NC State’s 2020-21 campaign came to a close Thursday night after a 65-61 loss to Colorado State in the NIT quarterfinals.

The Wolfpack finished the season with a 14-11 overall record and placed ninth in the ACC standings with a 9-8 conference record.

A sour yet fitting conclusion to the season, the Pack was so shorthanded that it had to play walk-on sophomore guard Max Farthing for six minutes in the first half.

All three of NC State’s veteran guards were unavailable due to injury.

Fifth-year senior guard Devon Daniels (ACL) and redshirt junior guard Thomas Allen (ankle) were already known scratches after suffering season-ending injuries in January and February.

The Pack’s third veteran member of the backcourt, senior guard Braxton Beverly, was deemed unavailable an hour before tipoff due to a surprise injury. Beverly, who had scored eight or more points in five of his last seven games, suffered a concussion after catching an accidental elbow in a morning shootaround Thursday according to NC State SID Craig Hammel after the game.

“I feel really bad for our seniors, especially Braxton Beverly, who couldn't play in the game,” Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “I told those guys in the locker room that I love everybody for their fight. There wasn't one day, one practice, that I didn't think our guys competed. I've always said to my guys, 'If you play extremely hard, I'll live with the results.'

“The results were we came up a little bit short, but that doesn't define what type of year that we had. I’m proud of our fight.”

In the Pack’s final game of the year, Keatts had an opportunity to reflect on a volatile season that was constantly yet unavoidably battered by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While NC State was able to play 25 total games, which tied for the sixth-most in the ACC and many more than most would have predicted in October, the season was everything but normal.

“To be honest with you, COVID sucked,” Keatts said. “It was bad. What we don't take into consideration is the mental aspect of what these kids have to go through. They didn't have a chance to be kids this year.

“They didn't have a chance to hang out with the student body. Our freshmen didn't have a chance to meet other people on campus. Not that we wanted those guys to go out to parties, but they couldn't. They didn't have a chance to go to the movies, and it was tough.

“You don't know what these kids are going through and the struggles that they go through. They've got family members that may have passed away because of COVID. They've got family members that were sick because of it.

“It's a tough deal, and I just hope and pray that we can get the vaccines to as many people that want it, and we can get to being back to normal because I would love for these kids in general, not just my guys, just guys in college basketball and all sports that had to do it a different way, to get back to being normal.

“Things weren't normal. We can say what we want to. We play in a 20,000 seat arena, and those guys never got a chance to experience PNC. They never got a chance to experience what it's like to play a true road game when people are yelling at you, and that's tough.

“As a coach from my perspective, it's probably the toughest year that I've had to manage in college basketball and my career. After every practice, after every night I used to text the guys make sure you stay in, you can't go out, you can't hang out in groups, you got to protect that bubble.”

NC State’s three seniors all have the opportunity to return in 2021-22 due to the NCAA not counting this season towards an athlete’s four years of eligibility, but it’s far from certain that any will decide to do so.

Daniels and Beverly didn’t play in the loss, but Thursday could have marked fifth-year senior forward DJ Funderburk’s last game with the Wolfpack.

Funderburk, who finished with double-figure scoring totals in 10 of the past 11 contests, was red-hot in the opening minutes of the game. The 6-10 forward scored the first seven points of the contest and claimed the Wolfpack’s first nine points, which gave the Pack an early 9-3 lead.

But what looked to have the makings of a career performance for the NC State big man was quickly plagued by early foul trouble and the inability to get the ball inside due to second-half turnovers.

Funderburk finished the night with 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, nine rebounds and one steal. Only two of his points came in the second half, where he was only able to put up two attempts in 18 minutes on the floor.

After outscoring Colorado State 18-12 in the paint in the first half, the Wolfpack was outscored 28-16 in the post by the Rams in the second.

“They made adjustments,” Keatts said. “Without Braxton Beverly being out there, we lost a shooter, so it's easy to sag off some of those guys who don't shoot the ball as well. They packed the paint a little bit more in the second half. We were trying to get DJ to basketball. He hadn't had a touch in a while, but we couldn't get it there. Then we had some bad turnovers trying to force the ball in because that was our game plan.”

Although no official decision has been announced, Funderburk, who had become one of the team’s leaders in the locker room this season, was visibly emotional after what may end up being his final collegiate game.

“I love my team,” Funderburk said. “I love the way we play with passion, effort, everything. I just love my guys, and I couldn't ask for a better group to go out there tonight and play my last game.”

As NC State’s freshman guards went, so did the Wolfpack down the stretch this season. That continued to be the case Thursday night.

Freshman guards Cam Hayes and Shakeel Moore, along with redshirt freshman guard Dereon Seabron, played a significant role in the Pack’s late-season turnaround, which included a five-game win streak to end the regular season as well as six victories in the last eight contests.

On the other side of the coin, a disappointing outing from all three of the Wolfpack’s young guards likely sank the shorthanded Pack’s opportunity to continue advancing in the NIT.

Hayes, Moore and Seabron combined to score 17 points on 6-of-25 (.240) shooting in 83 minutes. The freshman trio produced seven assists while also committing 12 turnovers combined.

“I couldn't draw up more opportunities than these guys had,” Keatts said. “Every veteran guard that we had on our roster didn't play. The experience that Cam Hayes has gotten, Shak Moore has gotten, Dereon Seabron, it's unbelievable. Typically, you might get one freshman to get a chance to play a bunch of minutes in a season, but you don't get three.

“All three of those guys have matured in a lot of ways. I'm not going to define them because they didn't have great games. The experience that they've gotten has been great. I'm excited and glad that we came to the NIT. I think we learned a lot from it. Now we have to build on it.”

The freshmen will each have a sour taste in their mouths as they enter what will be their first true offseason at NC State.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 class wasn’t able to arrive on campus until late July, just four months before they were thrown into a regular season that included just five non-conference games.

Now they will have the next seven months to prepare for the beginning of the 2021-22 campaign, as well as a full season of playing experience that will include a large sample size of tape with areas of their games to improve upon.

“You typically like to learn with a win,” Keatts said. “That's the best way to do it, you win the game, they don't play well, you win and you can learn from that. Unfortunately for us, we lost, so we're going to have to learn with a loss. That's great for those guys to be able to go into summer, look at that to see where they have to improve, see what they have to work on. They've got to get bigger, they've got to get stronger, they've got to be better shooters, they got to be better ball handlers.

“The greatest thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. If they all would have a great summer leading up to next year, they could all be really great basketball players.”

——

• Talk about it inside The State of Basketball

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook