Words can’t describe the elation. It was almost like the complete inverse of the Wisconsin Sweet Sixteen collapse. The team is confident, and played that way. And NC State is two wins away from its first ACCT title in 20 years. Here’s what I said Thursday morning:
My gut says that the Pack upsets UVA if it can get past Duke.
Here’s a few more random thoughts on the biggest win of Sidney Lowe’s young coaching career:
– Sidney Lowe said “We can’t come out and just jack up 3s. That’s not who we are.” I almost wept with joy.
– Lowe correctly said that Brian Nieman made the biggest plays of the night. He sure as hell did. The charge he took with a slender 68-66 lead completely changed the game. Raycom had already put 2 points on the board for Virginia, and the announcers said the Cavs would be shooting for the lead. As Lee Corso would say – “Not so fast!”
– In between ridiculously stupid plays, Grant scored 9 points in a row for us, including a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line. He stepped it up big time, though he still induced several heart attacks in Wolfpack Nation.
– We have now won 2 straight games against legitimate opponents, despite getting squat from Fells offensively. We didn’t do that once in the regular season. What happens if he gets hot?
– NC State is 5-2 against the other 4 teams still in the tournament. Craziness.
– NC State is 4-0 against possible semifinal opponents.
– Every 10 years, we are apparently pure magic in the ACCT.
– This is probably the best ACCT in league history, so far. Too bad so few are in the stands to see it (Note to ACC foofs – never south of Atlanta, never north of DC).
– I want Wake to lose. I could definitely see the NIT committee still viewing our semifinal as a virtual “play-in” game. Plus, VT could beat UNC in the final if we stumble tomorrow. Wake can’t.
– What did you do to change our mojo at the half? I changed every article of clothing, put a hat on (backwards), changed couches, and turned off the fireplace. Only have 1 HDTV, so couldn’t change that. Plus, I badmouthed Gavin until he started making me look like an uninformed jackass (not hard to do, I know)…
