to be nice, because he knew they were venturing into dangerous territory, up there in the bright lights, feeling good about themselves.
In the wake of N.C. State’s win over Oakland, what would Burns say to the people who didn’t think the Wolfpack could make it this far?
“I’m just saying welcome back,” Burns said. “They didn’t really believe in us. They probably still don’t but that doesn’t matter to us. We’re just going to stay together. If you’re supporting us, thank you. If not, that’s what it is.”
As N.C. State and Duke gather in Dallas for this ACC mini-reunion 15 days after their meeting in the ACC tournament, with a potential Final Four elimination game looming if the Wolfpack can get past Marquette and the Blue Devils can get past Houston — although neither will be favored to do so — they have one thing in common above all else.
Their bandwagons are full.
Standing-room only, even.
All the Wolfpack fans who wanted Kevin Keatts fired after N.C. State closed out a once-promising regular season with four straight losses are singing his praises now, for the way he’s found a way to not only end the four-decade ACC title drought but maneuver the Wolfpack into the Sweet 16 for the first time in nine years with a cast of characters that’s finally figured out how to be more than the sum of its parts.
And Jon Scheyer has done a lot to quell the whispers that have been buzzing in the background ever since last year’s second-round loss to Tennessee, when the Blue Devils were bullied out of the NCAA tournament, and only got louder after the losses to North Carolina and N.C. State. Duke isn’t going to lose many games when Jared McCain hits six first-half 3-pointers, but the Blue Devils also met every challenge of a tough, veteran James Madison squad many thought could push Duke around again.
“None of us forgot about what happened with Tennessee in the second round,” Duke forward Kyle Filipowski said. “I think that just added a little bit more fire to us, to the returning guys, and we knew it was going to be a similar type of game. I think we learned our lesson playing last year. We didn’t want to repeat that at all.”
A different kind of repeat may be in the cards as fate has brought Duke and N.C. State back together again. As close as things have come over the years — in East Rutherford in 1989 or Indianapolis in 1991 or Syracuse in 2005 or St. Louis in 2012 or San Antonio in 2013 — the cataclysmic collision of Duke and North Carolina in New Orleans in 2022 was the first and remains the only Triangle-on-Triangle NCAA tournament game.
Given all they have done lately, how far they have come, it wouldn’t be shocking at all to see Duke and N.C. State meet again for even bigger stakes.
This is the beauty and danger of March. Redemption is often at hand. So is disaster. Compressing an entire season’s worth of conclusions into three or four weeks, and sometimes less, can make for wild swings of emotion and momentum. At no point on the calendar, and maybe in no other sport, can two or three wins change the arc of entire careers, just as Jack Gohlke will never buy a drink in Louisville for the rest of his life.
For N.C. State, it was seven wins in 12 days, but the point stands. That’s what it was always going to take to alter the course of history, to shed the baggage the Wolfpack has carried for so long. For Duke, it only took two in three days, but it was a turning point for a team that had as much to prove as it has raw talent.
Either way, they arrive in Dallas swept along by their success, trying to keep hope alive just that little bit longer, their refreshed and reboarded fans along for the ride.
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This story was originally published March 28, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Duke, NC State bandwagons full again after making the most of March."
