The NC State men’s club basketball team has been a well-known intramural team for nearly a decade. Unlike most students who participate in the recreational experience, this particular non-profit organization allows its members, most of whom are former high school basketball athletes, an opportunity to play more competitive opponents. It also gains funding through charitable work, allowing it to travel to locations around the country to compete against other universities.
The club is split into two teams: Team Wolf and Team Pack. Despite the age and experience levels amongst the club, both teams are equally distributed among talent. Having more than one team is relatively new and is a way for the club to expand while letting more students who are interested, to join in.
Junior John Tayloe, an officer of club men’s basketball studying electrical engineering, is a member of Team Wolf and explained how the split of the clubs works.
“We have two teams, and when I say we have two teams, we are very equal,” Tayloe said. “We’ve won tournaments, they’ve won tournaments. We are both evenly matched. So, it’s not like an ‘a’ or ‘b’ team per say.”
For the players, the opportunity to play in a competitive club sport is a great outlet that provides a positive experience.
“I saw it on Instagram and I knew a couple of guys on the team,” said Team Pack captain Amr Mansour, a senior studying business administration. “I saw that it was travel basketball for college and I played all through high school. I figured it was a good way to play competitively while still being in school with it not being more of a chore and being something I could enjoy.”
Within the various tournaments, there are regionals and nationals but unlike university teams, club sports doesn’t rely on the facets of collegiate tournaments based on rankings. All basketball club teams across the country can take part and travel to any showcase they are capable of making despite its win and loss record. Both teams in the club play while also playing against each other but still share the victories.
“Yeah, so it’s not like the NCAA where you play conference and then conference tournament. We get a bunch of teams in our areas,” Tayloe said. “For the most part we play Chapel Hill, Duke, [North Carolina Central], [North Carolina A&T], and Winston-Salem State. We all come to these tournaments and we’ll all play. But there’s no real set tournaments where like, ‘Okay, we need to go to this one to win to get to nationals. Whatever works for us, we plan it and we go for it.”
The new rosters start in the fall. The club played in three tournaments during that period but the first few of the semester came with a learning curve. The first tournament was hosted at Carmichael Gym, the second at UNC, and another at Wake Forest for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. The tournament at Wake Forest proved victorious for the club as it won through seven games.
The spring has been a working progress but successful nonetheless. NC State hosted another tournament with Team Pack going 17-1, only to have Team Wolf beating Team Pack. It also played a regional at ECU and a tournament in Gainesville, Florida.
Nationals is coming up in April for the club and it seems that contentment is present with the players.
“Honestly I think if you just take a look at our team, a lot of other teams may judge us on our looks,” Mansour said. “We try to let our play do the talking. We’ve seen teams come in confident and we ended up beating them by double-digit points. We just play basketball and control what we can control. I genuinely believe between both of our teams, I would not be surprised if NC State is national champions by April 14.”
