Michael O’Connell kept NC State’s season alive. Now he wants Final Four experience
In the NCAA Tournament, prepare for war.
Not in the literal sense, of course. There is dribbling, passing, shooting and rebounding. But the physicality of the games is ramped up, much like the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs. It is a different game.
It’s almost like lacrosse, except without the helmets and pads and with a much bigger ball.
Which brings us to Michael O’Connell.
O’Connell might have been good enough at lacrosse to be an All-American. Some colleges thought so. He also has the sturdy, clean-cut look of a Captain America, if CBS is casting for a series down the line after the NCAAs.
But O’Connell has emerged as one of N.C. State’s most important players – in basketball. And not just because of one shot against Virginia, albeit a shot for the ages that was a season-saver for N.C. State, pure and simple, and could spawn a thousand framed posters.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound guard from Mineola, New York, has been in the starting lineup during the Wolfpack’s torrid postseason run of eight consecutive wins, which now has the Pack (25-14) in the South Regional final Sunday against Duke (27-8) at the American Airlines Center.
Seedings don’t matter at this point. Both teams want to get to the Final Four, badly. Both are more than willing to fight for it, relentlessly. O’Connell is.
“We’re going out there to compete,” O’Connell said Friday after the Pack’s 67-58 win over Marquette in the regional semifinals. “We’re not trying to be the toughest team out there. We’re trying to fight for all the rebounds and 50/50 balls. That’s us.”
Not much of a scouting report needed for this one. In most cases, the Wolfpack staff would be talking to the team about taking away an opponent’s left hand or a preference to pull up and shoot the 3 or attacking a zone.
“Each game, it’s a different scheme because you’re playing a different team, so you have a different scout,” O’Connell said.
Not this time. It could simply be: “Refer to scouting report, 3/14/24.”
That was the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. The Wolfpack and Blue Devils went at it for 40 minutes and State came away with a 74-69 victory at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
It will be the third time this month the two have tangled, the Blue Devils taking a 79-64 win March 4 in Raleigh and the Wolfpack answering on its way to its first ACC championship since 1987.
“They beat us last time and it’s time to get it back,” Duke’s Jared McCain said Friday after the Blue Devils fought past top-seeded Houston, 54-51.
The Pack had five players in double figures in its ACC Tournament win – D.J. Horne the leader with 18 points – while the Blue Devils’ scoring was top heavy with Kyle Filipowski getting 28 points and Mark Mitchell 18.
O’Connell’s game was symbolic of the kind of play the Stanford transfer has given the Pack: 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, hitting both 3-pointers, plus four assists and no turnovers in his 35 minutes.
NCSU coach Kevin Keatts calls O’Connell a “legitimate point guard” who is more than a ball distributor.
“Michael O’Connell has become a scorer,” Keatts said before the Marquette game. “You look at him in the early games (this season) and you think, ‘Man, he’s just a passer, passer, passer.’ And his numbers don’t support it.”
O’Connell was in double-figure scoring each of the five ACC Tournament games, getting 12 points against Virginia in the Pack’s 73-65 overtime win in the semifinals.
Had Virginia’s Isaac McKneely not missed the front end of a one-and-one with five seconds left in regulation, the Pack would be in Raleigh now, watching. But his miss allowed O’Connell to take a pass from Casey Morsell, quickly dribble down the left side and launch a last-gasp 3-pointer no Wolfpack fan will soon forget.
The ball hit the backboard. It touched all of the rim. It fell. Overtime.
O’Connell had eight points Friday against Marquette, and his 3 with 1:34 left was a final dagger, giving the Wolfpack an 11-point lead.
So here we are, in Dallas. It’s State-Duke for a trip to the Final Four.
“We just want to experience the moment,” O’Connell said, smiling. “Just stick together and do what we have to do.
“I mean it’s unbelievable. People and teams dream of being here right now. I mean it’s an unbelievable experience to get as real as it’s gotten.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2024 at 11:16 AM with the headline "Michael O’Connell kept NC State’s season alive. Now he wants Final Four experience."
