Corchiani: Under Keatts, NC State basketball has a program, national prominence

It has been more than 40 years since the NC State men won the national basketball championship (1983), and Chris Corchiani says, more than 30 since the Pack demanded the kind of national respect that has come in the run to the Final Four.

Corchiani, who played for Jim Valvano in the late 1980s, said, "It's been 30 plus years since we really had a basketball program. We've had good teams, but not a program. Duke and Carolina, they've had programs. This is an opportunity for NC State basketball to really level the playing field and build a program. It's going to help with recruiting. It's going to help with NIL money. It's just an opportunity really to step up our game and our national prominence."

Corchiani spoke on the eve of the Final Four, where 11 seed NC State faces 1 seed Purdue in the first national semifinal. He echoed the comments of others who watched the Cinderella Wolfpack of 1983, pinning much of the recent success on coaching.

"Coach (Kevin) Keats has done a great job of keeping them locked in together, and they're having fun," he said. "It's really cool to see everything and see their confidence growing more and more as things go along."

That confidence faces yet another stiff test in Purdue and AP Player of the Year Zach Edey. But for Corchiani, the pick is a no-brainer.

"This is a team of destiny," he said. "It'd be very difficult to beat Purdue three times in a best of five. But for one game, I'm going with the Pack. And I'm going with a score of 83 to 74."