Pack Opens NCAA Tournament Thursday against Texas Tech

NC State Game Notes | Texas Tech Game Notes

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The NC State men's basketball team opens the NCAA Tournament Thursday evening when it takes on Texas Tech at PPG Paints Arena.

Tipoff against the Red Raiders is scheduled for 9:40 p.m. and the game will be televised on CBS. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Notes
- NC State completed an improbable run to an ACC Championship on Saturday night by defeating top-seed North Carolina, 84-76, in the ACC Tournament championship game.
- With the win, the 10th-seeded Pack becomes the first team seeded eighth or lower to win the ACC Tournament and became just the second team to win five games in five days to win its conference tournament, joining the 2011 UConn Huskies (Big East).
- The ACC Championship is the 11th in program history (first since 1987) which are the third-most in the ACC.
- NC State jumped out to a 14-4 lead and led for a majority of the first half, but a last second three-pointer gave the Tar Heels a 40-39 advantage at the break. A DJ Burns lay-up with 18:16 to play gave NC State a 45-43 advantage and the Pack would never give up the lead the rest of the way. The Pack's lead was just three, 61-58, with a little over eight minutes to play when NC State went on a 13-5 run over the next five minutes to take a 74-63 lead with 3:31 to go. UNC would not get closer than seven the rest of the way.
- DJ Burns, Jr., was named Tournament MVP after scoring 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting (including making his first career three-pointer in his 160th career game) and tying his career-high with seven assists. For the tournament, Burns., Jr., averaged 15.2 points per game on 62.7 percent shooting. He stepped up his play in the final two games of the tournament, averaging 19.5 points in the semifinals and finals and shooting 73.9 percent (17-of-23) from the field.
- Burns, Jr., was joined on the All-Tournament First Team by teammates DJ Horne and Michael O'Connell. Horne averaged 17.8 points per game in the tournament, including a team-high 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting in the championship game win over North Carolina. O'Connell averaged 13.2 points per game and hit the shot of the tournament, knocking down a buzzer-beating three-pointer to send the Pack's semifinal game vs. Virginia into overtime.

Recapping ACC Tournament
- NC State won its 11th ACC Tournament Championship last Saturday, the third-most in conference history. It's the Pack's first ACC title since 1987
- NC State is just the second team to win five games in five days to win its conference tournament, joining the 2011 UConn Huskies.
- There are six ACC teams that have won an NCAA National Championship. NC State is one of them. It beat the other five on its run to the ACC Championship. (Louisville, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia and North Carolina).
- The Wolfpack became the first team seeded eighth or lower to win the ACC Tournament.
- NC State is also the first 10 seed or lower to ever win a Power Six conference tournament.
- NC State played for an ACC Championship for the 18th time in program history.
- The Wolfpack are the first team to ever play five games in the ACC Tournament, doing so over just five days.
- DJ Burns Jr. is the first NC State player to win ACC Tournament MVP since Vinny Del Negro in 1987.
- Mohamed Diarra hauled in a total of 60 rebounds during the Wolfpack's tournament run, the most rebounds by a player in a single ACC Tournament. He surpassed Wake Forest's Tim Duncan record of 56 in 1996.
- NC State had a balanced offensive attack throughout the tournament. The Pack had a different leading scorer in the first four games of the tourney run.
- The Pack had seven different players score in double figures in the tournament run and all seven of those players had at least two double-digit scoring games in the tourney.
- Coming into the tournament, Michael O'Connell had only three double-digit scoring games and had made 14 three-pointers in 31 regular season games. In five games at the ACC Tournament, O'Connell scored in double figures every game and made nine three-pointers.
- Mohamed Diarra had two double-doubles in 30 regular season games and then had two in five ACC Tournament games. The two double-doubles for Diarra in the ACC Tournament came against Duke (14 points/16 rebounds) and North Carolina (11 points/14 rebounds).

NC State in the NCAA Tournament
- This is the Pack's second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 29th all-time. NC State has an all-time record of 37-26 in the NCAA Tournament.
- NC State is 2-0 in NCAA Tournament games played at PPG Paints Arena. The Pack was sent to Pittsburgh in 2015 as a No. 8 seed. It beat No. 9 seed LSU in the first round and defeated No. 1 seed Villanova to advance to the Sweet 16. The win over Villanova on March 21, 2015 is NC State's last NCAA Tournament win.

NC State Series with Texas Tech
- The two programs have met three times previously, but this will be the first meeting in the modern era as the teams last played a game against each other on Dec. 18, 1954. All three previous meetings were played in Raleigh.
- The programs first met on Dec. 10, 1951 (two seasons before the Atlantic Coast Conference was formed) with Texas Tech upsetting the 10th-ranked Pack in Raleigh, 63-62. NC State won the next December (12/20/52) as the 6th-ranked Pack beat Texas Tech, 80-55. In the most recent meeting (12/18/54), the 4th-ranked Pack beat Texas Tech, 85-74.
- NC State's two-time All-American Ronnie Shavlik had 24 rebounds in the Pack's win in 1954. The 24 rebounds still rank as the seventh-most in a single game in program history.

Pack Opens NCAA Tournament Thursday against Texas Tech

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Players Mentioned

DJ Burns, Jr.

Mohamed Diarra

DJ Horne

Michael O'Connell