North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Lowe, Stokes Cross Paths Again
12/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TONY HAYNES
RALEIGH, N.C. When coach Ricky Stokes sends his East Carolina Pirates up against Sidney Lowe’s NC State Wolfpack Thursday night in Raleigh (7 p.m.), it won’t be the first time the two former ACC guards have crossed paths.
Not by a long shot.
Twenty-four years ago, Lowe and Stokes were key players in two of the most significant basketball games in the history of both NC State and Virginia.
Stokes played on a powerful Uva squad that was anchored by national player of the year Ralph Sampson, a 7-4 center whose incredible skills made coach Terry Holland’s Cavaliers the odds on favorite to win the NCAA title.
The year was 1983, Sampson’s best and last chance to capture an elusive championship.
On January 12th of that season,
As they exited Reynolds that night, neither the players, nor the coaches nor the fans could have possibly known what would come two months later when the two ACC clubs would again face off in not one, but two postseason games that would make college basketball history.
Prior to the 1983 ACC Tournament, Stokes’ record against NC State as a player was 6-0. Lowe, who was a senior point guard, was 1-7 against the Cavaliers in his career, with the only victory coming his freshman year when he was backing up Clyde Austin.
But by the time the two clubs met again in the finals of the ACC Tournament, the records didn’t matter because NC State had become a totally different team. With Whittenburg healthy again, the Wolfpack was on a late season roll, and stunned the Cavaliers in the ACC Tourney final at the Omni in
Improbably, Stokes and Lowe would again be going head-to-head two weeks later, but this time, the stakes were even higher. The two ACC teams found themselves 2,000 miles from home in
Again, the Wolfpack denied the great Sampson a championship, this time by eliminating the Cavaliers from the NCAA Tournament with a 63-62 triumph.
The rest, they say, is history.
Eight days later, in the immortal words of Wally Ausley, “the glass slipper fits, the Wolfpack has won the national championship.”
Nowadays, Stokes is working for his former coach after
Lowe’s Wolfpack has also had its share of up and downs with a 7-4 record. NC State will be looking to end a two-game losing skid on Thursday night.
When they shake hands before
They’ll never forget, nor will anyone else.
