An empty building might be the best thing for NC State’s ACC title chances
This column has been updated to reflect the ACC’s decision to not allow fans in the Greensboro Coliseum starting with Thursday’s quarterfinals.
After much deliberation, the ACC finally decided at halftime of the Notre Dame-Boston College game Wednesday night to follow the lead of the NCAA ... and the Big 12 ... and the Big Ten ... and close the Greensboro Coliseum to fans starting with Thursday’s tournament quarterfinals.
That was overdue as the sports world, and the world at large, adjusts to the very different realities of life amid the coronavirus pandemic. So the N.C. State fans who held onto their ticket books after a very taking-care-of-business 73-58 win over Pittsburgh on Wednesday won’t be allowed in for Thursday’s game against Duke.
Maybe that won’t be the worst thing in the world for N.C. State’s basketball team, which too often seems to sense the pressure of three-plus decades of fan frustration that’s never far from the surface. And understandably so.
That’s not to say anything against N.C. State fans, whose passion is unquenchable, and, quite frankly, impossibly resilient given the array of improbable slings and devastating arrows to which they have been subjected, time after time after time.
But that passion has sharp edges, and when things start to slide for the Wolfpack, the groans from the stands often precede the disaster itself.
When you’ve seen the worst-case scenario this many times, you get pretty good at recognizing it when it comes around the bend again. Especially at the ACC tournament, where the Wolfpack once lost its shot at a title on this very floor in part because of a technical foul called against a manager for wiping a spill on the floor.
This N.C. State team isn’t exactly fragile, but it is mercurial, and plays at times with a labored countenance that suggests a weariness beyond its years. It shouldn’t be this hard for a team with this much talent, but then again, that’s been a mantra for so many N.C. State teams.
Now that it has put together two very strong performances against inferior teams, it faces a Duke team that it stomped once and was stomped by once, with no safety net and no margin for error. Only excellence will do against a No. 4 seed that’s built like a tournament favorite.
With the seats empty, perhaps the Wolfpack will be able to play free and easy in a way that’s impossible under the suffocating expectations of its fans. The noise that drives the Wolfpack along at home has occasionally become an anchor when things start to turn sour.
With or without fans, N.C. State’s got a shot at this thing, especially if it plays as well as it did Wednesday, especially if it plays as well as it did in the first meeting against Duke. It’s anyone’s tournament, even possibly N.C. State’s, and if the women can end a 28-year drought why can’t the men end a 33-year drought?
Then again, it might be the ultimate expression of N.C. State stuff if the Wolfpack finally wins the ACC championship — but in an empty building. It’s a trade-off Wolfpack fans should probably take if offered.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 6:30 PM with the headline "An empty building might be the best thing for NC State’s ACC title chances."
