On March 8, 1968…

ACC Teams Big Four Rivals Tradition12

On March 8, 1968…

…NC State defeated the Duke Blue Devils in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semi-finals by a 12-10 score in one of the more unusual games in Tournament history.

The Wolfpack was primarily responsible for slowing the pace and scored only one basket in the first half, trailing Duke 4-2 at halftime. NC State guard, Eddie Biedenbach led all scorers with four points.

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ACC Teams Big Four Rivals Tradition

12 Responses to On March 8, 1968…

  1. Sweet jumper 03/08/2010 at 11:45 AM #

    State held the ball to force Duke out of their zone defense. Bubas, who played at State and was an assistant coach for Case and I think a teammate of Sloan, refused to play man-to-man defense and Sloan refused to play against a zone. As I recall, most of the game involved #30(I can’t remember his name) holding the ball on his hip near the mid-court line. Duke would not even come out and force the ref to start a 5 second count. Biedenbach would occasionly dribble around, but we mostly held the ball waiting for Duke to come out of the zone.

  2. choppack1 03/08/2010 at 11:49 AM #

    It’s amazing anyone went to those games – I guess they were popular though…

  3. sbas2 03/08/2010 at 11:51 AM #

    i saw that game. i was in the Bragaw (is that how it is spelled?) lounge watching it with other students. unfortunately State got crushed by UNC in the championship game. if you think announcers are biased sometimes, everyone should have heard them for that championship game.
    i also saw the 1970 ACC championship game. yes i am old Pack fan! went to every home game in 1970. Van Williford was an intersting player. he had an unorthodox way of shooting the ball. he released the ball from the opposite side of his head with respect to his shooting hand if i remember correctly. i have had the opportunity to watch the greatest teams in N.C. State basketball play and have seen David Thompson, Tommy Burelson, Sidney Lowe etc. play live.

  4. sbas2 03/08/2010 at 11:53 AM #

    wasn’t it Serdich (spelling?) who held the ball?

  5. sbas2 03/08/2010 at 12:50 PM #

    i don’t think it was Serdich. i think it was Anheuser.

  6. Sweet jumper 03/08/2010 at 2:26 PM #

    Anheuser was #24, and I am pretty sure he was a transfer. I think he only played 68-69 and 69-70. I just looked up the 67-68 roster and #30 was Bill Mavredes.

  7. RickJ 03/08/2010 at 5:32 PM #

    Bill Kretzer is the one that controlled the ball for very long periods.

  8. tmb81 03/08/2010 at 6:04 PM #

    I was a little kid when that game was played and remember watching it. My grandmother (from Pennsylvania) was visiting.

    Her: “Aren’t you supposed to have good basketball in North Carolina? This is the most boring game I ever saw. All he’s doing is standing there”.

    Me: “Nana, they really do score more points than this. I’ve been to a game and they scored lots and lots of baskets!”

  9. 61Packer 03/08/2010 at 9:10 PM #

    From the March 9, 1968 (Raleigh) News & Observer, Dick Herbert’s writeup summed it up this way. Duke was No. 6 in the nation, having beaten State twice that season. Duke was the leading FT shooting team in the nation also, but made only 6 of 11 in this game. Their FG shooting was worse at only 2-11 for 18%. The Pack, under Norm Sloan, was only 4-9 from the line and 4-13 from the floor, but won. Duke’s Mike Lewis and Eddie Biedenbach shared scoring honors with 4 each. Duke didn’t get a field goal in the first half until the 2:47 mark, after State had held the ball for about 8 minutes. It was 4-2 at the half, Duke.

    In the second half, Duke led 8-6 with over 16 minutes to go, and State then held the ball until Biedenbach swished an 18-footer at the 2:29 mark. Duke led 9-8 with 40 seconds to go, and State’s Bill Kretzer missed from the line. The rebound went to Rich Braucher who laid it in for a 10-9 State lead. That was the game’s biggest break. Duke then turned the ball over and fouled Vann Williford, whose FT made it 11-9 with 16 seconds to go. State then fouled Dave Golden, but he made only 1 of 2 for 11-10, and then Braucher was fouled with 3 seconds left and made 1 of 2 for the final margin of 12-10. Duke threw the ball wildly downcourt as the gun sounded, and State was in the finals. The only other State players to see action were Joe Serdich and Nelson Isley; neither scored. Besides Biedenbach, Braucher and Williford got 3 points each, and Kretzer got 2. After the game, Duke’s Coach Bubas took full responsibility for the loss.

    If memory serves me, UNC won the title game 87-50 the following Saturday night, back when they didn’t play on Sundays. The Heels won the East Regional in Reynolds but were hammered in the national finals in LA by Lew Alcindor and unbeaten UCLA, 78-55.

  10. 61Packer 03/08/2010 at 9:31 PM #

    I know most posters here love the shot clock, but not me. The games played before the advent of the shot clock were more suspenseful than anything nowadays. My high school conference championship game was the classic example, when we played 13 overtimes before losing, 56-54. Anyone who was at that game at Campbell College on the night of February 29, 1964 will ever forget it- it’s a record that will never be broken.

    The shot clock was 45 seconds when Villanova won in ’85, but the main reason was that ‘Nova shot 78% from the floor for the game. People can talk all they want about how great the shot clock has been for the college game, but only one true cinderella has ever made it all the way to the Final Four since the 35-second clock came in, and that was George Mason. Prior to the clock, many cinderellas made the Final Four, including our all-time favorite in 1983. State, despite their great skills, would never have won 9 in a row against the level of talent they faced in their post-season run had the shot clock been in effect. Valvano could never have shown the world his ability to coach. No way.

    The 3-point shot, which I believe came about to help the smaller teams overcome the shot clock, has perhaps hurt the game even worse. You’d think the 3-point line was 6 inches high the way players seem to trip over it before shooting if they think they’re not behind it. Oscar Robertson’s philosophy was to get as close to the basket as he could to shoot. Now, we seem to believe just the opposite. Little wonder that shooting percentages keep on tanking.

  11. Stillastatefan 03/08/2010 at 10:52 PM #

    I don’t remember much about the ’68 game, but I do seem to remember Terry Gannon talking about V’s pregame speech before the ’83 championship. All the pundits had been talking about how State was going to hold the ball. V told the team there was no way they were going to stall and he wanted to take the game right to Houston. Pretty inspirational stuff.

  12. Texpack 03/09/2010 at 12:26 PM #

    I went to the ’68 Finals in Charlotte (I guess that means I was only 7). A friend of my Dad’s who was a Duke graduate had tickets and invited us to go. It was the only time I ever saw my Dad boo at a sporting event, when they announced Larry Miller as the winner of the Case award.

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