North Carolina State University Athletics
Who's College Basketball's Best? Pack, Bruins to Decide
12/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Friday, Dec. 14, 1973
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. All last season, the debate raged: Which of the nation’s undefeated college basketball teams was the best in the land?
Was it top-ranked UCLA (30-0) with the Walton Gang or second-ranked N.C. State (27-0) with high-flying sophomore David Thompson and sky-scraping Tom Burleson, a pair of home-grown All-Americans?
Unfortunately, the question was left unanswered because of the NCAA’s one-year probation that kept the Wolfpack out of the end-of-season tournament.
But Saturday the two teams, still ranked 1-2 in the nation and still riding school-record winning streaks, will meet at the St. Louis Arena in a made-for-national television special to see who is the nation’s best at this early point in the season. It’s being billed as the best regular-season college basketball game since Houston beat the Bruins in a nationally televised game from the Astrodome in 1968.
The Bruins have won an NCAA-record 78 consecutive games. The Wolfpack’s 29 in a row, the longest by an ACC team since North Carolina’s undefeated 1957 team, almost pales by comparison.
The game was put together by NC State athletics director Willis Casey, UCLA athletics director J.D. Morgan and ABC-TV and will be played on the same court where last March the Bruins won their seventh consecutive national title. Each team was guaranteed $125,000 to play in the game.
The contest, which expects to draw 40 million viewers, is part of a double-header that begins with St. Louis University playing Southern Illinois in the 1:45 p.m. opener. The 19,400-seat arena is expected to be packed for the second contest. Tickets for the doubleheader available only by mail at $8 and $10 went on sale July 1 and were sold out within days.
The only time the Bruins who have won nine of the last 10 NCAA titles, under Wooden’s guidance have shown any vulnerability is in the early season. Legendary UCLA coach John Wooden is all but unbeatable in March.
Neither NC State coach Norm Sloan nor Wooden expects this game to decide the question everyone wondered last year: which of these two is the best in the nation. Both teams have replaced two departed starters: Joe Cafferky and Rick Holdt for NC State and Larry Hollyfield and Larry Farmer for UCLA.
“It should be a tremendous game, but it should not be regarded as a settlement of last year’s issue,” said Wooden, who was in North Carolina in May to accept an honorary doctorate from Campbell University. “We’ve both got fine teams back, but they are different teams. Last year is dead and gone.
“We [won’t be] as strong until midseason or later. We do not have two individual players to move in and be the equivalent of the two starters we lost.”
If the Wolfpack wants to establish itself as a contender to unravel the Bruins’ mighty dynasty, it will have to prove it can compete right now. If not, the Wolfpack could get another shot next March, when the 15,400-seat Greensboro Coliseum hosts the National Finals. It the same building that will host the ACC Championships two weeks before, and the Wolfpack hopes to defend its title in that event and play in the NCAA East Regional, which will be played at Reynolds Coliseum.
Neither Sloan nor his charges are nervous about Saturday’s game, after posting blow-out victories over East Carolina and Vermont.
“We are very relaxed right now,” Sloan said. “We had some problems playing our other games with this one ahead, but now everything is fine. It’s going to be an enjoyable experience for us. We’re not uptight about it; we realize the importance of it, but it can’t become too important. We’ve got too many other things in front of us.
“Win or lose this game, the thing that counts in our league is winning the title and the postseason tournament. I think it’s great that we’re playing. If you have two teams that can go for some freak reason through a season undefeated, they should get together and play.”
Frankly, Sloan would like to win this game, but he is more concerned about repeating as ACC Champions and getting a chance to go back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1970, when the coach guided his alma mater to the first ACC title of his tenure.
With two other league teams Maryland and North Carolina ranked in the top five of the Associated Press poll, Sloan is more concerned about conference foes. The Terps, a primary contender to unseat the Pack as ACC Champions, lost to the Bruins 65-64 in Los Angeles on Dec. 1 in the season-opener for both squads.
“We aren’t pointing towards one team,” Sloan said. “We want to play them one at time, like we did last year. The time we want to peak is in March. That’s when I’d like to go undefeated in March.
“This game is no more important than any one we play against an ACC opponent.”
But the game should come down to whose All-Americans will perform better in such a big-time setting. Will it be the 6-11 Walton, unquestionably the nation’s best big man? Or the 6-4 Thompson, whose remarkable skills are often compared to Oscar Robertson, Julius Erving and Elvin Hayes.
The answer may lie elsewhere on both team’s rosters, Sloan said.
“I don’t think we will stop Bill Walton,” the coach offered. “But I also don’t think UCLA will stop David Thompson.”
That means the game’s outcome could be dependent on the play of UCLA’s Keith Wilkes or NC State’s Burleson or Monte Towe.
“I am glad we are getting an early shot at them,” Burleson said. “I think it helps to play the best and I play better against the strong teams. We’ll learn a lot from this one.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
