Declare Victory, Raise a Banner. Why Not?

As one of the teams still playing when the ACC men's basketball tournament was halted, NC State can technically claim a one-eighth share of the championship. So why not celebrate it?

ACC commissioner John Swofford awarded Florida State the championship trophy in an impromptu ceremony on the court at Greensboro Coliseum only moments before the top-seeded Seminoles were scheduled to play Clemson in ACC tournament quarterfinals on Thursday.

It was just one surreal moment in a surreal day that saw the tournament -- and all college basketball, for that matter -- shut down as a result of the spreading coronavirus crisis.

But while Swofford declared Florida State the league's official champion for 2019-20, the reality is that as far as the tournament is concerned, there are techincally eight teams that can claim at least a share of the title.

And only four of them -- State among them after taking out Pittsburgh in the second round -- actually won a game

As one of those co-champions, coach Kevin Keatts and his NC State Wolfpack should declare victory and celebrate it for everything they're worth. Put up a banner, buy the players rings. Have a public celebration at Reynolds Coliseum. Spare no expense.

Why not?

Central Florida claimed a national championship and raised a banner after its undefeated team was left out of the College Football Playoff in 2017. 

North Carolina flies a banner from the rafters of the Smith Center celebrating a 1924 basketball national title that was awarded many years after the fact by the Helms Foundation. Butler, by the way, has a banner hanging in Hinkle Field House also claming a 1924 natiohal championship.

Larry Fedora even bought his players rings and put up a billboard on Interstate 40 celebrating a co-ACC Coastal Division football championship in 2012, even though the Tar Heels were officially ineligible for the crown because of NCAA probation. 

State hasn't won an ACC tournament championship in men's basketball since 1987, a drought that has dragged on longer than many Wolfpack fans have been alive. 

With the women's team ending its own dry on the Greensboro Coliseum court a week earlier by beating Florida State for its first conference title since 1991 and the wrestling team also getting something to show for its efforts by winning the ACC for the second straight year, there's never been a better time than to wipe the slate clean and jump onto the championship bandwagon.

Would State have won the tournament had play continued until the end?

As the No. 5 seed, the Wolfpack would likely have had to run a gauntlet that included fourth-seeded Duke on Thursday, top-seeded Florida State on Friday and either No. 2 Virginia or No. 3 Louisville in Saturday's final.

Clearly the odds would have been against it happening. But then, the odds were long in 1987 as well when MVP Vinny Del Negro led the sixth-seeded Wolfpack to a surprise tournament title despite having to play both No. 2 Duke and a top-seeded UNC team that went unbeaten through the league regular season.

Who's to say Markell Johnson wouldn't have been this year's version of Del Negro, willing his team to the most improbable of championships?

Since the tournament wasn't finished, we'll never know.

At this point, it no longer matters. For the first time in forever, a State men's basketball team went to an ACC tournament and didn't lose a game. 

Given the Wolfpack's recent history, That's an accomplishment worthy of celebrating. Even if nobody else recognizes it.