What a Ride
With the 2024 – 25 basketball season set to tip off, NC State magazine takes a look back at the Wolfpack teams’ historic March Madness runs last spring.
WHAT A RIDE. Memorial Auditorium and the Shimmer Wall sculpture downtown were bathed in red. Heck, if Raleigh had an Empire State Building, it would’ve been lit red, too. After all, as our men’s and women’s teams made their glorious runs to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament, The New York Times called Raleigh “the new epicenter of college basketball.” Raleigh — not the Triangle, not Chapel Hill, not Durham. Raleigh.
It started in March. Going into the ACC tournament, the Wolfpack men had lost four straight games to end their regular season. Prospects for the post-season seemed dim. But the team won five games in five days to take home the trophy, beating both Duke and Carolina along the way. That earned them a spot in the NCAA tournament — and then, and then, the guys went on to win four more games to make it to the Final Four.
The Wolfpack women had started their season unranked, but quickly won 15 games in a row. They took off in March, going on to chart their own path to the Final Four. By then, the phrase “Why not us?” — first used by star guard DJ Horne during the ACC tournament — turned into “Why not both?”
Technician used those words on the cover of a special edition heading into Final Four weekend. The paper quadrupled its press run, and lines stretched around campus as students and fans waited to get their copy. T-shirts were churned out, and Wolfpack Outfitters was swamped. An Applebee’s in north Raleigh turned into a mob scene when Horne and the tournament’s folk hero, DJ Burns Jr., showed up to sign autographs and pose for pictures.
Heading into Final Four weekend, Wolfpack alumni and fans all over the country scheduled game watches. Hours before the men’s game against Purdue, the city of Raleigh closed off Hillsborough Street to traffic. Mitch’s Tavern erected a giant screen at the corner of Horne Street — or is that DJ Horne Street? — so the throngs could watch the game.
The runs for both teams ended at the Final Four. Purdue proved too much for the men’s team, and in the women’s tournament, undefeated South Carolina bested the Wolfpack. Jayden Taylor, a junior guard, was asked how he’d like the postseason to be remembered. “We made people believe,” he said.” Like, we gave people hope. Through all the noise, we still ended up in the Final Four. … No matter what, you can do anything.”
Thank you to our contributing photographers. They are: Hallie Walker and Cate Humphreys from the Technician; Ethan Hyman from the News & Observer; Becky Kirkland, NC State, Chris Seward ’80, John Hansen (©John Hansen Photography) and the photographers from the Department of Athletics.
