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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

When the N.C. State men’s basketball team went on the how’d-that-happen run during March Madness, a Davie County guy was along for the ride.

Jack Nixon, a 2021 Davie graduate who made a name for himself in tennis when he was a War Eagle, is a rising senior at State and heading into his third year as a student manager for the Wolfpack.

The idea came from another Davie County product – Gabe Gonnella, who graduated from Davie in 2016.

“Gabe was at State, I followed his social media and saw what he was doing,” Nixon said. “I reached out to him and he put me in contact with the people I needed to talk to. It was something I always wanted to do because I like being around basketball, especially college basketball. I saw what (Gonnella) was doing, getting to go to all these cool places.”

Becoming a manager is not easy. Manager jobs are coveted gigs because they have some serious benefits. Nixon tried out as a freshman but wasn’t selected.

“I tried out, but they already had enough people,” he said. “My freshman year, State was really bad and the next summer we only had four or five people try out. But the year after we made the (NCAA) Tournament, we had a lot more, like 30-45 people tried out. The number is usually 10 (managers). This year we’ve had a ton of people try out because of our success last year.”

Nixon tried out again as a sophomore, and was picked.

“The tryout is during the summer, doing camps and working with kids,” he said. “If they like you, they bring you in for a workout. A college workout is different – it’s high paced and high energy. Some people can get overwhelmed.”

The perks of being a manager are fabulous. It allows Nixon to be involved with an ACC athletic program. There are delicious meals. There are awesome travel experiences. He has the best seat in the house for every game.

But being a manager is not all glitz and glamour. It’s a big-time commitment and a lot of work. They haul luggage onto planes and buses in the wee hours. The fill and refill coolers. They work camps in the summer. They sacrifice weekends and holiday trips in exchange for practices.

“We do everything,” he said. “Some days I’m coming off screens and passing it. Some days I’m standing there with a towel. Some days we’re in the drills; some days we’re off to the side just watching. On an average day, the first half of a workout we assist in rebounding and passing, and then they start playing five-on-five and we’re just watching and making sure they get water and stuff like that.

“It’s a lot of early mornings and late nights. I would have class in mornings from 8 or 9 until 1 or 2, and then practice starts at 3. Practice is two or two and a half hours, and then I stay for an hour or hour and a half after. So it’s a good four hours a day. They let us look at some film and chart things that they want charted, which is really cool. I enjoy that part of it.”

What kind of behind-the-scenes work is there on game days?

“We usually get there three hours before the game time,” he said. “We’re setting everything up, setting up the benches, setting up water, setting up the locker room. The players get there and we’re rebounding for them. In pregame warmups, we’re out there rebounding and getting them ready to go. After the game, it’s clean up, laundry and stuff like that.”

During the 2023-24 season, Nixon was seated behind the State bench for 39 of 41 games.

“We’re fans,” he said. “We see these guys every day and we’re cheering for their success. Last year I went to all but two (road games). One time I was sick and didn’t go. We’re packing the buses, packing the plane and making sure the players have all their gear. We pick up food.”

For most of the 2023-24 season, State was a dog that didn’t bark. The Wolfpack closed the regular season with four straight losses and seven defeats in nine games. They were 17-14, on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble and were hearing constant talk about Kevin Keatts’ future as coach.

Then the Wolfpack did the unthinkable. They won five games in five days and snatched an automatic NCAA bid. The 10th-seeded Wolfpack beat Louisville (94-85) and Syracuse (83-65) in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals, they ran into second-seeded Duke, which was ranked 11th in the country and had received a bye to the quarters. State won 74-69.

In the semifinals against Virginia, the Wolfpack were down six with a minute left, but they rallied furiously and prevailed 73-65 in overtime. In the final seconds of regulation, Virginia missed the front end of a one-and-one with a chance go up by four, and State’s Michael O’Connell rushed the ball up the left sideline and banked in a wild 3-pointer at the buzzer.

In the championship game, the Wolfpack knocked off top-seeded and fourth-ranked North Carolina, 84-76, thanks to DJ Horne’s 29 points and 20 from the 6-9, 275-pound DJ Burns.

It was a historic run – the second team to win any conference tournament as a double-digit seed and the first team to win the ACC Tournament with five wins in five days. It was State’s first ACC title since 1987.

“It was funny – I will admit I ran out of clothes,” Nixon said. “On the last day, I did not have enough clothes packed. It was amazing, simple as that. It’s still kind of surreal to see pictures of it and think about that that really happened. When we went into the championship game, I don’t think anybody in our locker room was thinking we’re going to have a hard time with them. It was:  ‘We’re rolling right now. We all think we’re going to beat them.’”

Keatts said: “Winning five games in five nights is a miracle.”

Horne: “I can’t even put it into words right now. Just a week ago, it was looking like our season was about to be over, and here we are now, man, on top of the world.”

The Wolfpack went dancing as a No. 11 seed. Somehow they were not hung over emotionally or physically, opening the NCAA Tournament with an 80-67 win over Texas Tech. After picking up their first March Madness win in nine years, they beat Oakland 79-73 to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015. Next was a 67-58 win over second-seeded Marquette, putting State in the Elite Eight for the first time since 1986. In the regional final, State took another bite out of Duke, 76-64. Burns put on a show (29 points on 13-of-19 shooting) as State reached the Final Four for the first time since Jim Valvano and the Cardiac Pack from 1983.

One of Nixon’s coolest moments during the magical run was meeting Bill Raftery, the famous color commentator.

“That was before our game versus Duke in the Elite Eight,” Nixon said. “We were at our shootaround. The commentators come to the shootarounds, just to talk to the guys and get those stories for when they’re on TV. (Raftery) was just hanging around. I said: ‘That’s a legend. I’ve got to go get a picture and talk to him.’ He’s a really nice guy; he talked to me for a while. He knew where Mocksville was. He was one of the coolest people that I was able to meet.”

A few days later, Nixon was in Glendale, Az., for the Final Four. The 7-foot-4 Zach Edey and Purdue stopped State’s epic run 63-50.

“It was amazing,” Nixon said of the Final Four experience. “The amount of people that were there was just unreal. I can’t even describe how big it felt.”

Now Nixon is a rising senior and heading into his third year as a manager. He’s working on a Psychology degree.

“I think I might want to get into coaching or Sports Psychology,” said Nixon, who went 84-20 in singles and doubles as a Davie tennis player from 2018-21. “This why I wanted to work in basketball. My granddad is a State grad and had season tickets for my whole life growing up, so we would go to a lot of State games and I have been a fan for a while.”