A Century of Great Players
11/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
This story was originally printed in The Wolfpacker. It is reprinted with permission from Coman Publishing Co.
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – David Thompson is the only name that belongs at the top of the list.
How, then, do you go about naming the other best players in the history of NC State basketball? Who belongs right behind the greatest player in college basketball history?
Was it his predecessor Ronnie Shavlik, the ACC's first consensus All-America? Or was it one of Thompson's teammates, Tommy Burleson, who played with him as a sophomore and junior, or Kenny Carr, who played with him as a senior, a year after Burleson left. Burleson was twice named the ACC Tournament Most Valuable Player. Carr is the only player in NCAA basketball to win an Olympic gold medal.
How do you separate the "Fire and Ice" combination of Chris Corchiani, who set the NCAA record with more than 1,000 career assists, and Rodney Monroe, who broke Thompson's school scoring record?
How do you choose between Dick Dickey, the only player in school history to win first-team all-conference honors for years in a row, and Julius Hodge, NC State's most recent ACC Player of the Year selection?
Is Nate McMillan, head coach of the NBA's Portland Trailblazers, more important in the history of the program than Vinny Del Negro, head coach of the Chicago Bulls? The former teammates were both favorites of late head coach Jim Valvano.
And where do the pre-Everett Case players like Rochelle "Red" Johnson, progenitor of the "Red Terror" nickname; Maurice Johnson, the school's first All-America; Connie Mack Berry, who played professionally in three different sports; or Horace "Bones" McKinney, who starred as a player at NC State before World War II and at UNC afterwards then at Wake Forest as a coach, fit in?
To be honest, it should be hard to choose. NC State's rich tradition of producing so many great players in its 10 decades of college basketball is what makes having a 100-year celebration worthwhile.
From the humble beginnings on the outdoor courts at modern-day Pullen Park to the state-of-the-art RBC Center, standout players have provided thrills for a century now.
No one disputes that the high-flying Thompson, two-time national player of the year and the hero of NC State's 1974 NCAA Championship is the greatest player in both school and league history. At least no one should.
But was Thompson even the most important player on his own team? Former Wolfpack player and assistant coach Eddie Biedenbach remembers the time he was sitting around the office with head coach Norm Sloan, assistant coach Sam Esposito and Wolfpack Club executive secretary Charlie Bryant, who was an assistant coach at both NC State and Wake Forest.
The question was posed, long before fantasy leagues were ever invented, of all the great players in the ACC in the early 1970s who would each person pick to build a team around. Biedenbach immediately chose Thompson, whose leaping, scoring and defensive skills were unparallel for a 6-4 small forward. But Sloan, Esposito and Bryant all agreed they would take the 7-foot-3 Burleson as the centerpiece for their teams.
His height, defensive presence and rebounding ability made him even more valuable than Thompson, in their eyes.
"I couldn't believe it," Biedenbach said. "Thompson is the greatest player in the history of the sport and they all were picking Burleson. But I saw their point."
Everyone has a personal favorite. Pucillo, the only player other than Thompson to earn ACC Player of the Year and Athlete of the Year the same season, says his is the always affable Chucky Brown, a 1989 first-team All ACC selection who went on to play for more NBA teams than any other player in the history of professional basketball.
So choose your own favorite players, teams or coaches. They all meant a lot to NC State basketball, from Percy Bell Ferebee and Guy K. Bryan, the two students that organized the very first team under the direction of YMCA general secretary John W. Bergthold, to the five new freshmen who joined Sidney Lowe's team this fall: Richard Howell, Scott Wood, DeShawn Painter, Jordan Vandenberg and Josh Davis.
But here's a list, perhaps not the definitive list, of additional players who can stand tall with Thompson as the greatest players in NC State's century of intercollegiate basketball.
DAVID THOMPSON, F, 6-4, Boiling Springs, N.C.
Thompson has been aptly described as the queen of the chessboard: He could do anything, jump anywhere, best anybody on the court. "David changed the game,'' said former teammate and life-long friend Tommy Burleson. "He, quite literally, elevated the game of basketball to another level. Really, he was basically an unstoppable player.'' Ignore, for the moment, Thompson's stats. Just remember the beauty of his elevated jumpshot, his careful lay-ins on alley-oop passes from Monte Towe and Tim Stoddard, and his unfathomable 44-inch vertical leap. His skills begat players like Michael Jordan and Len Bias and Grant Hill, a full generation of players who made their livings in the rarefied air above the rim. But he had the humility and grace of another generation. "He was the consummate team player," the late Norm Sloan said in one of his final interviews. "He was so talented, but he was always trying to improve. It was a special combination.'' Whether he is the ACC's greatest player remains inarguable. There will never be another DT.
DICK DICKEY, F, 6-1, 1947-50, Alexandria, Ind.
Dickey was not only Everett Case's first all-star – he is the only player in school history to earn first-team All-Conference honors four consecutive years and was a three-time All-America – he led the team to four consecutive Southern Conference Championships. While he was not the 1950 team's leading scorer – that honor went to the late Sammy Ranzino – he was the MVP of the only team Case ever led to the Final Four. The late Dickey was the first NC State player ever drafted by the NBA, going to the Boston Celtics in 1960. He played another vital role in the history of NC State athletics: as a birddog in Indiana for former roommate Norm Sloan, he spotted a diminutive point guard that he insisted Sloan recruit, a kid named Monte Towe. Though the 5-foot-7 Towe looked overmatched against his taller teammates, his heart and soul on the court helped the Wolfpack win the 1973 and '74 ACC championships and the 1974 NCAA Championship.
RONNIE SHAVLIK, C, 1954-56, Denver, Colo.
This 6-foot-9 native of Denver, Colo., was discovered late in the recruiting process, after he starred for a local AAU team in the AAU Nationals in Denver. He became a target for Everett Case at NC State, Adolph Rupp at Kentucky and John Wooden at UCLA. Case eventually won the battle for Shavlik, primarily because he had relatives in Raleigh and Kentucky was being investigated by the NCAA and law enforcement authorities on charges of possible point-shaving during the 1951season. Shavlik helped the Wolfpack win the first three ACC Tournament championships. He was twice named first-team All-ACC and was the 1956 ACC Player of the Year. He is the only player in the history of the Dixie Classic to win two MVP awards. He remains the most prolific rebounder in school history, after averaging 19.5 per game as a senior a record that still stands in the ACC. He is second in the league and by far first in school history with 1,598 rebounds in just three years. He not only rebounded well – his career high was 35 against Villanova in 1955 – he also set the single-game scoring record with 55 points. For his career, he averaged 16.8 rebounds and 18.5 points a game. Shavlik spent just two years playing professionally, before settling down in Raleigh to become a successful business man and one of the school's biggest boosters. One of his final trips before he died in the summer of 1983 was to follow Jim Valvano's team to Albuquerque, N.M., for the Final Four and NC State's second NCAA title.
LOU PUCILLO, G, 5-9, 1957-59, Philadelphia
The flashy point guard – NC State's version of Bon Cousy – won the ACC Player of the Year and Athlete of the Year honors in 1959, the only N.C. State athlete other than David Thompson to win both. He was also named the MVP of the 1959 ACC Tournament, after helping the Wolfpack down North Carolina in the most lop-sided outcome in the early history of the ACC Tournament championship game. Sadly, that was the Philadelphia native's last game at NC State, since Case's team was on probation and could not go to the NCAA Tournament. "I didn't care about playing in the post-season," Pucillo said. "I didn't even play high school basketball, and here I was beating North Carolina for the ACC Championship and winning the MVP. What more could I have wanted for my last college game?"
TOMMY BURLESON, C, 7-3, 1971-74, Newland, N.C.
Thompson wasn't the only guy on the 1973 and '74 ACC Championship teams that played above the rim. Burleson did as well – he just did it flat-footed. That's how high the Newland Needle could reach without jumping. The three-time All-ACC pick led the league in rebounding as a sophomore and junior. He was also a member of the 1972 Olympic team. Burleson still holds the honor of having the greatest single game in the history of the ACC Tournament, when he scored 38 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in the 1974 championship game against Maryland, earning his second consecutive Case Award as the MVP of the ACC Tournament. "Tommy had the unique ability to play with the best players in the country," said Eddie Biedenbach, his former assistant coach. "The game he played against Maryland was simply a matter of his unmatched competitiveness coming out against Len Elmore. I have never seen anyone play better than he did in that game."
KENNY CARR, 6-6, F, 1974-77, Washington, D.C.
Carr often lived in the shadow of David Thompson, who played the same position as Carr. But the two were hardly similar. Thompson was lithe and athletic; Carr was big, burly and powerful. Immediately after Thompson led the ACC in scoring for two years, Carr followed up by leading the ACC in scoring back-to-back seasons. A member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic team, Carr is the only player in NC State history to win Olympic gold. He left for the NBA after his junior season, the first Wolfpack player to leave early for the pros. After spending 10 years in the NBA, he started a small commercial construction business in Portland that has grown into a multi-million dollar enterprise.
VINNY DEL NEGRO, 6-5, G, 1985-88, Springfield, Mass.
After sitting on the bench for two-and-a-half years, "Skinny Vinny" was called into action midway through the 1987 season, after head coach Jim Valvano dismissed point guard Kenny Drummond. His backcourt guidance helped the Wolfpack roll through a pair of overtime victories in the ACC Tournament in Landover, Md., over Duke and Wake Forest. In the finals against undefeated North Carolina, he led the Wolfpack to an improbable championship, the 10th in school history. He was a first-team All-ACC selection as a senior, and was a second-round pick of the Sacramento Kings. He spent 14 seasons playing professional basketball in the NBA and in Europe and is currently the head coach of the Chicago Bulls.
SIDNEY LOWE, PG, 6-0, 1979-83, Washington, D.C.
It was after Lowe's freshman year when his head coach, Norm Sloan, left NC State to go to Florida. Lowe, devastated by the decision, was in tears in Sloan's office, begging to go with him. But Sloan insisted that NC State was the best place for Lowe, who had followed NC State's pipeline from DeMatha Catholic High School in Washington, D.C., down to Raleigh. The decision proved to be momentous for the school and for Lowe. He stayed with Dereck Whittenburg and Thurl Bailey to play for new coach Jim Valvano, and even though there were some ups and downs, the trio was the foundation of the team that won the school's second ACC Championship, with its miraculous run in 1983. As a senior, Lowe was not only named the MVP of the ACC Tournament, but he also broke North Carolina guard Phil Ford's record for career assists. He only averaged 8.7 points in his four-year career, but he was the consummate coach on the floor, thanks to Valvano philosophy of letting him call all the plays when the clock was running. "He allowed you to have responsibilities and freedoms to go onto the floor and do what you had to do," Lowe said of Valvano. ""He gave you that encouragement, both mentally and physically, to go out and do it. He never really tried to structure me and tell me what to do.'' In the championship game against Houston, Lowe played all 40 minutes in the mile-high elevation of Albuquerque. He scored only eight points, but had eight assists, five steals and no turnovers. "He was the greatest point guard I ever coached," Valvano said before he died in 1993. Now, Lowe has the rare opportunity to sit in the same seat as three of NC State's most prominent coaches, all of whom had an impact on his career: Case, Sloan and Valvano.
RODNEY MONROE, G, 6-3, Hagerstown, Md./CHRIS CORCHIANI, PG, 6-1, Miami Lakes, Fla.
Quite literally, Monroe goes hand-in-hand with Corchiani, and their legacies can't really be separated. One's baskets wouldn't have been possible without the other's passes. "They were both MVPs," said Les Robinson, who coached the duo their senior season. "Monroe doesn't score all those points without Corchiani, and Corchiani doesn't get all those assists without Monroe. I don't think either of them would have been as good without the other." Monroe was a deadly shooter. He scored 30 or more points on 21 occasions, second only to Thompson. The soft-spoken Monroe easily broke Thompson's school scoring record because he played four years to Thompson's three. As a senior in 1991, he averaged 27 points a game and was named ACC Player of the Year. The fiery Corchiani handled the duties of running the Wolfpack offense, leading the defense and scoring when necessary. He had 328 career steals, which was second in ACC history when his career ended.
JULIUS HODGE, 6-7, F/G, Harlem, N.Y.
For sheer joy, no one can beat the infectious attitude that Hodge brought to the Wolfpack when he arrived in 2001. He made an immediate impact for Herb Sendek's program, along with a crop of freshmen than included Josh Powell, Levi Watkins, Jordan Collins and Ilian Evtimov. During his four years at NC State, Hodge became just the third player in school history to score more than 2,000 points. He made more free throws than any player in Wolfpack history (596). As a junior, he was named the ACC Player of the Year, after leading the Wolfpack to the ACC Tournament title game and a second-place finish in the regular-season standings. Though he could have left after that season for the NBA, he fulfilled a promise he made to his mother, Mary, to stay until he earned a college degree.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.