NEW YORK — Casey Morsell alone on the N.C. State roster can claim to have never lost an ACC tournament game, although it’s a very thin distinction.
Morsell went 1-0 at Virginia in 2021 before COVID sent the Cavaliers home early. He never even got the chance as a freshman, the plug pulled in 2020 before Virginia had done any more than practice in Greensboro. But in that very limited sample size, he’s undefeated.
“Obviously I’m up one,” Morsell said Monday. “Being in it last year, it kind of felt unfinished. We really felt we would have won. Georgia Tech was a good team but we just thought we would have figured it out last year. It’s definitely a different feel. Especially being in Brooklyn, it’s a whole different city, a whole different vibe.”
Kevin Keatts, watching Morsell talk on the Barclays Center court, had a more narrow view of his situation.
“I hope he’s 2-0 tomorrow,” Keatts said, as the Wolfpack prepares for its final stand of the season, starting Tuesday against Clemson.
There’s not much else left for the Wolfpack to play for at this point. N.C. State’s next loss will be its 21st and last at the end of a difficult season. The end may even, in a sense, be merciful, given the Wolfpack has lost 10 of its past 11 games.
“It’s a lot of losses,” Morsell acknowledged. “But we fight. And I think that’s pretty much what we’re going off of, those same habits, to put us in a position to get something done in this tournament. That’s what we’re relying on, that even our losses have lessons for this opportunity.”
But just as a tree grows in Brooklyn, legend would have it, there’s still a chance the Wolfpack could stick around longer than anyone expects. Making it to Wednesday would suffice in that category for N.C. State.
It’s been a long season, starting with the season-ending injury to Manny Bates — you may have heard something about that — and nearing the end of it with athletic director Boo Corrigan’s unequivocal vote of confidence for Keatts among not inconsiderable fan dissent as the losses piled up.
But it is nevertheless a fresh start for the ACC’s last-placed team, playing in the 2022 version of the fabled Les Robinson Invitational.
“We talked about 0-0 and obviously because of the challenging year that we’ve had, we have just as much opportunity to come into the tournament and try to win the tournament,” Keatts said. “It starts with the first game. If you can’t get past your first opponent then obviously we can’t advance.”
There are teams that see the light at the end of the tunnel — N.C. State certainly did here in 2017 — and hit the court with bags already packed. Keatts maintains that isn’t the case with this group. Tuesday will be telling.
“We’ve had a lot of challenges this year,” Keatts said. “But I would tell you this, and I told my guys this, there’s not one day, one practice, one game that I didn’t feel like we played and competed at a high level.”
The NCAA tournament is a string of increasingly improbable miracles away. The end is near. It’s just a question of how long the Wolfpack can postpone it, or whether it truly wants to.
