Stanford alum Michael O’Connell helps guide NC State to Final Four
On Sunday, No. 11 NC State defeated No. 4 Duke 76-64 to advance to the Final Four where they will face No. 1 Purdue. On the other half of the draw are No. 1 UConn and No. 4 Alabama. The Wolfpack have had an amazing run to the Final Four. They entered the ACC tournament needing to win five games in a row to reach the NCAA tournament. They accomplished that as they defeated Louisville, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina.
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After their miracle run through the ACC tourney, the Wolfpack entered the NCAA tournament as an 11 seed. They haven’t let that faze them so far as they defeated Texas Tech, Oakland, Marquette, and then Duke to reach the Final Four. While some may not say it’s a Cinderella run since they are an ACC program, for all intents and purposes, this absolutely qualifies as such. If you have to win five games in a row just to make the tourney and you end up reaching the Final Four, that’s a Cinderella run.
While big man D.J. Burns, Jr. and guard D.J. Horne have been the top overall performers for the Wolfpack, I don’t think this team would have gotten this far without the steady play in the backcourt from Stanford alum Michael O’Connell, who grad transferred from Stanford to NC State after completing his undergraduate degree in Economics in the spring of 2023.
O’Connell has played in all 40 games for the Wolfpack this season, one of just five players on the team to do so. In 21 starts and 25.3 minutes played per game, O’Connell has averaged 5.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. Modest numbers, but still a solid contribution.
During the postseason however, O’Connell has taken his game up a notch, averaging 10.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. He had five straight double-figure scoring games in the ACC tournament with two 16 point games, two 12 points games, and one 10 point game for an average of 13.2 points per game. He came out guns blazing from the beginning of their postseason and has done a nice job of sustaining it. Without him stepping up his game to this degree, the Wolfpack would not be in the Final Four.
In NC State’s Elite Eight victory of Duke, O’Connell had six points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and two steals. A true all-around game. The 11 rebounds is actually a career-high for him, the first time in his career to have a double-digit rebounding game. It was also a game high as no other player on either team had more than seven rebounds. For a 6’2” point guard to crash the glass like that is amazing. Especially in an Elite Eight game.
For O’Connell, it’s gotta be pretty surreal to be going to The Final Four. During his three years at Stanford, the Cardinal never sniffed an NCAA tournament bid. He’s gotta be asking what world he’s living in. When he grad transferred to NC State, I’m sure he thought a trip to the NCAA tournament was a possible, but the Final Four? Nobody saw that coming.
The key to O’Connell and NC State’s success during this run has been the belief they have in each other. There was a critical moment in the Duke win where the Blue Devils got awarded a questionable technical foul. Rather than letting that shift momentum and rattle them, the Wolfpack stuck together and maintained a sense of belief that they were still in the driver’s seat. That helped them pull through as opposed to falling apart.
“Yeah, I think the biggest thing was just sticking together,” O’Connell said. “Obviously things aren’t going to always go well or things going to go wrong. But for us to stick together through the tough times and even the great times, it’s going to be huge. Obviously, Ben made a great play, it would have shifted momentum pretty quickly, which it definitely helped with for us to keep the lead and just keep us going.”
If there’s one moment that most stands out from the Wolfpack’s incredible run, especially for O’Connell, it would be the buzzer beater he hit to force overtime against Virginia in the semifinals of the ACC tournament. After Virginia missed the front end of a one-and-one, O’Connell caught the outlet pass and dribbled up the floor to bank in a 3-pointer that rattled around the rim and fell in. NC State of course went on to win that game. 73-65 was the final score. Without that shot, the Wolfpack wouldn’t have made the NCAA tournament and head coach Kevin Keatts may have been fired. It’s truly amazing how much of an impact one shot can make.
“Yeah, I think just throughout this journey, everyone’s made huge plays,” O’Connell said. “Whether it’s just in the moment it might not seem pretty big. Whether it’s just a deflection or a steal, but it changes the trajectory of our run or the game.
“One play I always look back to is his [Horne] block last game off the backboard. I thought that was huge and he comes down and has an and-1 three. So, I mean there’s just plays consistently being made by everyone that you know, it might not be covered or might not be in the stat sheet or might not be all over social media, but everyone’s been making huge plays down this run and that’s why I think that’s why we’re getting this wins and it’s been big for us.
“Obviously he [Burns] is playing unbelievable, I mean both these dudes are. Mo’s been killing it and Casey. Like everyone’s been playing has had such a big impact and when you have a lot of guys coming on the court and just contributing right away, I mean, you can’t really pick the special moment when they’re all special in their own way.”
While Stanford men’s basketball is still in search of their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2014, Cardinal fans can at least enjoy watching an alum in the Final Four this upcoming weekend. During his time on The Farm, Michael O’Connell played with a lot of passion and fire. He was always a great leader, showing tremendous support for his teammates and the entire program. It’ll be fun to see how he and the Wolfpack do this weekend and whether or not they’ll be able to be the ones cutting down the nets on Monday night.
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