Happy Anniversary!

Flashback General NCS Basketball Tradition39

Really, nothing more needs to be said (but feel free to take a deeper look into some very interesting thoughts by clicking here). Just sit back and enjoy the most famous 44 seconds in NC State athletics history — and all the pandemonium that ensued afterward. Also, please pay close attention to Coach Valvano’s comments afterward about the importance of being in the position to win and playing to win the game.

Flashback General NCS Basketball Tradition

39 Responses to Happy Anniversary!

  1. EverettBeez 04/04/2007 at 8:33 PM #

    I worked for the SID’s office as a press runner for 3 yrs in high school (Broughton). 83 was my senior year. I sat on the court for all the home games. What a year it was. I remember sitting under the basket because press row was packed for the UVa game. Sampson sat right down on top of one of our guys, and we got called for the foul. I was 6 feet from it, and jumped to my feet (a big big no-no) to scream at the ref, when Frank Weedon (the assit. AD) hit a stack of programs out on to the court three seats down from me. I sat back down because I knew they’d fire me but not Mr. Weedon. We won that game as I recall.

    I thought my heart would give out during the ACCT & NCAAT. Remember that Pepperdine game – watching it on a school night at buddies from the west region, it must of started at 9 or something, falling asleep on the floor with a min or left and us down, sure the run was done, and waking up with a couple min’s left in the 2 OT, and seeing us win!

    For the final – I was at Atlantic Beach, spring break, drunker then a coot. (drinking age was 18 folks! I was weeks from being legal!) I don’t recall much of the game, but do remembering running out to scream off the deck after we won, and then falling down the stairs to the beach, and then running around crazy.

    My mom was able to get some guys to cart off an old couch from the garage to burn in the brickyard that night. When Dad went back to teach in Harrelson, it was a mess, but a happy one.

    I’ve been lucky. I got to watch the 74 team play when I was a kid, I remember it taking 45 min’s to go from Brooks Ave to Gardner St along Hillsbrough the afternoon we beat UCLA and I got to ride in Thompson’s state red caddy that was part of the reason we were on probation the year before, with Thompson, Towel and Buckner. And then my senior year I got to see this national championship run. I want my daughter to see one – though from Alabama it won’t be the same.

  2. PackGirl 04/05/2007 at 7:30 AM #

    Larry Harris was arrested last night. From comments on WRAL site, sounds like he could have done something as minor as asking why he was pulled over and not handing over his license immediately. Just when the other story was dying down – now they can drag this one out. Great.

    http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1261170/

  3. RedTerror29 04/05/2007 at 7:54 AM #

    DWB?

  4. noah 04/05/2007 at 8:18 AM #

    Olajuwan drifted out to set up for the long rebound. If the ball hit the rim from 35 feet, it wasn’t going to come down under the basket. It was going to bounce long.

    And we lost the UVa game at Reynolds in 1983. 88-80. That was the game where Whit broke his foot (after scoring 27 in the first half)

  5. EverettBeez 04/05/2007 at 8:48 AM #

    Thanks for the correction on the UVa game – We did beat Sampson two more times after that, correct? The ACCT & NCAAT. I remember Whit getting hurt, for old timers its was shades of Thompson cracking his head at the end of the season.

  6. PackGirl 04/05/2007 at 9:54 AM #

    ^^^Probably. He may have a nice car – that, in combination with his skin tone and being out after dark is probably what did him in. I wonder how fast he was going. He may have been ticked for being pulled over when he was barely exceeding the speed limit.

  7. RedTerror29 04/05/2007 at 10:03 AM #

    ^41 in a 25 I believe. In a straight stretch down Morgan St. right after it splits off Hillsborough. Probably ticked off for getting harassed about if he was drinking when he was coming home after a 18 hour workday.

  8. primacyone 04/05/2007 at 11:05 AM #

    A pack pride poster claims to be a witness:

    “RevSlow wrote:
    Holy **** that was Harris?!?! I drove by that ****!!!

    Granted I don’t know what happened, but I do know I watched Harris being told to put his hands on the car and spread em with the officer a couple feet away and Harris ask him something and the cop run up on him and slam his ass into the car hood face first and handcuffed and then searched and thrown to the ground!! I was so pissed at the time because it appeared to me to be another ****head cop trying to abuse his authority like most of them do. But I didn’t even notice it was Harris… Holy ****.

    The cop couldn’t have been more than 25 or 26. IMO he was told to get out of the car and put his hands on the top of the car and spread em and Harris asked him why and the cop took exception to it. At least thats what it appeared to be to me. Another black guy gettin abused by Raleigh police… what a shocker.”

  9. stejen 04/05/2007 at 12:02 PM #

    Even Valano basher’s admit that his expertise was getting his team’s to peak at tourment time (if you read his auobiography one of the first things he learned as a head coach was that not every game was paramount to win, you had to keep things in perspective). Compare that to the flame outs of Sendek at the end of every season. Like it or not, admit it or not, NC State was the best team in the country for two weeks in the year of the season of 1982-83. Let’s see, State beat Virginia, Louisville, UNLV, and Houston (and anyone else I forgot) that were all top ten teams at the times that were supposed to anniliate State. I am one of the few people that will still say this but I wish Valvano was still our head coach and I really wish he was still our AD. People forget he started the acedemic tutoring for athletes at State. Dick Sheriden claims one of the reasons he turned down the State job down in ’83 becuase he could not believe what a lousy acedemic resource State had for athletes. Then he said Valvalo being the AD was one of the reasons he accepted the job three years later (despite reports that he said he would never work for Jim Valvnano in the Carolina Blue press). Jim Valvano was not perfect but Les Robinson? Herb Sendek? Lee Fowler? State really screwed up when they allowed themselves to get caught up in the witch hunt of the 20th century

  10. Packaholic1 04/05/2007 at 5:40 PM #

    Can you take anyone seriously that does not include the UCLA Alcindor team as one of the best?

  11. WolfPup35 04/05/2007 at 7:26 PM #

    Skipper Braynless is a complete ass (or boob, you choose) anybody that actually volunteers to sub for “little jimmy” rome HAS to have some misfiring synapses somewhere. A FLUKE? NO FUCKING WAY! Houston had blown through the NCAAT and was the favourite to win it all from the drop. A TRUE CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM HITS IT’S FREE THROWS!!! This State team was a team that absolutely refused to bow to the hype, never quit, and put it’s heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears out on the floor. As the video shows, the result was the GREATEST 44 seconds in sports history! The point guard will have us back there again one day. GO WOLFPACK!!

  12. WolfPup35 04/05/2007 at 7:29 PM #

    “V said and I agree if we don’t play Kansas in the final Eight in their back yard when we had Stackhouse and Washburne we would have made final four that year to. ”

    I think we could have gotten through the day without a washburn reference, but I get your point.

  13. redfred2 04/06/2007 at 9:48 PM #

    I still don’t think Lorenzo can quite believe what he did there. Great to posts from the guys on campus at that time.

    Also stejen, V may have gotten somewhat off track, but he had the same media jackasses to deal with back then also. I can’t help but get riled when NC State fans continue to jump on press references about other schools, coaches and players, or whatever, still believing their crapola and swallowing their rotten bait all the way down every time.

    Since someone’s already mentioned his name on this thread, and like I’ve said before, the media’s tale on Chris Washburn would have been that he came off looking like he was a choir boy, had he just signed and played in powder blue.

  14. Jimmy V 04/07/2007 at 12:07 PM #

    Jim Valvano brought passion, fun, humor, and dedication to the NCSU basketball coaching job. He loved being the coach at State, the rivalries, the NCAA Tournament. It has been a long, long time since State had a coach who exemplifies what we need. Les Robinson was in over his head from day one. Yeah, he has some supporters who say that his hands were tied. They were. But no way we should lose to Campbell, Davidson, and Florida Atlantic. When you bring that up in a discussion about Les, no one ever says anything. To lose to a 2-21 FAU team at home in Reynolds was unbelievable. Tom Suiter called it the “nadir,” or low point, of Wolfpack basketball that night on WRAL news. If we would have had the Internet in ’94, Les would have been crucified. Les was a likeable, folksy, super nice guy. He did a good job in turning around the academics, which were not up to speed under Jim Valvano. Tony Haynes wrote a piece in April ’06, right after Sendek’s departure, that Herb did a good job in winning and doing well in the classroom, but the academics were already okay when Sendek got the job. He didn’t deserve any kind of special praise for that. Les had five straight losing seasons, which should never, never happen at NC State. I know Les had some close friends at State while he was here and some of those people still post on statefansnation and on the other site. But you can’t defend five straight losing seasons, to be quite honest about it. Les Robinson was not a very good coach. Good guy? Sure. Did a few positive things in his time at State? Yes. Did the restrictions make him have five straight losing seasons? No. Program should have been down two to three years maximum.

    Now Herb Sendek did take the NCSU basketball program to above where Les Robinson had it. I didn’t particularly care for Herb and the way he ran our program, thought he wasn’t a good fit for the State job, but I can admit that he did improve it from where it was. But he lacked passion. He lacked a vision for winning big. He lacked people skills to connect with the common NCSU fans, not the big money donors. And most of all, despite people like Dick Vitale and Rick Pitino saying it was all about personality, he lacked the ability to defeat Duke and UNC a reasonable amount. His record was horrid against those two teams, as was well-documented his last few years and right after he left. All he had to do was win an ACC title or two, beat Duke and UNC more, but not always, and show more passion and he would have connected with more of the fanbase. He consciously chose not to.

    Jim Valvano had it all. I loved watching him and his State team year after year. I especially looked forward annually to the NCAAs because you knew Jimmy V had a special passion for the NCAA Tournament. He had openly discussed winning a second national title (That is, won by him at State). He was really close in getting back to the Final Four. I wanted to see that so badly and it didn’t quite materialize. It was a shame what Claude Sitton, the N&O, and our leaders did to him back in 1990. They treated him like absolute dirt. Gave him no chance to respond to anything. He was railroaded and our BOT just stood by and went along with the flow. Sure, he made mistakes. I love the man to death; he’s an icon in NC State history, but even I can admit that. Had he been given the chance to correct his mistakes, which wasn’t going to happen, I feel he would have done that. The academics would have gone up. The image of the program would have been restored. But it was all about public perception and a friend of mine told me years ago, “Sometimes perception is more important than reality.”

    I am still angry with the shameless way this man was treated. Some of the people who still associate themselves with NC State, and I’m sure you know who I’m talking about, should step forward and apologize. They never will for they would be admitting to a mistake and they have too much pride to do that.

    Regardless of how he is portrayed the national media, Carolina fans, and even some of our own fans, he will always have a special place in the hearts and minds of thousands of NC State fans and alumni. The detractors, naysayers, and critics can’t touch that.

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