North Carolina State University Athletics
Biedenbach Will Always Have Wolfpack Red in His Blood
12/13/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Just one hour before his team was to take the floor against NC State on Sunday, UNC Asheville head basketball coach Eddie Biedenbach was referring to the Wolfpack as 'we' and 'us.' There are just certain old habits that never seem to die.
Eddie Biedenbach is as synonymous with NC State basketball as David Thompson, Everett Case, Jim Valvano or Les Robinson.
As a player, he captained coach Norm Sloan's 1968 team that posted a 16-10 record. A few years later, as a Sloan assistant, he helped land the most significant recruit in the history of NC State basketball. Had it not been for Biedenbach's recruiting skills, Thompson may never have worn a Wolfpack uniform.
Following a head coaching stint at Davidson and another stop at Georgia, Biedenbach returned to Raleigh to join Robinson's staff from 1993-1996. In fact, the entire Biedenbach clan should be given the title of 'NC State's first family.'
"My wife and two daughters were cheerleaders at NC State," Biedenbach said. "I love NC State. I have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this university."
Most of those blood, sweat and tears were poured onto the floor of Reynolds Coliseum. On Sunday, Biedenbach made his first visit to the new Entertainment and Sports Arena.
"NC State needs this arena," he said. "You need to be able to bring a prospect in here and show it to them. This allows us (NC State) to have more students and fans at games. To put the students down close to the floor is much better than some of our sister schools. Everett Case, who coached me for a few games, said that Reynolds Coliseum was great for its time. But it's been time for a long time to move into an arena like this."
For a half on Sunday, Biedenbach was feeling right at home in the ESA. After falling behind by ten early, his winless Bulldogs clawed back to take a 41-39 lead at halftime. In the end, however, NC State simply had too much talent and depth for the Bulldogs to overcome.
UNC-Asheville is now 0-9, but six of those losses have come against Missouri, St. Louis, Tennessee, Connecticut, Kentucky and NC State. Obviously the competition won't be nearly as stout once the Big South Conference season rolls around.
"We've played well at times, even against some of the best teams in the country," said Biedenbach, who's in his fourth season at UNCA. "As for my philosophy on scheduling, we need the money for our other sports. UNC Asheville is not a very large school, so all the other sports really depend on us. We get guaranteed money from playing schools like Connecticut, Kentucky and NC State. Secondly, we feel we're a good enough team to win our league, and when we do, we're going to play an NC State, a Kentucky or a Connecticut in the first round of the tournament. If we play them on their homecourt early in the season, then we're less likely to be intimidated by them if we see them in the tournament."
There are a lot of NC State fans that would love to see a rematch with UNC Asheville in the NCAA Tournament. Given the fact that the Pack hasn't played in the tournament since 1991, a match up with anyone would be sufficient.
And if NC State is dancing in March, you can be sure that no one will be rooting any harder for the Pack than Eddie Biedenbach.
