They don’t call North Carolina “The Hoop State” for no reason.

The state’s basketball history matches that of few others, particularly at the collegiate level. It is one of four states with four Power Conference athletic programs — a fact that has remained largely because of basketball keeping those programs desirable.

Refer to the “Big 4” around the state and most people will know you’re talking about North Carolina, Duke, North Carolina State and Wake Forest, the quartet of ACC members all within a 90-mile span of the I-40 corridor in the center of the state.

But all four programs haven’t always felt “big” at the same time. In fact, it’s been a while since all four were facing the prospect of potential NCAA Tournament bids, even at the still-early point of mid-January that we’re currently in, with some dreadful seasons having occurred in recent winters, particularly in Raleigh and Winston-Salem.

But this season, finally, is different, with Wake Forest and N.C. State — despite losses this week — in the conversation in the upper tier of the ACC alongside North Carolina and Duke, which have retained their normal seats at that table again in the current campaign.

Five ACC teams currently sit at 3-1 or better; the Big 4 are four of them, with a combined league record of 13-3, and one of those losses coming in Wednesday’s first in-state conference game of the season as the Tar Heels topped the Wolfpack.

That game was for outright first place in the ACC, a throwback to the days when N.C. State was more perennially near the top of the conference in its glory days. In fact, Wednesday’s contest was the first time both schools met with records of 3-0 or better in ACC play since 1974, a year that ended in the state’s second NCAA Tournament title, won by N.C. State to match UNC’s 1957 triumph.

While the game itself on Wednesday night wasn’t anything spectacular — the Tar Heels won comfortably for its 37th victory in the last 43 games in the series — the buildup to it was a reminder how much more fun basketball can be in this state when all four teams are having good seasons.

There are 10 head-to-head games amongst the Big 4 scheduled for the regular season (with the potential for more in the postseason), with Wake Forest at N.C. State on Tuesday night for the next one of the set. I’ve said before — in a statement that’s admittedly a slight exaggeration — that these 10 matchups are the biggest 10 annual sporting events in the state. But it’s especially true when all the games have high stakes, and not just the famed North Carolina-Duke battles, great as they can often be.

N.C. State, of course, was historically comparable to North Carolina and Duke at the time Jim Valvano’s “Cardiac Pack” won the program’s second national championship in 1983 — but the last four decades have been up and down for the Wolfpack. Last year’s team reached the NCAA Tournament for the second time in coach Kevin Keatts’ tenure, and this year’s team is positioning itself to have another shot at the Big Dance.

While Wake Forest lacks a national championship, won multiple times by each of the other three schools, the Demon Deacons have a strong history of their own, stretching from way-back legends Dickie Hemric and Len Chappell to the program’s 1990s and 2000s run led by Tim Duncan and Randolph Childress to Josh Howard, Chris Paul and others. But Wake Forest has had a winning record in the ACC just once in the last 14 seasons, finishing well below .500 most of those seasons. Now, Steve Forbes has turned the program around, and in his fourth season in Winston-Salem has his best team yet.

Even North Carolina and Duke have had recent disappointments. Duke missed the NCAA Tournament in 2021; North Carolina tied for last place in the ACC in 2020 and last year earned the dubious distinction as the first preseason No. 1 to miss the NCAA Tournament, though they’ve rebounded well as a top-10 team and the current ACC leader this season. They’ve also endured the retirement of legendary coaches, with Roy Williams leaving North Carolina in 2021 and Mike Krzyzewski a year later.

UNC’s Hubert Davis and Duke’s Jon Scheyer, though, have each shown they’re more than capable of continuing the on-court prosperity of their predecessors.

As the Tar Heels and Blue Devils continue their typical success, the Wolfpack and Demon Deacons are looking to join them. A power ranking earlier this week (though before recent losses by N.C. State and Wake Forest) by former Robesonian sports editor Rodd Baxley, now covering the Triangle schools at the Fayetteville Observer, ranked the four North Carolina schools as the top four teams in the ACC.

Beyond how great this is for the state, the ACC itself is also better when each of the Big 4 is part of the conversation, creating some of the league’s biggest games in games that double as some of its most historic and tradition-rich series.

As the conference prepares for some, shall we say, vast expansion to the other coast, perhaps this season can provide a feeling of the old-school ACC before Cal, Stanford and SMU join the fray next school year.

And looking ahead to March, the month that defines college basketball seasons, how great would it be if all of the Big 4 can end the season playing in the NCAA Tournament? While North Carolina and Duke are near-annual qualifiers, 2005 was the last time all four made the tournament in the same year.

That season evokes some nostalgia, not just because yours truly was 10 years old but because of how memorable some of the principles are: Duke’s J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, UNC’s Sean May and Raymond Felton and Wake Forest’s Paul swept the All-ACC first team, with N.C. State’s Julius Hodge on the second team. Beside Krzyzewski and Williams, Herb Sendek and Skip Prosser led N.C. State and Wake Forest.

Could a similarly strong season on the hardwood be underway this winter in North Carolina? Each of the team’s ACC programs are certainly off to a “big” start.