Championship Drought Could End Sunday

The NC State women's basketball team plays Florida State in the ACC tournament final looking for the Wolfpack's first conference title in men's or women's basketball, football or baseball since 1991

NC State athletics photo

Graduate student Kaila Ealey and redshirt senior Grace Hunter are the two oldest members of the NC State women's basketball team.

And they were still at least seven years away from being born the last time their program returned home from an ACC tournament with the championship trophy in hand.

The Wolfpack has won only one other conference championship in men's or women's basketball, football or baseball since then, the following year in baseball.

It's a 28-year drought that can finally come to an end on Sunday at Greensboro Coliseum when Ealey, Hunter and their younger teammates take on Florida State in this year's ACC tournament final.

As coach Wes Moore and his team prepare for what could be a historic day, here's a look back at State's most recent championships in each of the ACC's four major sports:

Baseball, 1992: Behind the pitching of All-American Matt Donahue and the hitting of first baseman Vinny Hughes, shortstop Sean Drinkwater and third baseman Paul Borawski, the third-seeded Wolfpack raced through the winner's bracket of the ACC tournament unbeaten before losing a 1-0 heartbreaker to Florida State in the semifinals of the double-elimination tournament. Because coach Ray Tanner's team was the only unbeaten team up to that point, it got to sit back and watch while Florida State got eliminated by Clemson before going on to beat the Tigers 7-3 in the winner-take-all championship game.

Women's basketball, 1991: Coach Kay Yow's team followed a similar path to the championship game as this year's team by finishing second during the regular season, then playing the team that knocked off the No. 1 seed in the final. In 1991, it was Virginia that went through the ACC an undefeated 14-0. But Clemson ended the Cavaliers' run with a semifinal upset. The Wolfpack then took care of the Tigers with an emphatic 84-61 victory behind the 30-point, 19-rebound of tournament MVP Sharon Manning to cut down the nets for the fourth time in school history.

Men's basketball, 1987: Coach Jim Valvano's team came into the tournament seeded sixth after a regular season that saw it go 6-8 in the ACC and have its starting point guard Kenny Drummond leave the team in the middle of the year. Drummond's departure turned out to be a blessing, because it forced Valvano to insert seldom-used Vinny Del Negro into the starting line. And Del Negro shined, especially over three magical days in Landover, Md., when he turned in an MVP performance to help State win an improbable ACC tournament title. The Wolfpack got to the final with an overtime win against Duke and a double overtime victory against Wake Forest. It then went on to beat heavily favored North Carolina -- which had gone undefeated through the ACC regular season -- 68-67 on a pair of Del Negro free throws with 14 seconds remaining.

Football, 1979: The Wolfpack went 5-1 in the ACC, beating Maryland 7-0 and Clemson 16-13 to edge out both by a game for the league title behind a staunch defense and the running of Dwight Sullivan and Billy Ray Vickers. While coach Bo Rein's team was able to put some hardware into its trophy case because of its ACC success, it wasn't as fortunate in its nonconference schedule. Close late season losses to South Carolina and Penn State dropped the Wolfpack's overall record to 7-4 and left it uninvited to the postseason. That State team holds the distinction of being the last Power Five conference champion to not play in a bowl. The '79 Wolfpack suffered an even bigger blow shortly after the season when Rein left to take the job at LSU and was then killed in a plane crash before ever coaching a game there.