NC State fans revel in men’s basketball ACC championship triumph

The moment NC State men’s basketball downed UNC-Chapel Hill in a momentous ACC championship win Saturday night, a quiet Hillsborough Street seemed to hold its breath.

And then, it erupted in raucous excitement. 

Students poured onto the sidewalks and the road median amidst a chorus of car horns, charging toward the Belltower. Some gleefully cheered as they hung out the windows of packed cars. A few leaped over bushes and brick walls, their arms outstretched with wolfies displayed on their hands.

At the end of the exodus, there the Belltower stood, triumphantly bathed in resplendent red light: The symbol of a victory 37 years in the making.

In the earliest moments after the game, the crowd was mostly students. But by 11:30 p.m., it was fans of all ages. A family in bathrobes and slippers beamed as they posed for pictures. Young kids in NC State gear grinned atop their parents’ shoulders. Hundreds of fans teemed around the monument and in the street, chanting “Wolfpack” and cheering.

To Jonathan Rand, an NC State alum, celebrating at the Belltower — and later, at Players Retreat — next to generations of NC State fans was unforgettable. 

“It's so cool, those environments, because you're hugging people and high-fiving people that you've never met before, but you all have State things on, so it's that family,” Rand said.

As a first-year student, Keller Thomas, who’s studying political science, said he didn’t expect such a lively crowd at the Belltower. 

“Probably the most memorable part was that even in a crowd that big, people would still find each other,” Thomas said. “And they'd just turn around and recognize someone they know. … That sort of community was really an important thing.”

NC State Police were at the Belltower early in anticipation of a win and restricted nearby traffic, said Mick Kulikowski, NC State spokesperson. There were no arrests made or injuries reported in connection with the event.

About 200 miles away, in Washington, D.C., NC State alum Andrew Bates said the scene in Capital One Arena after the final buzzer was just as special.

“People were both being rowdy, but they were also really taking in the moment,” Bates said. "People were sort of seesawing between looking at the confetti coming down, the billboard saying, 'Champion,' seeing the players cut the nets down — they alternated between cheering exuberantly and then being quiet because we had all waited for a long time.” 

Bates, who’s the White House deputy press secretary, said after he watched the Pack down Virginia in the semifinals, he knew he had to be at the championship game. 

"The president was speaking at an annual dinner that the press holds called the Gridiron, and we all go as members of the press office to help celebrate the freedom of the press and their contributions," Bates said. "But after we beat UVA, there was just no way I was going to miss that."

By halftime against the Heels, Bates said he could tell NC State fans were optimistic that the red-and-white would prevail.

“They just held together so impressively and so unbreakably that there was kind of a twinkle in the eyes of some of State's fans, like an understated kind of confidence,” Bates said. 

NC State’s entire tournament run — with five consecutive wins in five days, a first in ACC tournament history — was an incredible way to close out the season before three new teams usher in a new era for the conference, Bates said.

“We closed out in literally the strongest way you possibly could,” Bates said. “I think that there is something profound about that being the last championship of this version of the ACC.”