{"id":5549,"date":"2024-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dwjqp1.com\/march-madness-nc-state-duke-preview-4b7b23bcbddf1a1f7ee22725e5b65beb\/"},"modified":"2024-03-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T00:00:00","slug":"march-madness-nc-state-duke-preview-4b7b23bcbddf1a1f7ee22725e5b65beb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwjqp1.com\/march-madness-nc-state-duke-preview-4b7b23bcbddf1a1f7ee22725e5b65beb\/","title":{"rendered":"It's a Tobacco Road showdown in Big D between Duke and N.C. State for a spot in the Final Four"},"content":{"rendered":"
DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Duke coach Jon Scheyer reached out to North Carolina State\u2019s Kevin Keatts after the Wolfpack had won five games in as many days in the Athletic Coast Conference Tournament, including a win over the Blue Devils in the middle of that run.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just so impressed,\u201d Scheyer said Saturday. \u201cI said I wish it didn\u2019t happen against us, but that was a big-time run. … He\u2019s got his guys playing the best basketball of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, only two weekends after that ACC tourney<\/a> \u2014 which the 11th-seeded Wolfpack (25-14) had to win just to get into the 68-team NCAA Tournament field \u2014 N.C. State gets to play No. 4 seed Duke (27-8) again. At another neutral site, and this time for a spot in the Final Four. <\/p>\n The South Region final is Sunday in Dallas, about 1,200 miles from Tobacco Road where their campuses are within about a half-hour drive of each other.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really interesting for me, just you know being in March Madness where teams from all around the country are participating and then you, it\u2019s not often that two teams from the same conference go head to head against one another, let alone two teams that are 30 minutes away from one another,\u201d said Duke\u2019s 7-foot center Kyle Filipowski. \u201cIt kind of provides a sense of familiarity just because you\u2019ve went up against each other already.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE<\/p>\n Clemson can\u2019t get crucial stops vs. Alabama as Tigers\u2019 bid for first Final Four falls short<\/a><\/p>\n UConn dominates for 10th straight double-digit tournament victory beating Illinois 77-52<\/a><\/p>\n Alabama rides tidal wave of 3-pointers to beat Clemson 89-82 and reach 1st Final Four ever<\/a><\/p>\n In their first meeting this year, the Blue Devils won 79-64<\/a> at N.C. State on March 4, part of the Wolfpack\u2019s four-game losing streak to end the regular season and a 2-7 stretch since early February. <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n N.C. State was already playing its third game in the ACC tourney 10 days later, and won 74-69 over regular season runner-up Duke<\/a>, which was playing its tournament opener. <\/p>\n \u201cYou can see their confidence and their togetherness continue to grow,\u201d Scheyer said. \u201cThey\u2019re much different than the first time we played them, and I think they\u2019re even better than the last time we played them.\u201d<\/p>\n The Wolfpack have an eight-game winning streak and are the last double-digit seed still playing, and they\u2019re in their first Elite Eight since 1986.<\/p>\n Scheyer, in his second year as head coach, was part of Duke\u2019s last two national titles \u2014 as a player in 2010 and as an assistant coach in 2015. He was also on staff when the Blue Devils made the Final Four two years ago in coach Mike Krzyzewski\u2019s final season. <\/p>\n Keatts, a former Division III player and prep school coach, is in his seventh season with N.C. State.<\/p>\n While Keatts wasn\u2019t there for the Wolfpack\u2019s national championships in 1974 and 1983, he constantly hears from the players from those teams \u2014 whether guys like David Thompson and Monte Towe from the first one 50 years ago, or Sidney Lowe, Thurl Bailey and players from the 1983 team coached by the late Jim Valvano that beat Houston right in the middle of its Phi Slama Jama era with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.<\/p>\n N.C. State was close to facing Houston this time<\/a>, but the Cougars lost All-America guard Jamal Shead to an ankle injury in the first half of their 54-51 loss to Duke<\/a> in the other Sweet 16 game in Big D on Friday night, after the Wolfpack beat Marquette 67-58<\/a>.<\/p>\n So the Wolfpack instead play one of their longest rivals the first time in the NCAA Tournament. This will be the 257th meeting in a series Duke leads 152-104.<\/p>\n \u201cIt all adds to this story and this run,\u201d N.C. State guard Casey Morsell said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve still been growing as a team, the chemistry has been growing and our confidence has been growing in each other,\u201d guard Michael O\u2019Connell said. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s been a journey of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n When the Blue Devils made it to the Final Four two years ago, they lost in the national semifinal to ACC rival North Carolina. That was the third meeting between those teams that season, but all those games were a month apart. Duke and N.C. State will play for the third time in 28 days. <\/p>\n \u201cIt feels different to me because there\u2019s not such a long time in between, and two years ago there was,\u201d Scheyer said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more you can think about. There\u2019s a lot more that can happen in between the two games that you play.\u201d<\/p>\n And now there is a lot more at stake.<\/p>\n AP March Madness bracket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ncaa-mens-bracket<\/a> and coverage: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/march-madness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Duke coach Jon Scheyer reached out to North Carolina State\u2019s Kevin Keatts after the Wolfpack had won five games in as many days in the Athletic Coast Conference Tournament, including a win over the Blue Devils in the middle of that run. \u201cI was just so impressed,\u201d Scheyer said Saturday. \u201cI said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[223,435,3082,248,221,2754,203,647,1978],"yoast_head":"\n
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