By Ethan McDowell
Greta Hayes sprinted through the Atlanta airport to make her flight to Portland. The mother of Wolfpack guard Madison Hayes arrived at the gate right as it closed, and she missed the plane.
NC State defeated Stanford in the Sweet 16 without her in attendance. Madison Hayes led the team in rebounding and hit a pair of key threes. Her mother’s superstitions made her hesitate to make the cross-country flight to Oregon.
The Pack was on a roll, and Greta did not want to mess with that, but Madison made it clear that she needed to make the trip.
“Madison was like ‘Mom, you’ve got to come,’” Greta Hayes said.
She ended up at Portland’s Moda Center soon after and sat through a tense Elite 8 showdown with Texas filled with nerves. The Wolfpack won, and Greta was thrilled.
Greta Hayes
Multi-colored confetti fell from the rafters after NC State secured its 76-66 win over the Longhorns. The Wolfpack donned their white hats with “Final Four” written in bold red lettering across the front.
Greta Hayes joined her daughter on the court for the celebration along with the rest of the family members in the crowd. It was a special moment.
“She ran over to give me a hug, and the first thing out of her mouth was ‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ and I was like ‘This is so worth it. I would not want to be anywhere else,’” Hayes said.
This was Madison’s second career Elite 8 appearance. She was a sophomore role player for the 2022 team that lost to UConn in the region final. The versatile, now-senior wing stuck around with the Pack through the highs and lows of the past two years.
That faith paid off when the program took home the region championship Sunday. Greta knows the work Madison and the rest of the Wolfpack put in over the last offseason. She is also well aware of the exterior expectations on this program and the added pressure the players put on themselves.
Greta watched and posed for a picture with the trophy as everyone celebrated NC State advancing to its first Final 4 in 26 years.
“It was so surreal,” she said. “I wanted to pinch myself — Is this really happening? I’m just so proud and so happy for them, and I love the way they’ve stayed together all year. They’ve never doubted themselves, even when everybody else has.”
NC State was unranked to start the year and ended up eighth in the ACC preseason poll, but the Wolfpack always held a higher opinion of itself. Only the players, the coaches and their parents knew the team that had been building for months in an empty Reynolds Coliseum.
They started hot, finishing the non-conference schedule undefeated with a win over fellow Final Four team UConn. The Pack battled through a blowout loss to Miami and consecutive defeats against UNC and Duke, overcoming a few regular season setbacks to finish second in the conference. Then, the team turned the page after a heartbreaking ACC Championship.
Everything the Wolfpack went through this season prepared it for this moment. Greta Hayes woke up confident the morning of the Elite 8 game and feels good about NC State going into the Final Four matchup against South Carolina.
The Gamecocks are favored in the national semifinal, but Vegas expected Texas and Stanford to win too. The Wolfpack is undefeated against top-5 teams this season, and Hayes said she loves the underdog role.
“I think our girls’ hearts are bigger than the odds, and that’s what I’m going to roll with every time,” she said.
Maurice Brooks
Maurice Brooks watched from the stands in Portland while officials measured out the Moda Center’s uneven three-point lines before the Elite 8 game against Texas. It wasn’t clear to anyone what was happening with the pregame proceedings thrown into momentary chaos.
The different arcs did not stop his daughter, freshman point guard Zoe Brooks, from scoring double-digit points for her third-consecutive NCAA Tournament game. She is averaging 10.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2 steals per game during the tournament.
Brooks was in high school this time last year. She lost just 4 games, 1 per year, during her prep career, and she made the Final Four in her first year of college.
“Everybody from back home was just like ‘Zoe never loses,’” Maurice Brooks said.
At this point in the season, with the Pack preparing for its national semifinal contest, Maurice Brooks is tired of hearing about how the ACC media picked the program to finish in the bottom half of the league this season.
With that said, he’s still confused why some are refusing to give the Pack its flowers. NC State spent a significant chunk of this season in the Associated Press top 5 and has 11 ranked wins this season.
“Every time you look, it is like we’re always predicted to be the team to get upset. We’re the team that can’t score,” Brooks said. “People are spending more time, in my opinion, telling us what the girls can’t do compared to just giving them props for having a great season.”
Both Greta Hayes and Maurice Brooks praised the coaching staff after the Wolfpack advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s third weekend. Brooks complimented the job they are doing preparing the team for each matchup.
Advance scouting is critical this time of year, and head coach Wes Moore assigns assistants to evaluate potential future opponents so they can prepare a new scouting report in the hours after a big tournament win.
“I think they do a great job of game planning,” Brooks said. “The girls just seem really prepared for every big game that we have.”
NC State won three of its first four NCAA Tournament games by 10 or more points. The Pack will join South Carolina, Iowa and UConn in Cleveland this week.
While the Gamecocks are an undefeated 36-0 this season, NC State also takes a lot of momentum into this matchup.
“The hottest team in the country is South Carolina,” Brooks said. “They’re undefeated, but the next-hottest team is probably us.”
Gabrielle Baldwin
River Baldwin’s final run through the NCAA tournament has been a family affair. Gabrielle Baldwin, the graduate center’s mother, and other family members made the trip to Portland for the Sweet 16.
They watched the experienced post player put up 9 points and 4 rebounds in just 20 minutes while matched up against Stanford star Cameron Brink. Then, she scored 16 second-half points to power the Pack past Texas.
Baldwin took over NC State’s offense for part of the second half, scoring the first 6 points of the fourth quarter against the Longhorns. The fifth-year center will start a Final Four game Friday.
“We’re all just still in disbelief a little bit,” Baldwin said. “We believed in our girls and had faith in them. We knew they were capable of making a Final Four, but to actually see it become reality has been really awesome.”
Gabrielle Baldwin said the scene on the court after the game was emotional and overwhelming. Both the players and Moore were clearly overcome with the joy of breaking past the Elite 8 barrier for the first time since 1998.
River’s second half in the Elite 8 was a critical step towards where the program stands today. She battled early foul trouble, but Gabrielle could tell that just unlocked another level of her game.
“It was pretty thrilling,” Baldwin said. “We’ve always said River plays better when she gets a little mad … I think, in her head, she just said ‘If I get back out there, they’re not going to force me off the court, and we’re going to win.”
The center’s mother talked about the doubt that the center experienced, both from outside sources and internally, during her collegiate career. The 6-5 center transferred from Florida State and found a new home with a supportive group of coaches.
Her family will be in Cleveland this week to cheer her on through her final weekend of college basketball.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Gabrielle Baldwin said. “It’s been five years in college, and we couldn’t be more happy for her or proud of her.”
This has been a long journey for NC State as well. The Pack is back on the Final Four stage and, when the players take the court in Cleveland Friday night, their parents will have their backs in their pursuit of a national championship.
The post NC State women’s basketball parents thrilled to see Pack defy the critics appeared first on On3.