After magical month, NC State basketball gathers at Belltower one more time

It served as a rallying point for the last month. The NC State belltower, a 115-foot structure that started construction in 1921 and was completed after the Great Depression and World War II in 1949 located in the middle of main campus, is customarily illuminated red after a Wolfpack victory. 

That red aura quickly became common ground for jubilant students during the men’s and women’s teams mad dash to the Final Four in March. 

After the men’s ACC Tournament Championship victory, hundreds of fans and students descended on the plot of land to celebrate the Wolfpack’s first league title since 1987 in mid-March. After that, the crowd appeared to grow larger and larger with each win. 

The Wolfpack’s first round win over Texas Tech? The crowd was there. What about the second round win over upstart Oakland? It was slightly bigger. By the time NC State knocked off nearby rival Duke in the Elite Eight, punching its ticket to the Final Four for the first time since 1983, a group clad in red and white, pushing from the hundreds to the thousands, took over the Belltower. 

Inside NC State’s locker room, each time a new video would surface of the celebrations on campus — mainly at the Belltower — the Wolfpack’s players were at awe with the amount of people gleefully enjoying the most recent win. 

Now, just over a week after the teams’ Final Four runs came to a close, NC State’s men’s and women’s squads joined in on the fun in front of the 75-year-old structure Monday night. The rosters were joined by both sets of coaching staffs, as well as NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson and Athletic Director Boo Corrigan among a sea of Wolfpack faithful. 

It was time to celebrate the Final Four appearances made by both squads. 

“How freaking great is this?” Corrigan exclaimed when he took the stage. 

The Belltower was picked as the location for a celebration on the plane as Woodson and Corrigan were flying from Cleveland to Phoenix — the women’s Final Four to the men’s. They watched as the students and fans were able to celebrate at the iconic rallying point for NC State, and wanted to give the teams the same opportunity. 

They were granted that alongside a good sized crowd of red and white faithful that spilled onto the street just in front of the Belltower. The celebration was accompanied by music, multiple videos from both teams’ Final Four runs and interviews with the players and coaches.

For women’s coach Wes Moore, who led the Wolfpack to its first Final Four since 1998, the NC State fan base was a big piece of his squad’s run. 

“Our fans gave us the energy we needed, gave us the confidence we needed,” Moore said with a smile at the base of the Belltower. “We definitely couldn’t do it without them. The fan base is just so much fun to be around. Let’s face it, you have more fun in red, right?”

While that was the case for the women, the same could be said for the men — a team that was 11-21 at the end of the 2021-22 campaign. Instead of folding, the Pack did the opposite over the last two seasons and graduate guard Casey Morsell reflected on the fan base’s support as the team got deeper into the postseason. 

“From where we were three years ago to now, seeing Hillsborough Street filled, seeing hundreds of thousands of people supporting us, it’s been a journey,” Morsell said. “But you guys stick with us from the very beginning and on behalf of the team, we can’t thank you enough.”

Both teams will live with a legacy at NC State for the years to come and they will both hang banners inside Reynolds Coliseum and PNC Arena, respectively, in November. 

Moore wanted his team to be remembered on how well they played with one another. 

“I just think they were so unselfish and everybody pulled for each other,” Moore said. “There was no jealousy or whatever, everybody was genuinely happy when someone played well. … It was a lot of fun from that standpoint. It was definitely a team on and off the court.”

Men’s coach Kevin Keatts opted for his team to be cemented at NC State by how they displayed themselves on the court. 

“One of the things we talked about is to represent yourself, represent the university and represent your family the right way,” Keatts said. “So when you think about this group, I want you to think about those three things because that’s what this group did. And we’re ACC champions for it.”

No matter how each team is remembered, the Wolfpack faithful will have the memories of a pair of simultaneous runs to college basketball’s final weekend. 

Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin drove that point home when she closed the ceremony with a proclamation that made April 15 “NC State Men’s and Women’s Basketball Day” in the City of Oaks. 

“It’s memories that will last forever,” Baldwin said. “… I want to say thank you to the players for making us proud, for being an inspiration to all and for bringing our community together. I’ve never seen anything like it, it was amazing.”