It was the dream of every player and coach, to end their season with a win. That’s one of those things that goes up on whiteboards at the beginning of the season and rarely goes fulfilled. Only one team gets to say that. Usually.
The N.C. State women’s basketball team can say that, but it’s a statement equally weighted with frustration and angst. In a sports world that halted so abruptly, the Wolfpack happened to be on a knife-edge precipice between accomplishment and opportunity — one of very few teams to actually win something, anything, but denied a chance to press on in search of further glory.
Two months later, N.C. State coach Wes Moore is still trying to process that fundamental contradiction, the cognitive dissonance between the euphoria of winning the ACC championship — a celebration so few basketball teams were able to enjoy, at any level — only to be denied by COVID-19 the chance to prove itself in the NCAA tournament, which included hosting the first two rounds at Reynolds Coliseum, and a chance at glory in a season when some of women’s basketball’s traditional powerhouses were not up to their usual standards.
“It felt like we were on a roll, had some momentum,” Moore said Thursday via a Zoom conference, pulled over to the side of the road as he traveled through central Texas. “When you have three seniors coming off your bench, you feel pretty good about how you could maybe get hot in the postseason, so it was disappointing to not have a run in the NCAA tournament. At the same time, we realize there are a whole lot more important things going on in the world right now.
“I told them all year, we want to do something special this year. We talked about hanging a banner in Reynolds and those sorts of things. To be able to do those, and for me to be able to end my season with a win, you don’t get to do that very often.”
The win over Florida State in Greensboro was beyond triumphant, ending decades-long ACC title droughts for not only the program but N.C. State, which had not won a championship in football, basketball or baseball since 1992. The exultation in the building, filled with long-suffering Wolfpack fans, was overwhelming. So too was the sense of promise in this team, with a senior point guard in Ace Konig, an all-American star in Elissa Cunane and a deep bench of experienced players, some of whom had accepted smaller roles and seen the team flourish.
Either way, for Moore and his team, there was a clear break ahead, the usual two-week hiatus before the start of the NCAA tournament. For everyone else behind the scenes around the ACC — athletic staff, conference officials, media, arena workers — the women’s tournament flowed seamlessly and directly into the men’s, as so often happens in Greensboro.
Overnight, the Greensboro Coliseum was reconfigured for the next event, seats added, playing floor swapped out, signage replaced. Not 24 hours after coliseum workers were sweeping red-and-white confetti off the floor, Roy Williams was holding court and telling old Dean Smith stories as North Carolina’s men’s team went through its first-ever pre-tournament practice.
By Wednesday night, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim wondered, veering off in mid-thought, if his team’s win over North Carolina was perhaps the last game it would play. About 12 hours later, as the Florida State men were pulled off the floor during warmups, it was all over.
That was when the N.C. State women were gathering after three days off. After watching a few clips from the title game, they were headed out to the court when everything started to shut down. Moore had just canceled practice and left the players to work out on their own, scattered throughout Reynolds, when the official word arrived.
NC State coach Wes Moore talks about the play of Elissa Cunane and Aislinn Konig and the legacy of Kay Yow after the Wolfpack defeated Florida State to win the ACC Championship at the Greensboro Coliseum Sunday, March 8, 2020. BY THE ACC
“We were going to be a (No.) 2 seed, that’s what they were projecting us,” Moore said. “That means we were definitely going to host again, the first and second rounds. So you feel like you have a chance to really make some noise.”
The only noise the Wolfpack would make was that Sunday afternoon in Greensboro. There was plenty of it then, a celebration the Florida State men were denied when they were hurriedly presented with the ACC trophy in an empty building, champions by default.
The N.C. State women were champions by fire. They have a banner to hang. They ended their season with a win, in some of the last confetti to fall for a long, long time.
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