RALEIGH, N.C. — The least anticipated N.C. State-North Carolina game in more than a decade managed to live down to the hype. It’s only a rivalry if both teams have a chance to win, and only one did Saturday.
To their eternal credit at this point in the season, N.C. State fans still showed up at PNC to watch what they almost certainly knew was a fait accompli, one of the better crowds of a dismal finishing stretch for a team that won only one home ACC game all season.
In December or January, there was still a chance Dereon Seabron or Terquavion Smith could shock and surprise, or at the least entertain, but two months of losing wrung the enthusiasm out of an inexperienced team and its fans alike.
Given the tepid atmosphere — the biggest cheers were for David Thompson (more on him later) and the football team — there was very little about this game that felt like a rivalry, other than Caleb Love trying to put Ebenezer Dowuona on a poster and Dowuona having very little of it. They jawed back and forth before and after Love’s free throws, but it was a rare instance of emotion on a night when the Wolfpack’s spirit seemed as miscalibrated as its shooting in an 84-74 loss that wasn’t anywhere near as close as the final score would indicate. North Carolina led by double digits through the entire forgettable second half.
N.C. State was so outclassed, this game even broke the as-goes-Caleb-Love-so-go-the-Tar-Heels rule that has otherwise governed UNC’s season. Of course, not much else matters when Armando Bacot goes for 28 and 18 with five blocks, and without a tremendous degree of difficulty doing it against an N.C. State team with no capability to handle him.
The Wolfpack had a plan to defend Bacot that didn’t work and the Tar Heels had a plan to isolate Bacot in the middle of the lane that did, and everything else was moot after that.
Would things have been different if Manny Bates hadn’t been injured in the first minute of the first game? It’s only a question of degrees. At the defensive end alone, he was a get-out-of-jail-free card for State’s very young guards. At the offensive end, he would have given N.C. State a pick-and-roll threat worth honoring; UNC didn’t even bother tagging the rollers after the Wolfpack’s big men set screens, nor did the Wolfpack’s guards ever look for Ebenezer Dowuona or Jaylen Gibson.
Bates, who still has a year of eligibility left, was honored with Jericole Hellems and Thomas Allen on Senior Afternoon, an all-too-tangible reminder of what might have been. Hellems and Allen got framed jerseys. Bates, N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts was quick to point out, did not.
Also present were members of the 1974 team, Thompson and Tom Burleson and Monte Towe and Moe Rivers. A few years back, in the middle of what may have been the worst performance in N.C. State history, a 47-24 loss to Virginia Tech, the PNC scoreboard mistakenly identified 1983 champion Ernie Myers as Thompson. The legend was correctly identified this time, and the N.C. State performance wasn’t as bad, but the result was equally disheartening.
The wolves are out for Keatts – who broke with the season’s athleisure dress code to bust out the red blazer and Gucci wolf loafers out of respect for his seniors, to no avail – and understandably so, given the Wolfpack’s 4-14 ACC record and inability to even compete with a below-average North Carolina team in either game. Crowds had, until Saturday, been waning weekly, as the early interest in the Wolfpack faded with each ensuing loss.
Nevertheless, Keatts should – and almost certainly will – get at least another year, having labored for his entire N.C. State tenure under the threat of NCAA sanctions and one of his better teams in 2020 denied a chance to play in the NCAA tournament. Thanks to the way this season has stumbled to a conclusion, that’s all the cushion he’ll get, though.
Next season will be make-or-break for Keatts in Raleigh, no matter who does or doesn’t come back, no matter who gets injured or doesn’t. If everyone does come back – Bates included – there’s certainly reason to believe things can, and should, be better.
“On every team, there’s one guy you can’t afford to get hurt,” Keatts said. “That was Manny Bates for us. But look at the foundation we’re building.”
N.C. State can’t let one season of this mess become two – and Keatts, of all people, knows that.
