North Carolina State University Athletics
BACK TO '83: Gannon Misses Dream Shot Vs. Notre Dame
2/12/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 1983
BY TIM PEELER
The native of Joliet, Ill., and boyhood fan of Notre Dame basketball dearly wanted to pay back Fighting Irish head coach Digger Phelps for offering Dan Duff a scholarship instead of Gannon.
And, Saturday afternoon at Reynolds Coliseum, with five seconds remaining on the clock, NC State’s sophomore reserve guard had the perfect opportunity, with an open 19-foot jumpshot that would have won the game.
“It was a dream situation a jumpshot to beat Notre Dame on national television,” Gannon said. “I honestly thought I had made it. It was a well-designed play that went just the way we planned it.”
Unfortunately for Gannon and the Wolfpack, the basketball gods didn’t want the payback as much as he did the ball bounced off the front of the rim, giving Notre Dame a hard-earned 43-42 victory that ended State’s four-game winning streak.
“I’d love to have the chance to shoot that shot again tomorrow,” Gannon said.
Ironically enough, it was Duff’s inaccuracy at the free throw line he missed two of his three attempts in the final 90 seconds that put Gannon in the situation. After Duff put his team ahead 42-36 with just under three minutes to play with a pair of free throws, the Irish fell apart at the line. Tim Kempton missed the front end of a one-and-one, and NC State freshman Ernie Myers answered with a pair of free throws with 1:27 to play.
Duff made only one of two foul shots with 1:26 to play, and Lorenzo Charles drew the Pack within one point with a pair of shots from the line with 1:16 to play.
With 31 seconds to play, Gannon sent Duff, an 87.5 percent free-throw shooter, to the line yet again with another one-and-one opportunity. Duff missed the front end, and NC State senior Thurl Bailey grabbed the rebound.
Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano called time out with 22 seconds to play and called for his team to run its regular offense. It became quickly apparent that nothing would work against the Irish’s man-to-man defense, so Valvano called another timeout with 11 seconds to set up another play.
“What we wanted to do was put the ball in [senior point guard] Sidney Lowe’s hands, and put our two best shooters, Gannon and Myers, on the wings,” Valvano said.
Lowe was cut off quickly by the 2-3 zone, and passed the ball to Gannon on the right side.
“I don’t know how slick people think I am with the ball, but I couldn’t get through that, Lowe said. “I decided to do it the easy way and give it to Terry right away. The shot was there.”
There was no doubt about that. Gannon had already hit a similar shot just moments before.
“Terry was wide open,” Valvano said. “You couldn’t ask for a better shot. He’d just hit one from about the same spot right before. We wanted that to happen and it did. It just didn’t go in. What are you going to do?
Apparently, play right into the opponent’s hands. Phelps’ strategy was to clog up the middle and force the Wolfpack to hit a jumper. Gannon has been particularly good at draining shots from the ACC’s experimental 19-foot 3-point shot, but this one wouldn’t go.
“I thought the ball was going in,” said Gannon, who missed five of his six field goal attempts in the game. “It felt great. I’d take that shot 100 times, if I had to do it again.
“The game was kind of strange I felt good shooting the ball all game. I think I might have been too up to play and had too much adrenalin flowing. I’ve been waiting for this game for a long time.”
Kempton grabbed the rebound and held it for several seconds. The Wolfpack (13-8 overall) could not foul him before he threw it out to a teammate at mid-court and the clock expired.
“We’ve got a bunch of young kids who sometimes don’t know what it takes to win on the road,” said Phelps, whose team improved to 13-8 as well. “These are the kinds of games we’ve lost before. We lost to UCLA on the last shot, but I told the kids that these things would balance out.”
Myers, the freshman from the
The road victory will likely improve the Irish’s chances of getting an NCAA Tournament bid, but the loss is a serious blow for the Wolfpack, which has not been the same since losing senior guard Dereck Whittenburg to a broken foot on Jan. 12.
The Irish for all but 10 seconds in the contest, including a 21-18 advantage a the half. Phelps team played great interior defense against Bailey, the Wolfpack’s leading scorer who was held to a 2-for-7 shooting performance from the field.
The Wolfpack returns to action this weekend for its final non-conference game, against UNC-Wilmington.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
