North Carolina State University Athletics
BACK TO '83: Pack Dismisses Ralph, Wins 9th ACC Title
3/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 13, 1983
BY TIM PEELER
He was convinced something good would happen to his team, even if Whittenburg was not in the lineup to help. The coach also told his players about his dream that Whittenburg would miraculously return to the lineup, lead the Wolfpack to the ACC title game, then hit the winning shot over
Sunday’s championship game needed an even bigger antagonist: Virginia All-America center Ralph Sampson.
The 7-foot-4 giant, who was supposed to help lead the Cavaliers to ACC glory when he was recruited four years ago, became the perfect tragic figures. Sure, he scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, but his presence was non-existent in the game’s final stages, as the Wolfpack took advantage of the Cavalier mistakes for an 81-78 victory at the Omni in front of 16,723 stunned spectators.
Sampson took only four shots in the second half, scored only six points and had the ball taken away from him by the smallest player on the court, Wolfpack guard Terry Gannon, at the most critical point in the game. When his team needed him the most, he was held at bay by a smothering defense from sophomores Cozell McQueen and Lorenzo Charles, with help off the bench from battlin’ Alvin Battle.
“Defensively, we knew it was impossible to stop Ralph, but we wanted to control him,” Bailey said after the game. “The other guys were doing a good job of keeping him away from the basket.”
For Valvano, who had never beaten the Cavaliers in his three years as NC State’s head coach, the shocking victory was almost too hard to comprehend.
“This whole weekend has been like a B-grade movie,” Valvano said. “What else can I say that is not a clich? The poise of our three seniors was the big thing. It feels kind of dream-like right now.”
The head-liners, of course, were seniors Sidney Lowe, Thurl Bailey and
Whittenburg, who all took turns carrying their team. Lowe, in particular, was excellent all weekend and was awarded the Everett Case Award as the tournament’s most outstanding player. And for that trio, this was much more than a dream.
“No one can tell me that Dereck Whittenburg didn’t get hurt for a reason,” Bailey said. “It helped us develop our other players, made them better players. And, just like Coach V said, it’s just destiny.”
Fate’s next date, as announced following Sunday’s title game by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, is next Friday, when it faces West Coast Athletic Conference champion Pepperdine in the first round of the NCAA West Region in Corvalis, Oregon. Before the weekend, the Wolfpack wasn’t sure its name would be called, but winning the championship gave Valvano and his team an automatic berth into the 52-team field.
From the game’s outset, the Wolfpack seemed to be in control. It opened the game on a 12-1 run, thanks to Lowe, who stole two passes that led to layups and hit a 3-pointer. The Cavavliers, despite cruising into the title game via two easy wins over Duke (109-66) and Georgia Tech (96-67), were banged up and showing it. Starting forward Tim Mullen suffered a knee injury against the Yellow Jackets and did not play, forcing sixth-man Jim Miller in the lineup. And Sampson was hampered by a bruise jaw he suffered in the semifinal.
Sampson eventually unfurled his long arms and carried his team by scoring 18 first-half points and grabbing nine rebounds, as the Cavs dominated the boards with a 25-12 rebounding advantage. At one point the Cavs scored nine unanswered points and could have owned a bigger margin than the 40-37 halftime score had
The shot gave the Cavs a 59-51 lead and seeming control of the game.
But Bailey hit a layup and a jumper, Lowe and Gannon hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Battle took advantage of Sampson’s lone second-half breather to convert a three-point play against Cavalier substitute Kenton Edelin, cutting Virginia’s lead to 65-64 with 8:05 to play.
The over-eager Cavaliers were playing with a little too much passion, eager to gain at least one championship that had been fore-told years before when Sampson announced he would play for coach Terry Holland’s program. That anxiousness was evident throughout, as the Wolfpack got back-to-back baskets by Bailey, including his only 3-pointer of the game.
“If anything, we were too fired up,” said
The Cavalier bench was certainly fired up with about five and a half minutes to play, when
When the whistle blew, the coaches assumed it was a foul, with
“We stood up and said That’s not a jump ball,’”
But it was too late game official Joe Forte called a technical foul on Larranaga, the second technical on the
Whittenburg converted the two free throws,
But the fatigue of playing three games in three days, the latter two coming against teams ranked nationally in the top five, clearly got to the Wolfpack in the final minutes of the game. Valvano tried to milk the clock with his three-guard delay offense with Lowe, Whittenburg and Terry Gannon, but they were disorganized. In the game’s final two minutes, the Wolfpack missed the front end of three consecutive one-and-one opportunities, two by Lorenzo Charles and the third by Lowe.
But he never saw Gannon, the smallest player on the floor. The 6-foot guard stripped the ball out of Sampson’s hands for the biggest defensive play of the game. Bailey was fouled on the ensuing possession, and he at least made one of his two shots for a 79-75 lead.
When he missed the second shot, Whittenburg grabbed the rebound, but was called for traveling as he fell out of bounds.
Finally, with six seconds remaining, Wilson reached in on Whittenburg for his fifth foul of the game, and State’s senior lead became the first Wolfpack player in the final five minutes to make consecutive free throws, giving his team an 81-78 lead.
The Cavs had time to take a potentially game-tying 3-pointer, but
The miss set off twin celebrations in
In the NC State lockerrrom, Ernie Myers hugged the ACC Championship trophy, and made the following announcement to his teammates: “Ralph’s got him a house full of trophies, but he ain’t got one of these!” Myers yelled.
Charles shouted back, “Watch out what you say, we might meet Ralph again. Don’t make him mad.”
Sampson was plenty angry already, though he and his teammates put on a consolidated front that they were more anxious for the NCAA Tournament. The ACC Tournament was a minor misstep along the way.
“I think we lost,” said Sampson, who did not score over the game’s 7:48. “I don’t think they beat us.”
The result, however, was still the same: The Wolfpack reigns as the ACC’s 1983 ACC Champion.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
