Green, Jr: NC State 1974 = The Best

General NCS Basketball Rankings & Lists Tradition42

SFN highlighted the public voting on the topic of the best ACC National Basketball Champions in this entry earlier this morning.

But, we thought that it was important to blog the piece from today’s newspaper that prompted the poll. Anytime that a member of the Green family ranks NC State ahead of Carolina in anything you know that it is legitimate.

The reunion of North Carolina’s 1957 and 1982 national championship teams Saturday in Chapel Hill brought to mind the collection of championship teams produced by the Tar Heels, Duke and N.C. State during the past 33 years.

Among them, the three schools have produced eight national champions since 1974. Not bad for one neighborhood.

Which is the greatest of those eight teams?

Here’s one subjective list of how those national championship teams rank in relation to each other: Inside the ACC | Ron Green Jr.

1. 1974 N.C. STATE: David Thompson, the best player in ACC history, brought down Bill Walton and the UCLA giant, ending a dynasty.

2. 1982 NORTH CAROLINA: Dean Smith’s long-awaited first national championship team also gave the world Michael Jordan.

3. 1992 DUKE: Christian Laettner, the second-best player in ACC history, led a ferocious team oozing attitude and personality to a second straight title.

4. 1991 DUKE: Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill were just getting started and floored UNLV in a classic semifinal surprise.

5. 2005 NORTH CAROLINA: In his second season in Chapel Hill, Roy Williams re-establishes the North Carolina dynasty with help from Sean May, Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants.

6. 2001 DUKE: The Blue Devils’ third title in 11 years was fueled by Shane Battier, Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, Chris Duhon and Mike Dunleavy.

7. 1993 NORTH CAROLINA: Donald Williams had a March to remember as the Tar Heels won No. 2 for Smith — with a little help from Chris Webber’s infamous timeout.

8. 1983 N.C. STATE: There was some question if this team belonged in the NCAA tournament but, with coach Jim Valvano, it gave us a story we’ll never forget.

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General NCS Basketball Rankings & Lists Tradition

42 Responses to Green, Jr: NC State 1974 = The Best

  1. legacyman 02/12/2007 at 8:02 PM #

    Russell was the best defensive center and WIlt was a better offensive center but Bill couldn’t hit a free throw to save his life. I would take either of them and build a team around them.

    DT is the best college player I have ever seen and that goes back to 1957 when you know who won something. MJ developed into a great pro player where they play no defense but ole deano played the best D on MJ as he held him under 30 points per game almost every game….in college.

    Bill Walton would have to be in the top three or four centers…Ralph Sampson wasn’t close to those guys as there was no one close to his height when he played. Sampson played on no national championship team, in fact, the Wolfpack beat him in the ACCT and a regional NCAAT game

  2. crackdog 02/12/2007 at 9:52 PM #

    Dave Sez has a great article up right now (written by a guest) on the 1974 team, and the landscape of college basketball- both ACC and national- leading up to that time. A great read, and worth 10 minutes if you’re a younger fan (younger than 30) who didn’t live through that era.

  3. gopack617 02/12/2007 at 10:35 PM #

    one of the best things about NC State basketball, is that we could field an all-star team of players who all wore #24, and beat most other schools’ all-time greatest.

    PG- Terry Gannon
    SF2- Julius Hodge
    SF1- Tom Gugliotta
    PF- John Richter
    C- Tommy Burleson

  4. Dogbreath 02/12/2007 at 11:19 PM #

    F***ing ESPHype Classic just ran off their greatest college basketball players of all time and had Thompson at 10, behind Larry Bird (among others).

  5. bTHEredterror 02/13/2007 at 2:35 AM #

    Espn considers nearly everything that happened before 1979 as ancient history.

    I agree with Noah about Len Bias, I wouldn’t put him in my all time ACC team for one simple reason. Though he put a team on his back, his team never won anything. No ACC titles, nothing. Plus Bias was a tweener forward. Who are you gonna bump off DT or Laettner? His best years likely were ahead of him. I see Sampson at the 5, Ford and Jordan in the backcourt, along with DT and Sister Christian.
    All time NCAA DT(uhh), Pistol, Magic, Larry Johnson, and Bill Walton.

  6. kool k 02/13/2007 at 7:41 AM #

    “You’re motoring…what’s your price for flight”…Sister Christian…classic bTHE, classic

  7. TNCSU 02/13/2007 at 8:42 AM #

    To put Laettner in front of Bias is laughable. Bias would’ve have schooled Laettner AND whoever they would have put on him for the double-team! I guess we can agree to disagree….

  8. legacyman 02/13/2007 at 10:00 AM #

    Another great center was Lew Alcindor but, again, he was a tower at the time and no one could guard him…like Sampson. Coach Wooden called him “Lewis”.

  9. noah 02/13/2007 at 10:39 AM #

    I chose Hurley ahead of Corch because Hurley was the better shooter. I only saw Ford play when he was with the Kings…after he had a detached retina, so that may color my impressions of him. BTW, that was the KANSAS CITY Kings. This was before the roof collapsed at Kemper Arena.

    I chose Russell because of the way he changed basketball and because of his titles. The first time he blocked a shot, legend has it that the ref blew his whistle and stopped the game. No one had ever done it the way he had before. (And Wilt couldn’t hit a free throw either) Russell won at San Francisco and then was far more successful in the NBA. Wilt’s titles came with the Lakers, I think. Although Philly may have one a couple.

    Regarding Len Bias, I saw Wayman Tisdale in college. He was incredible. He averaged 25 points and 10 rebounds every year at Oklahoma. He was 6-9, about 240 pounds (back when that was REALLY big) and he was an incredible shooter. His post moves were almost unstoppable. A sweet hook and his baseline jumper was deadly.

    Far, far better than Bias in college. But his career high in the NBA was 14.5 ppg.

    Keith Lee was another fantastic college player. So was Sam Bowie. I remember Mel Turpin and Bowie as the Twin Towers at Kentucky. Bowie scored something like 50 points one game. Scott Skiles led the nation in scoring at Mich. State with something like 28 ppg.

    Bias averaged: 7, 13, 18 and 23 ppg at Maryland. He was a career 79 percent free throw shooter. Compare that with Walt Williams who averaged 7, 13, 19 and 28 ppg, 76 percent free throw shooter and 36 percent three-point shooter.

    I still maintain that it is historical revisionism that puts Bias in the category of Jordan. But it’s fun to argue about.

  10. kool k 02/13/2007 at 12:14 PM #

    I hear Wayman Tisdale is an accomplished musician these days…and speaking of Sam Bowie…what were Mario Williams final stats this year? I hope all that “he’s the Sam Bowie of the NFL” crap ends. A great young man who deserves everything he has earned.
    Didn’t Corchiani used to back Skiles up with the Magic?

  11. BoKnowsNCS71 02/13/2007 at 1:59 PM #

    Irony of ironies: NC State’s Chuck Nevitt probably has more NBA championship rings than most super players. Plus he got them on different teams — I think this was the Lakers, Pistons, and the Rockets. I wonder if he has more rings than MJ? Just an odd piece of trivia. Anyone know?

  12. Big Worm 02/13/2007 at 3:38 PM #

    “I chose Hurley ahead of Corch because Hurley was the better shooter.”

    I agree Hurley may have been able to get off his shot a little easier with his jump shot form as opposed to Corch’s set shot, but all available data points towards Corch being the better shooter. Corch had a higher career FG% (46% to 41%), 3P% (40.8% to 40.5%) and FT% (82% to 72%).

    “Didn’t Corchiani used to back Skiles up with the Magic?”

    Yep. Like Jules, both Corch and Monroe may not have ended up sticking around in the League anyway, but neither fell into situations that allowed them to get a good look.

  13. Big Worm 02/13/2007 at 3:40 PM #

    ^Hurley’s FT% should have been 78%, not 72%.

  14. zahadum 02/13/2007 at 4:01 PM #

    re: Nevitt – pretty sure he only had 2; one with the Lakers and one with the Bulls. Houston never made it out of the 1st round any of his years with them and the closest with Detroit would have been 1988 when they lost in the finals to the Lakers.

    Jordan had 6.

  15. BoKnowsNCS71 02/14/2007 at 9:36 AM #

    I googled Nevitt. No one has counted them exactly. One article says he has 2 rings as a Detroit Piston, one with the Lakers and one with the Bulls.

    Seems odd that no one has ever clearly documented this exactly. Although he was not Jordan, he was on the champioship team and won the rings. Seems like he is being ignored as a former Wolfpack player.

  16. BoKnowsNCS71 02/14/2007 at 12:07 PM #

    Another thought. Why would we as State Fans not update Wikipedia or some other source with Chuck Nevitt’s success?

    If we can document lengthy pages on Chris Washburn for all to read — it amazes me that we ignore a Wolpacker with probably the most NBA rings of all our alumni.

  17. noah 02/14/2007 at 3:56 PM #

    Chuck Nevitt was right before I became a hard-core fan, so I never got a chance to see him play, otherwise I’d do it.

    But as far as his rings…they rank up there with Jack Haley’s championship rings, IMO. Walt Densmore has more NCAA tournament rings than Danny Manning.

    I mentioned rings when comparing Wilt and Russell because I was looking for something to mark the success of their careers, not as happy accidents. They were both centerpieces of their teams, both excelled at what they did and had some eye-popping numbers…

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