t high-major teams filled their rosters with seven or more transfers from the 2023 cycle. Seven of them were left out in the cold on Selection Sunday. The eighth is going to the Final Four. Add it to the list of things that makes this N.C. State run so remarkable and unbelievable wrapped into one.
The Final Four is set.
Top seeds UConn and Purdue, seemingly on a collision course since November, are just one win away from that highly-anticipated cataclysmic clash. These programs, anchored by skyscrapers, have been compared and contrasted ad nauseam for months. We’re 80 minutes away from the best Big East team and the best Big Ten team settling it for once and for all on the floor. That’s if Alabama and N.C. State don’t get in the way.
Alabama used math to build one of college basketball’s best offenses. It fell short in nip-and-tuck, non-conference games but nearly won the SEC regular-season title. ‘Bama is a worthy Final Four-caliber club.
And then there’s N.C. State who survived the first-round ACC Tournament game against Louisville. The Wolfpack were faded in the second-round game against Syracuse and won. They were faded in the quarterfinals against Duke and won. They were faded in the semifinals against Virginia and won. They were even faded in the ACC Championship game against North Carolina and won. They were faded in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Texas Tech and won. They were faded in the Sweet 16 against Marquette and won. They were faded in the Elite Eight against Duke and won. And now, they’ll be faded in the Final Four against Purdue.
Lord knows what DJ Burns has in store for Zach Edey.
This Final Four is apt because it gives credence that one can build a Final Four team in so many different ways. There’s not a one-size-fits-all method to scaling college basketball’s mountain. The Final Four highlights four starkly different approaches to the transfer portal.
It’s a bit ironic that NC State knocked off Duke’s five-star-laden roster in the Elite Eight because the rosters couldn’t look more different. The seven rotation players that Kevin Keatts played in Sunday’s 12-point throttling over Duke were transfers. Midrange assassin Casey Morsell is a Virginia transplant. DJ Burns was at Tennessee and Winthrop before turning into a legend at NC State and becoming one of Nikola Jokic’s favorite college hoopers. Michael O’Connell is a Stanford transfer who is playing the best basketball of his career. He, seemingly, makes every big shot. DJ Horne needed two years at Illinois State and two more at Arizona State to make it extra sweeter to come home and win big in his hometown. Invaluable big men Ben Middlebrooks and Mo Diarra came from Clemson and Missouri, respectively. 3-and-D wing Jayden Taylor was supposed to be a starter, but he’s embraced a spark plug role off the bench.
NC State is doing all of this without Kansas transfer MJ Rice, who was supposed to be the big, prized offseason addition,. but the ballyhooed wing is sitting out the rest of the season.
The build-a-bear, transfer-heavy, high-major teams, expectedly, struggled most of this season, but NC State turned the corner in just the nick of time.
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Purdue is the complete opposite.
The Boilermakers have more guys who have redshirted a season (three) than transfers (one). That lone transfer, ex-Southern Illinois guard Lance Jones, drilled one of the biggest shots of his career late in the second half to hold off Tennessee. He also admirably stepped in front of the bulldozing train that was Dalton Knecht and tried his best to keep the All-American from getting a 40-piece.
