N.C. State fan base reinvigorated by 'magic ' March basketball run

Why it matters: For Wolfpack fans, this month's triumph in the ACC Tournament and the subsequent ride into the Sweet 16 has reinvigorated a basketball fan base that had gone from swaggering to cynical.

• After a multigenerational slump, which saw the Wolfpack go from a dominant force in the ACC in the '70s and '80s to falling behind — a win over archrival UNC in the ACC Tournament felt like the end of a bleak period and the start of something new.

The big picture: N.C. State is this year's NCAA Tournament Cinderella story, winning five straight games in five days (a feat only done once before) to win its first ACC title in 37 years — and then two more to get to the Sweet 16.

• It has many reminiscing about 1983, when the "Cardiac Pack" went wire-to-wire as underdogs in the ACC Tournament and then to the national championship.

Between the lines: Joe Ovies, of the Raleigh sports podcast "Ovies & Giglio," even went as far to say that the Wolfpack had "stuffed the stuff" — a reference to many State fans collective belief that some form of bad luck would always strike the Pack right when they were on the verge of glory.

What they're saying: "I think a lot of us Wolfpack fans … feel that we're forever cursed" since the school dismissed legendary coach Jim Valvano in 1990, Gusler told Axios. "If there is a curse, maybe this is what's going to lift it."

What's next: Come Friday night, Players Retreat is going to be packed again — even if the NCAA scheduling both the Wolfpack men's and women's teams to play at the same time has the fan base once again mad at the NCAA.

• But State fans will once again relish the opportunity to keep this magical run going — especially against Marquette, a team they beat 50 years ago in the national championship game.
• "It's been difficult to be a State fan. We're not called the Cardiac Pack for nothing," Gusler said. "If we win this game Friday night, which I hope we're going to win and I think we will, It will be a Cardiac Pack night going down to the last shot."