The forgotten benching that turned DJ Burns’ season around — and NC State’s as well

There were no signs of a change in the morning shootaround at what used to be called the Carrier Dome, or during warmups before N.C. State played at Syracuse. So when the starting lineups were announced, the omission was startling: For the first (and only) time all season, Ben Middlebooks was starting for the Wolfpack instead of D.J. Burns.

N.C. State’s path to the Final Four, surmounting staggering odds, had a million turning points. That otherwise forgettable cold January night, when the Wolfpack fell behind by 16 at the half before mounting a futile rally late in a 77-65 loss, is one of the least recognized and, perhaps, one of the most important.

Burns was benched that night to send a message. It wasn’t so much that his weight had ballooned, although that was always a concern; it was that his commitment to staying fit during the season had waned. The more he played, the less effective he was. By late January, the coaching staff had enough. Middlebrooks started in Syracuse instead.

How Burns responded to that, becoming the kind of player who could carry a team through the ACC and NCAA tournaments, is one of the untold stories of N.C. State’s miracle postseason.

The benching in Syracuse — Burns ended up scoring 10 points in 28 minutes off the bench — was the wake-up call.

“He was open to it,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said. “He was open to, ‘Hey, I’ve got to get in better condition.’ I’m not into weight or any of that stuff. I just want our guys to be — D.J., early in the year, he wasn’t being the best version of himself. And that’s all I’d ask of him or anyone else. Now he’s bought in and he’s helping us go to the Final Four.”

Since the start of the postseason, Burns has scored in double figures in all but one game, shooting a staggering 64.8 percent (and 100 percent from 3-point range), and averaging more than 25 minutes per game despite being in foul trouble in four of the nine games, including a career-high 42 in the overtime win over Oakland.

It’s exactly what N.C. State needed from him during this run, especially after Burns gasped through last year’s first-round loss to Creighton at altitude in Denver. It wouldn’t be happening otherwise.

“I’d say that I’ve always been able to,” Burns said. “You have to be ready when the opportunity presents. I wasn’t going to let up just because I was playing more minutes.”

His ability to do so was born of a new commitment to his own fitness and a collective effort among the N.C. State staff, from assistant coach Kareem Richardson — who became the Burns whisperer and workout buddy, riding next to him on a stationary bike, taking long walks — to the nutritionists and strength coaches and trainers and massage therapists.

But in the end, it came down to Burns and his willingness to accept what was being asked of him, for the last time, that night in Syracuse.

“It’s been a team effort, but he’s been the guy,” assistant coach Joel Justus said. “If his give-a-darn level was low, this wasn’t going to work.”

There’s nothing in the record that screams Burns was running out of gas at that point, but his minutes had been declining from the start of the season. Burns played 25 minutes or more in 12 of N.C. State’s first 20 games (foul trouble, obviously, plays a role as well). Over the next 11 leading into the Syracuse trip, he cleared that mark only four times.

Once N.C. State reached the postseason, Burns’ hard work since that point has been increasingly evident.

“D.J.’s always been a kid when you tell him he can’t do something, he’s going to prove you wrong,” said Burns’ father, Dwight Sr. “He pushed himself. I watched him push himself up and down the court.”

The Wolfpack wasn’t built for Burns to be a supplementary piece. After losing 34 points of scoring when Jarkel Joiner and Terquavion Smith departed after last season, Keatts rebuilt the team around Burns as a point-forward, a distributor as much as a post scorer.

The new players all brought skills of their own, but for it all to work together, it needed Burns’ one-of-a-kind gifts, the soft hands and nimble feet attached to that burly body, and it needed Burns to be the best player he could be, and it needed Burns on the court, not the bench.

Which is exactly where he’s been now, when it has mattered most for the Wolfpack: At the center of everything.

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