If Duke star Jared McCain's gender-bending "self-care" routine of painting his nails "offends" you, to use his own words, I have some good news for you: North Carolina State made sure you no longer have to be offended for the rest of March Madness.
In yet another stunning upset for the NC State Wolfpack -- the Cinderella story of the 2024 tournament tied a record on Sunday for the lowest-seeded team (No. 11) to reach the Final Four.
At Duke's expense. Guess that self-care didn't help.
Just two weeks after NC State won five games in five days to win the ACC men's tournament and punch a ticket to the big dance, the Wolfpack defeated the Duke Blue Devils, their ACC rival, to win the right to face No. 1 seed Purdue in the tournament semifinal.
It's the second time the team beat the hated Blue Devils during their run, the first was a 74-69 win on March 14. On Sunday, they notched a nearly identical victory, 76-64 over the tournament's No. 4 seed.
NC State coach Kevin Keatt commended his team for "the way they put their heart on the line for this university."
“I love the way they put their heart on the line for this university” 🙌
Kevin Keatts showed some love for his players after the game 👏 #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/SVs9pqpevF
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 1, 2024
And while Duke star Jared McCain did score 32 points, it seems he and his painted nails weren't enough to get the Blue Devils through to the Final Four.
As the celebrity news website TMZ reported last week as Duke prepped for the game, the freshman guard has made no secret of his fondness for painting his nails -- a traditionally feminine touch.
Being a celebrity news website, TMZ framed the issue as favorably to McCain as possible.
"Dudes wearing nail polish has always been a pearl-clutching controversy for some reason ... despite big celebs like Harry Styles, Machine Gun Kelly and Heisman winner Caleb Williams famously rocking the look lately, " TMZ noted.
I wouldn't say "pearl-clutching" quite catches the vibe McCain's fashion choices create (clutching pearls is more like something a fingernail polish wearer might do). But, well, this does seem a bit off -- particularly for a guy who's not trying to to be a rock star but win basketball games at the highest level of the college sport:
After a career high 24 points, Jared McCain walks us through his holiday nail choice: pic.twitter.com/gKCG36yxvO
— Duke Report (@DukeReport) December 30, 2023
According to TMZ, McCain's nail-polish practices have netted him an endorsement deal with the women's beauty line Sally Hansen ("so much more than nails").
Duke basketball player Jared McCain signed an endorsement deal with a beauty and nail polish company. pic.twitter.com/uRKg0SpRyT
— Vision4theBlind (@Vision4theBlind) March 31, 2024
During a "paid promo with the brand," TMZ reported, McCain said "there's really no crazy reason to it," merely that it's a way to keep him from biting his nails \-- although he seems to think that a pedicure is a good way to make some me time.
"Just do some self care time, I think everybody should do some self care for themselves," McCain said.
"For me, it's nail painting. Sorry if that offends any of you guys."
No offense taken, and you'll have plenty of me time for "self care" now that this season is over.
That's not to say that the nails have had anything to do with it Duke's losing, although it's worth noting that the other male nail-painter TMZ listed -- likely No. 1 NFL draft pick Caleb Williams, a University of Southern California quarterback -- has long had issues of his emotional maturity dismissed by the media as old-school pearl-clutching by dinosaurs with outdated ideas of what masculinity entails.
Well, in male sports, masculinity matters, and so does winning. And in this case, "self care" didn't exactly do the trick for McCain.
