2024 Final Four: NC State's magical March and why we love the game

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A rusty commemorative soda can, a newspaper, a pocket schedule and a VHS tape with no machine to play it on.

That's what my 1983 NC State Wolfpack collection is down to now. It used to be a museum. Boxes of T-shirts and caps, magazines and books, buttons and bumper stickers. All in red and white. All emblazoned with some combination of all-caps print: CARDIAC PACK, HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF, DESTINY'S DARLINGS and NCAA CHAMPIONS.

They were, and are, my favorite team. That one team that even now, I can effortlessly rattle off every single member of the roster, from March Madness eternals Dereck Whittenburg and Lorenzo Charles to Tommy DiNardo and Walt Densmore, who…