North Carolina State University Athletics
BACK TO '83: 'This Day Belongs to Us'
2/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 19, 1983
BY TIM PEELER
Ending three years of frustration that included an 18-point loss in Chapel Hill earlier this year,
The victory gave third-year coach Jim Valvano his first career win over the Tar Heels and gave an emotional boost to a program and school that had suffered multiple setbacks during a once-promising season, a boost that goes far beyond improving the Wolfpack’s flagging NCAA Tournament hopes.
“This day belongs to us,” Valvano said. “To be honest with you, I felt this scene would have happened to us a few other times this year. But we lost Dereck (Whittenburg, to a broken foot) and other things happened to us and we went from the castle to the out-house in a hurry.
“But whatever happens the rest of the year, they can’t take this away from us. This is February 19 and this is our day.”
Cups flew in the stands, tears flowed down the players faces and the celebration in
“This feels like a national championship,” said sophomore Cozell McQueen, one of the game’s unlikeliest heroes. “This rivalry, it’s something special. It’s all I ever heard of when I got here, and to win a game like this is unbelievable.”
McQueen, a mere 57.6 percent shooter from the line, hit a pair of free throws with 17 seconds to play to seal the game, which the Wolfpack nearly let slip through its paws because of poor free-throw shooting.
The roof of the building nearly flew off in the game’s final moments, when senior Sidney Lowe bounced a pass between his legs to a trailing Thurl Bailey for a thunderous dunk over UNC’s Sam Perkins. That set off a party that hasn’t been seen here since 1974.
“We were feeling like this could be the day,” Bailey said. “I thought that we were catching
And, Bailey figures, this win could have long-lasting effects for a team that has been desperately seeking something positive.
“This gives us something to hold on to,” said Bailey, who had a game-high 20 points. “We could finish strong and build a good case for the NCAA if we make the most of this win.
The game’s turning point came just before halftime. The Wolfpack (15-8 overall, 6-4 ACC) came out of the chute a little too hyper and excited, eager to break the school’s major sport drought against the Tar Heels that dates back to 1978. But the Tar Heels, which had lost back-to-back games after putting together an 18-game winning streak, didn’t want to lose its third game of the week.
Smith and Company grabbed a quick lead on the warm winter afternoon, and looked like it would cruise into halftime with a double-digit lead. With just over three minutes to play in the first half, the Tar Heels led 31-24 and were poised to carry momentum into the lockerroom at halftime.
But NC State sophomore Cozell McQueen blocked a shot by
What should have been a big day for Smith who, it was announced prior to the game, has been selected for induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame turned into something of a nightmare, as he was hit with a pair of technical fouls. Smith and referee Jim Burch had already been jawing at each other over a pair of fouls called on Tar Heels sophomore Michael Jordan, and Burch quickly hit Smith with a technical for complaining about McQueen’s block.
When Smith charged after Burch, he was restrained by game official Charlie Vacca and hit with a second technical foul by Paul Hausman.
When the rowdy crowd settled down, sophomore Terry Gannon calmly drained four consecutive free throws. On the ensuing possession, Wolfpack sophomore Lorenzo Charles was fouled and he hit two more free throws to cut the Tar Heel lead to just one point. The fact that all six of the points on the possession were on foul shots was amazing, considering the Wolfpack’s poor 23-for-39 performance at the line on the day.
After Charles hit his shots, the Tar Heels turned the ball over and Charles drove in for a basket that gave the Wolfpack its first lead of the game. In a span of just 22 seconds, the Wolfpack scored eight unanswered points to take a 32-31 lead.
“Those technicals may have changed the whole game,” said Gannon, who drained a 22-foot 3-pointer moments later that sent the crowd into a further frenzy. “We were getting behind and we may have been losing our edge. But that got us going again, and it got the fans going.”
Gannon, who finished with 15 timely points, added a 22-foot jumper that increased the lead to two and the re-energized Pack went into the halftime lockerroom with a 37-36 advantage.
In the second half, the Tar Heels had trouble finding the basket, hitting just eight of their 26 shots after intermission (30.8 percent). Jordan, Doherty and sophomore Brad Daugherty were all in foul trouble, with
The Wolfpack played its best defensive game of the season, twice forcing the Tar Heels to turn the ball over with shot-clock violations and forcing rushed shots on several occasions as the clock wound down. The Wolfpack only blocked two shots the entire game, but the inside combination of senior Thurl Bailey, Cozell McQueen and Charles gave Valvano’s team a 40-32 rebounding advantage.
McQueen, the offensively limited center, grabbed 12 rebounds on the day, while Bailey and Charles had six apiece.
“It’s the best job defensively we have ever done,” Valvano said afterwards. “That was the plan. If we were going to lose the damned game, we were going to lose it playing aggressively.”
The Wolfpack built as much as a seven-point lead after Gannon hit a 3-pointer with 4:44 remaining, but nearly gave the game away at the free throw line. Valvano’s team missed five front ends of one-and-one opportunities in the game’s final 3:30, with Myers, Charles, Lowe, McQueen and Bailey all throwing up foul line bricks.
The Tar Heels couldn’t take advantage, answering with a front-end miss by senior guard Jim Braddock and a 3-point miss by Matt Doherty. The Tar Heels did cut the lead to 66-63, when Doherty hit a jumper with 36 seconds left, and the door was opened when Bailey missed his front end of the one-and-one. But McQueen grabbed the offensive rebound and was immediately fouled.
He sat calmly on the bench after Smith called a timeout to ice his thoughts, then sank both shots to doom any comeback hopes.
“The technical fouls were a big turnaround,” Smith admitted after the game. “But we still had our chances late in the game. State just did a good job at the foul line when it had to.”
More than an hour after the game ended, horns were still blaring around the
“I have never seen a celebration after a State game,” Valvano said. “I am going to go see what it looks like.”
The coach got quite an eyeful.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
