How Notre Dame Made College Basketball History on Wednesday Night

Notre Dame's win over Stanford means no NC State in the ACC Tournament

Mar 5, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Matt Allocco (41) and guard Cole Certa (5) celebrate after Notre Dame defeated the Stanford Cardinal 56-54 at the Purcell Pavilion. | Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Notre Dame coming back late to beat Stanford on Wednesday night at Purcell Pavilion felt rare for the seemingly couple hundred fans in attendance but that wasn't the historic part. Instead, it's what happened in the rest of the ACC thanks to the Fighting Irish victory.

It was just a year ago that North Carolina State went on a magical run to win the ACC Tournament. Doing so was the only way the Wolfpack were going to make the NCAA Tournament, which they did, and then took that bid all the way to a Final Four appearance. It was almost scary how reminiscent it was of North Carolina State's historic run to the 1983 national championship.

NC State Won't Qualify for ACC Tournament in 2025

Mar 1, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; North Carolina State Wolfpack guard Dennis Parker Jr. (11) boxes out against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the second half at McCamish Pavilion. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

As memorable as last March was for North Carolina State, things haven't gone as smoothly this season. The Wolfpack have managed just a 12-18 overall record on the year and are just 5-14 in ACC play, good for 16th place in the 18 team league.

The problem (beyond the obvious) with that is that with Notre Dame's win over Stanford, North Carolina State is assured by tiebreakers to finish no better than 16th in the league. Because of only 15 teams making the ACC Tournament, North Carolina State will not qualify.

That means that North Carolina State's 2024-25 team is the first Division I team to fail to make its own conference tournament after winning it the previous season.

And although things were already leaning that way, it can thank Notre Dame for putting the icing on the now infamous cake.

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