North Carolina State University Athletics
There were the dark days?
10/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
There were the dark days...
The team still had its head, with Sidney Lowe running the point. It still had its soul, with the pensive Thurl Bailey offering everyone a shoulder to cry on. What it needed, however, was a new heart, someone who could not only score points but also kick his teammates in the seat of their shorts.
Valvano knew that heart would be hard to find in the two weeks immediately after Whittenburg went down. After the win over the Yellow Jackets, the Wolfpack had a three-game stretch in five days, including a trip to Chapel Hill to play the reigning national champion Tar Heels, followed by back to back games against Wake Forest in Greensboro and Memphis State in Reynolds Coliseum. When he set the schedule the summer before, this stretch of games was meant to mimic the challenge of the post-season, when teams must play difficult games in a quick turnaround. With Whittenburg out of the lineup, Valvano wished he had stuck with his all-Catholic lineup of opponents.
Even though the competition was tough, Valvano did not like the way his team played in the first two contests. He ripped into the Wolfpack after it lost by 18 points in Chapel Hill. The coach detected a hint of surrender from a team that was clearly feeling sorry for itself.
"If you can't have the same dream I have, then get the hell out of here, because I don't want you playing on my ball club," Valvano told his team after the game. "Whether it's three people left, five people left, or whatever, that's all we'll continue with. You better get your act together or go play somewhere else. We lost a player, but that's over with. That's done. I'm telling you when I say we can get it done, we can get it done. I didn't promise that it would be easy. I didn't promise it would be overnight. I told you it would be a long, hard struggle against what seemed liked insurmountable odds and obstacles. I believe we can do it. Now, do you?"
Apparently not. Three days later, the Wolfpack looked, if possible, even worse against the Demon Deacons, committing 15 turnovers in another 18-point loss. Myers had his second straight rough night: The freshman missed 17 of 25 shots against North Carolina and Wake Forest and failed to score in double figures in either game. Following the bus ride home from Greensboro, Valvano gathered his players in the locker room in the basement of Reynolds Coliseum for another frank assessment.
"You guys know I never bull---- you," the coach said. "I tell you the truth. We are not going to win a national championship this season. I don't know that we will make the NCAAs. We have to set our sights on making the NIT. It would be really nice iof we could make it to the finals so I could go home. I always dreamed about playing the late game at Madison Square Garden. It would be nice to raise a banner from there."
His players were shocked. Not 10 days earlier, Valvano had told his team to keep working hard, that something good would happen, and that it was too soon to quit. Now, it seemed he was all but writing off the season less than 12 hours before NC State would play a top-five opponent on national television.
"Of all the locker room speeches he gave that season, that is the one few people remember: 'We have not shot at the national championship - let's go to New York'" said Terry Gannon.
