March Madness: N.C. State's Michael O'Connell living 'an unbelievable experience' as NCAA Tournament begins
North Carolina State guard Michael O'Connell reacts as he cuts the net after winning an NCAA men's basketball game against North Carolina to win the ACC championship on Saturday in Washington. Credit: AP/Nick Wass
If you grow up with a basketball and a hoop, you probably dream about playing in the NCAA Tournament. Certainly, that’s how it was for Michael O’Connell growing up in Mineola. And now, in his fourth year and second destination in college basketball, he is getting to live it.
And his team – North Carolina State – couldn’t have gotten there without him.
O’Connell made one of the biggest plays of championship week, a buzzer-beating three-point bank shot that forced the Wolfpack’s ACC Tournament semifinal against Virginia to overtime, where they prevailed. N.C. State, the 10th seed, won five games in five days to win the championship, beating soon-to-be-named NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed North Carolina in the final.
The shot that kept NC State's ACC title hopes alive 😱
— ESPN (@espn) March 16, 2024
The Wolfpack win in OT to head to the championship game‼️ pic.twitter.com/dfQRZf2v3O
“I just saw a little opening and just stepped into it with confidence, trying to knock it down,” O’Connell said in a telephone interview from Pittsburgh on Wednesday. “Looking back on it now it's still pretty surreal. I was able to help my team get to the ACC championship and make it here? I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
“Michael's shot, man, that's a great shot, and I had a direct view of it,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said after the semifinal win. “As it went up I was like, man, that shot is going in, it's going in, and then luckily it did and sent us to overtime.”
The automatic bid got the Wolfpack (22-14) into the 68-team draw, and as a No. 11 seed in the South Region, they will face No. 6 Texas Tech (23-10) on Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
“When I was a little kid, it's something that I dreamed about: first playing college basketball, and then winning championships in college basketball, then making it to March in the NCAA Tournament . . . To live it right now is an unbelievable experience.”
O’Connell’s journey to the Big Dance started with him earning Newsday All-Long Island honors at Chaminade and then taking his senior year at Blair Academy (N.J.), facing top high school competition to elevate his game. He committed to play lacrosse at Maryland but sought release from it when there was a chance to play basketball at Stanford. He played three seasons with the Cardinal and started 77 games.
But they never got to the NCAA Tournament.
He graduated in three years and transferred to N.C. State. He told Newsday in the fall that one motivation for the move was to play where there was a chance to go to the Big Dance.
That didn’t seem like a possibility as recently as 10 days ago. The Wolfpack staggered at season’s end, losing seven of nine to finish 17-14. But as long as there was a conference tournament with an automatic bid, there still was a chance.
“I never really gave up hope that we could do it because you always have the ACC Tournament,” O’Connell said. “And it was something we knew we could win . . . even though we lost to some of those teams and it would be a tough stretch. We knew if we did what we were supposed to do, fixed things we’d done wrong during the season, we’d have a shot. That’s what we did.”
O’Connell goes into Thursday’s game averaging 5.7 points, 3.3 assists and shooting 35.4% on three-point attempts, but his game was at an entirely different level in the conference tournament. Over those five games he averaged 13.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and made 56% on threes.
Fitting in as a transfer isn’t always easy, but the Wolfpack had a largely new roster with seven transfers and a freshman, and as O’Connell said, “Having an outgoing personality helps.”
He became a full-time starter at the end of January and the team is now 10-7 when he starts.
However, starting a game is nothing new after his experience at Stanford. This game against Texas Tech on this stage will be.
“I think it's going to be an exciting game,” O’Connell said. “We’re playing a great team with a lot of great players. They have guys who play great on offense and defense, but so do we. First game in the tournament, it’ll be high-energy with people flying around to make plays. It’s going to be real competitive.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
