What an amazing Easter Sunday for Wolfpack fans!!!!! First, the women’s basketball team upset 1 seed Texas 76-66 to head to the Women’s Final Four. Then, the men’s basketball team upset 4 seed Duke 76-64 to head to the Men’s Final Four. It was impressive enough to have a team make both the men’s and women’s Elite 8 – to get both teams to the Final 4 is simply incredible.

The men’s team needed to comeback to do it. At halftime, they found themselves down 27-21. But over the first 7 minutes of the second half, the Wolfpack chipped away at the lead, led by a three-pointer, a layup, and two free throws by D.J. Horne.

Over the next 3 minutes, the Wolfpack continued on the pressure. Big man D.J. Burns got a couple baskets, and the Wolfpack drew two fouls on Duke’s Kyle Filipowski. So, this meant Duke’s star player had to sit with 4 fouls.

With Filipowski on the bench, the Wolfpack continued to extend the lead. Ben Middlebrooks made the two free throws, Burns and Horne hit a couple baskets, and then, off a steal from Middlebrooks, the Wolfpack threw the ball up the court to Michael O’Connell who nailed a three-pointer from the wing to make it a 9 point lead.

This even happened despite a bizarre sequence where Duke tried to shoot the ball and had it go out of bounds, the NC State coach came out arguing the call and got hit with a technical foul – now guaranteeing the ball to Duke (along with the two free throws that Jared McCain made). What I felt was worse was the replays showed the NC State coach was right that the refs missed the call. But you can’t leave the coaches box to complain – and apparently, he had already been warned about it. Then, on O’Connell’s three, they called a foul on a Duke player for elbowing a NC State player on the rebound – giving them both the three-pointer and the ball. While it clearly was a foul, a lot of contact happens on the rebounds – so it is a little weird to get the ball back on a loose ball foul over a rebounding attempt that never happened since the ball went in.

Filipowski came back in, but nothing at this point could stop the Wolfpack’s momentum. DJ Horne would make another layup. DJ Burns would back down his defender in the post and score in the lane. Duke would double team Burns and so he would simply pass the ball to an open Middlebrooks for a layup. Duke tried to press to get back in the game, but after a couple of scary moments of not looking like they would get across half court in 10 seconds, NC State would find a wide open person in the lane for an easy layup – with 2:30 it was Middlebrooks, with 1:55 it was Burns, which gave the Wolfpack a 13 point insurmountable lead. A few minutes later, the Wolfpack were celebrating and cutting down the nets in Dallas!

This has to be one of the most amazing runs in NCAA Tournament history. NC State’s run of 5 games in 5 days to claim the ACC automatic bid has now been turned into a trip to Final Four. To go from needing to win 5 games simply to make the NCAA Tournament to just 2 wins away from a National Championship is a storyline that will be remembered for a long time – especially by NC State fans. Congratulations to the Wolfpack!!!!

So, the Final Four is set.

• We have the Big East regular season and tournament champions Connecticut Huskies – who are looking to become the first repeat national champions since 2007.
• We have the SEC’s Alabama Crimson Tide – who were tied for second in the regular season and who are playing in their school’s first ever Final 4.
• We have the ACC tournament champions NC State Wolfpack – whose amazing story brings back memories of the 1983 team that won the championship (which is also the last time they were in the Final Four).
• We have the Big 10 regular season champions Purdue Boilermakers – who are trying to repeat Virginia’s story of losing to a 16 seed simply to come back the next year and win the national championship.

It should be a great Final Four in Glendale, Arizona on Saturday. The Lunatic could not be more excited for it. Not sure how I am going to make it through the week and deal with the anticipation – although I am sure that part of that plan will be to watch Iowa and LSU square off in the Women’s Elite 8 on Monday! And if I can make it that late (since I am exhausted), USC and Connecticut should also be an incredible game.

Only one more week of basketball left to play. But so many great stories to watch throughout the week!!!!