The No. 11 NC State Wolfpack enters the National Semifinal at +1800 to win the championship, the longest odds out of the four teams remaining.
The Wolfpack has consistently defied the odds up until this point, notably in wins over No. 6 Texas Tech, No. 2 Marquette and No. 4 Duke.
The team is still an underdog, as shown by Connecticut (-190), Purdue (+190) and Alabama (+1600) all having shorter odds to win the national title.
NC State's run started in the ACC Tournament, where it beat Louisville, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina to win the conference and earn an automatic bid to the main tournament.
In the national tournament, NC State overcame No. 6 Texas Tech 80-67 before playing fellow upset winners No. 14 Oakland - who beat No. 3 Kentucky - in the second round. The Wolfpack beat Oakland 79-73 to advance to a meeting with the No. 2 Marquette Golden Eagles in the round of 16.
Defense and guard play propelled NC State to beat Marquette 67-58. The big man trio of DJ Burns, Mohamed Diarra and Will Middlebrooks helped hold Marquette forwards David Joplin and Oso Ighodaro to a combined 10 points on 4/16 shooting. As a whole, Marquette shot just 33.3 percent from the field.
It was more of the same against the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils in the regional final. NC State won 76-64 off the back of 29 points from Burns and 20 points from guard DJ Horne. While Duke guard Jared McCain had 32 points, the Blue Devils shot just 32.2 percent from the floor and star center Kyle Filipowski capped his substandard performance by fouling out with just under five minutes left in the game.
Strong defense and a versatile offensive approach have driven NC State to this point in the tournament. March 14 was the last time an opponent shot better than 40 percent from the field against this team. Meanwhile, the Pack hasn't shot below 45 percent in a game since mid-March.
NC State will meet the No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers, led by 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, in the semifinal. The Wolfpack open as +350 underdogs in that matchup with the Boilermakers favored by -9.5.
Odds mentioned in this article were correct at the time of writing and are subject to change.