GLENDALE, Ariz. – North Carolina State’s miraculous late-season run to the Atlantic Coast Conference title and an even more improbable Final Four trip had been the product of a blending of talent, balance and cohesion when the pressure peaked.
One first-half tumble appeared to change everything — and the magic all came undone in the second half against Purdue in the national semifinals.
The offense that had consistently produced double-figure scorers to support DJ Burns Jr. inside and DJ Horne on the perimeter just never got into a flow. Layups rolled off the rim. Outside shots clanged away harmlessly. And no one outside of Horne found any consistent success as the team struggled to adjust after point guard Michael O’Connell suffered an early hamstring injury that derailed his night.
It ended with the Wolfpack shooting just 28.6% while scoring 21 points after halftime to fall to the Boilermakers 63-50 on Saturday night.
“One hundred percent, we were definitely out of sync, we couldn’t get in a rhythm,” starting wing Casey Morsell said softly, his hoodie pulled up over his head after a scoreless night. “It was tough to kind of get going.”
The Wolfpack’s ride had become the stuff of legend at a school where there’s history with the miraculous. This was the first Final Four since the “Cardiac Pack” made a run to win the national title under late coach Jim Valvano, and this year’s group had offered shades of ’83 with an 11th-seeded bunch playing nothing-to-lose basketball as the calendar pushed into March with no postseason destination assured.
They became the first team to go 5-for-5 and win the ACC Tournament, then followed with four NCAA wins in a row to get back to the sport’s biggest stage. Along the way, there had been a formula: three or four double-digit scorers, players ready to feed Burns inside and then capitalize on kickouts, and finding that confident rhythm.
It just never happened Saturday on the sport’s biggest stage.
Horne finished with 20 points but needed 21 shots to get there. No other Wolfpack player reached double figures until Jayden Taylor’s 3-pointer with 42 seconds left and N.C. State trailing by 16.
The trouble seemingly started after O’Connell tumbled to the court in transition and sat up grabbing his left hamstring. He spent long stretches riding an exercise bike trying to loosen it up at the end of the bench, though he labored to get up and down the stairs smoothly that lead to the raised court in State Farm Stadium.
The steady Stanford transfer had been a critical part of the Wolfpack’s surge, scoring in double digits six times in the nine-game run — including the banked-in 3-pointer to force overtime in an ACC semifinal win against Virginia.
“There was no chance I wasn’t going to try to step back on the floor,” O’Connell said. “If it’s a Final Four game, I’m going to do everything I can to be back on unless I can’t walk.”
He checked in for one 3 1/2-minute stretch after halftime, his left thigh heavily wrapped as he pointed at the scorer’s table during a timeout — and he took just one shot (a made 3) all night.
O’Connell’s injury had a ripple effect on the lineup, removing a set-up man in getting teammates the shots they want. It put more burden on Horne to run the offense, while Breon Pass saw major minutes after playing a combined three minutes in four NCAA Tournament games so far.
“We had different guys doing different things they weren’t really used to,” forward Ben Middlebrooks said.
And the frustration built.
One moment came when Taylor had a transition chance with his team down 49-40, though he knew Purdue big man Zach Edey was lurking nearby.
Taylor smartly went under the basket and tried a reverse layup with the basket obstructing the 7-foot-4 Edey’s path, only to see the ball roll softly off the rim at a key moment.
Moments later, Burns muscled past Edey on the baseline to get to the other side of the paint and bank in a tough shot — only to be called for a travel.
It encapsulated a rough night for the burly 6-foot-9, 275-pound Burns, who battled fouls and the length of the two-time national player of the year in Edey. After becoming a March Madness star and scoring 29 points in a regional final against Duke, Burns had just eight points on 4-for-10 shooting while pulling down just one rebound and battling some foul issues.
Morsell, who came in averaging 11.5 points, missed all five of his shots. And that left O’Connell as the only starter to make at least half his shots with that lone catch-and-fire corner 3 off a first-half feed from Burns.
By the end of the night, Taylor was firing a meaningless 3-pointer on the final possession as the seconds ticked away. The ball hit long, sealing the worst scoring game of the season for N.C. State.
“Right now in the moment, it’s definitely tough to really grasp that and understand, because we wanted to win — we wanted to win it all,” O’Connell said. “So it’s tough in the locker room. Obviously everyone’s down, but at the same time too, we’ve also just got to be grateful for where we’re at and what we accomplished.”
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