The Wolfpack screams for NC State’s man of good humor after road wins

The folks at the ice-cream place next to the arena in Dallas, a prominent national chain, didn’t believe Chris Zupko. It’s not that hard to blame them, really. This guy walks in, and he might need a lot of ice cream the next night, but he might not, and if he did, he would need it ready in a big hurry after he called right around closing time.

There are a lot of rungs on the college basketball coaching ladder, but you don’t get into the business expecting to try to convince the manager of an ice-cream shop that you’re not perpetrating a practical joke. Or that it would be a deadly serious task that has to be done right if and when the time comes.

This has become Zupko’s lot in life, especially as N.C. State has won nine straight games away from home. The Wolfpack gets ice cream after road (or neutral-site) wins. Always has under Kevin Keatts. It’s up to Zupko, the team’s assistant director of basketball operations to make it happen.

And if that means walking away from what looked like the easiest option, as he did in Dallas, it’s in part because he’s learned all the hacks and tricks of the late-night ice-cream racket since taking the job at N.C. State three years ago.

“They didn’t think I was for real,” Zupko said Thursday. “So I said we’d go somewhere else. I found another spot a little further out, but it worked out better anyway.”

N.C. State has been doing this since Keatts arrived, a tradition that dates back to his first season as a head coach at UNC Wilmington, but it has taken on a life of its own this postseason. And on a team full of first-year transfers, everything that’s old is new again — to them.

It’s one of several team-bonding gambits for the Wolfpack, but one the team has really leaned into during this run.

“It’s like a little cherry on top, no pun intended,” Michael O’Connell said.

In Washington, during the ACC tournament, the team earned five straight days of Haagen-Dazs. That was an easy one for Zupko, with a shop outside Capital One Arena. After winning two afternoon games, Zupko walked in before Thursday’s game to see if they’d be willing to stay open late.

“I walked in and said, ‘I know you guys are going to close, but we need ice cream,’” Zupko said. “They said, ‘We’ll stay open for you.’ The next night they did the same thing for me. Championship night, they did the same thing.”

Five scoops in five days. After winning the ACC tournament, Keatts had a shirt made with that slogan on it. There are variations floating around, but he’s not letting go of the original.

“That’s one of one,” Keatts said. “Everybody is like, ‘Can I get that shirt?’ You can’t.”

Zupko worked with Keatts at Hargrave Military Academy before re-joining Keatts at N.C. State from Drexel. With no previous ice-cream procurement experience, he did not expect this to land on his to-do list. Zupko is busy enough on the road, assisting director of basketball operations Steve Snell with travel, hotels, buses and all the logistics of moving a twenty-something-person traveling party from place to place in a timely manner, especially with Snell allowed to be an on-court coach in practice.

Some of that may seem more important than having ice cream on call just in case the Wolfpack wins on the road, but there’s no room for failure. Nor has Zupko yet. He knows to go in person the day before a game, to make sure they know it’s not a prank. His phone is full of amenable ice-cream places in ACC cities, and there’s always Insomnia Cookies as an emergency fallback, the ubiquitous late-night campus standby.

Insomnia was the answer to the riddle, “Where do you get ice cream after midnight in deserted South Bend when Notre Dame is on Christmas break?” in January, and it’s where the Wolfpack walked — right down the middle of Clemson’s campus — after finally beating the Tigers in February, what the players almost unanimously called the most memorable ice cream of the (regular) season.

A few people in the traveling party are gluten-free, so he has to warn about cross-contamination. And all of this is on his travel spreadsheets now, along with hotels and postgame meals and bus companies and charter providers. In Pittsburgh, he dipped into those notes to split the two wins between Insomnia and Dave & Andy’s, a trustworthy spot near Pitt’s campus.

The postseason has actually been a little bit easier, merely getting ice cream back to the hotel instead of having to make a detour en route to the airport in the middle of the night. CBS’ behind-the-scenes crew even did a short featurette on Zupko making the call from the arena in Dallas after beating Marquette — “We won, make the ice cream!” — although he does have some help.

“He’s more of the say-so, just get it done on the phone — these guys are the ones that do all the work,” D.J. Horne said, gesturing to the managers getting a rare break nearby, the people who are often the link between parlor and bus. “Don’t let ‘Zup’ fool you.”

Not everyone partakes. D.J. Burns says he never has. Casey Morsell can take it or leave it. Among the other players, especially those who have been around for a bit, like Breon Pass and Ernest Ross, there’s a race to secure preferred flavors from the five or six Zupko typically orders, depending on vendor.

“I love vanilla,” Pass said

“I love cookies and cream,” Ross said. “Whenever he gets the ice cream, I have to make sure to get my cookies and cream.”

“Vanilla runs out quick, so you’ve got to get there quick,” Pass said.

“It’s a scramble for sure,” Ross said. “I have rivals. Jordan Snell is one of my rivals.”

Jayden Taylor prefers strawberry, but not everyone is so picky.

“At that point, I don’t care,” assistant coach Joel Justus said. “You win a road game, I’ll eat poop-flavored ice cream.”

N.C. State got into Phoenix on Wednesday and got its first look at State Farm Stadium on Thursday. As the team acclimates to its new surroundings, Zupko still has one major task ahead, in an unfamiliar place.

“I haven’t done it yet for here,” Zupko said. “Our strength coach recommended a spot to try. He found it walking yesterday, two blocks from our hotel.”

By Sunday, it might be the most famous ice-cream store in downtown Phoenix — if N.C. State wins and the manager believes Zupko when he walks in the door. Not everyone has believed the Wolfpack is for real, and not just when it comes to dessert, but the scoops keep on coming.

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