North Carolina State University Athletics
BACK TO '83: Finally! Pack Takes Post-Season Breather
3/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 24, 1983
BY TIM PEELER
“Coach,” they wondered, “who do we foul?”
“Not this time,” was the answer from NC State coach Jim Valvano. “That was the other five post-season games.”
So this what a blow-out feels like, they sighed, en route to a 75-56 victory over
It’s been a while the 130-89 regular-season finale win over
The Cavaliers, who earned a 95-92 victory over Boston College with Sampson on the bench most of the night, are still likely be seething over the ACC Championship game, which, in Sampson’s words, the Cavaliers practically handed to the Wolfpack, gift-wrapped and name-tagged.
But that’s a motivation for another day. Thursday, the Wolfpack relished its seventh consecutive win, this one against a team that had hoped to out-Cinderella Valvano’s team of destiny. The Running Utes, once 7-10 this season, entered the tournament with the worst regular-season record of any team in the 52-team field. Wins over
And for awhile, it appeared that this would be another crazy twist on the Wolfpack’s wild ride, in which Valvano’s team had won five games by a slim 14 total points. The Utes held Thurl Bailey scoreless in the first half, then scored the first six points of the second half to take a 32-30 lead. Whittenburg finally missed one of his high-arching shots, and the Utes grabbed the rebound, heading down the court on as fast a break as this plodding team could muster.
But
“They stuck it right in our faces,” said
The ensuing 20-5 run -- fueled scoring from Whittenburg, sophomore Terry Gannon and Bailey quickly put the game out of reach. Valvano managed to clear his bench, putting in his reserves for the first time since the game nearly a month ago against the Demon Deacons.
The difference in this game was that Whittenburg took charge, much the way he did earlier this year before he was hurt, and his teammates followed. Whittenburg, happy to see a 3-point line drawn on the playing court against after last weekend’s bare boards at Gill Coliseum, took shots well behind the 21foot line at the Dee Events Center. He also drove in for layups and made all seven of his free throw attempts, which was two more than the Utes had the entire game.
Sophomore Lorenzo Charles helped keep the game close in the first half, as
“If I can have a lead [at the half] with Bailey scoreless, I feel good because I know Thurl is going to score,” Valvano said. “We had more control this game than in the other post-season games, where we had more of a frenzied type of game. We felt we had the opportunity to control the game if we didn’t get behind. When our lead started to grow, we realized the pressure starts to mount on the other team.”
The Wolfpack’s offensive plan wasn’t that difficult: everyone in the arena, which was packed to the rafters with approximately 9,000
“We were trying to run the offense, but we just go the ball to Dereck and he made sure the job was done from there,” said senior point guard Sidney Lowe. “I wasn’t thinking that Thurl was off, I just knew that Dereck was on.”
The Utes were fairly stunned that their post-season dream ended so quickly, practically at a loss for words on what they should have done.
“We kinda thought they were good, but we didn’t think they were this good,” said
“In the last five minutes, as I’ve gathered my thoughts, I don’t know what we would have done differently to combat that. They were just a whole lot better tonight at the offensive end. I can’t really fault our defense.”
The victory will likely set off another celebration on
“I believe in teams of destiny,” Theisman wrote. “I’ll be pulling for State all the way.”
By now, the side-planks on the Wolfpack bandwagon must surely be bulging to dangerous levels.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
