North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: The Greatest Player, Game Still Reign
3/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
ATLANTA It’s been 35 years, and no one has dethroned N.C. State’s David Thompson or the 1974 ACC Championship game as the greatest player and greatest game in the 56-year history of the Atlanta Coast Conference.
Curious, isn’t it, that a league that spawned the careers of Michael Jordan, Ralph Sampson, Len Bias, Christian Laettner, Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, J.J. Redick or Tyler Hansbrough and scores of other players who might have similar athletic gifts as the 6-foot-4 forward from Shelby, N.C., that no one has come close to erasing his legacy or the memories that team seared into the minds of so many college basketball fans.
It’s also curious that this would have occurred to me while listen to former Wolfpack point guard and current NC State assistant coach Monte Towe speak to the members of the Wolfpack Club attending the annual Breakfast of Champions at the Atlanta Hyatt-Regency Hotel Friday morning.
Towe was there to be recognized as part of the ACC’s Legends program, which has become a popular feature each year of the tournament since it was introduced a decade ago. But of all the players who have been honored the nine, 11 or 12 schools during those years, none can dethrone Thompson as the ACC’s greatest player, at least in the minds of knowledgeable fans of the league.
He was the perfect combination of personal and team achievement, winning three national player of the year awards, two ACC Tournament titles and the 1974 NCAA Championship.
He had an unmatched impact on the way the game was played on the court and off. He and Towe practically invented the alley-op pass. It came about one day during their freshman year during practice at Reynolds Coliseum, when Towe threw an errant pass towards the rafters.
Thompson used his 44-inch vertical leap to haul the ball down and lay it in the basket.
“Let’s try that one again,” Sloan said.
And for the next four years, Thompson, Towe and pinpoint passer Tim Stoddard made that an unstoppable play in the Wolfpack offense, as long as Thompson made sure to lay the ball in the basket instead of stuff it through. Dunks were illegal at the time.
Just after Thompson’s career ended, thanks to the influence of NC State athletics director Willis Casey, the NCAA relented and allowed the dunk to return to the college game. Though Thompson was robbed of the opportunity to stuff the ball through the hoop, no one else has been since.
Back then, only one team per conference could go to the NCAA Tournament, a ridiculously small-minded rule that created the opportunity for UCLA to create its college basketball dynasty. But after Maryland, one of the nation’s top five teams in 1974, lost to the Wolfpack in the tension-filled title game, the NCAA came to its senses and allowed multiple teams per conference. March Madness was born when the tournament expanded and moe teams had the chance to cut down the nets.
That game was played at a break-neck pace. If college basketball had an 18-second clock at the time, neither team would have come close to a shot-clock violation. Individually, the game belonged to an inspired Tommy Burleson, who was offended that Maryland's Len Elmore was picked over him as the first-team All-ACC center. He was out to prove otherwise, and scored 38 points and grabbed 17 rebounds.
The two teams played with few unforced errors, until Maryland's John Lucas passed up a shot and accidentally threw the ball out of bounds with less than 30 seconds remaining in overtime, allowing the Wolfpack to seal the 103-100 victory on a pair of free throws by Towe.
It's a game that has been replayed occasionally on ESPN -- including earlier this week, on its 35th anniversary -- but the game tape ends with a little over three minutes to play in regulation. All that remains are a few WRAL-TV highlights of the final decisive moments of regulation and the five-minutes of overtime. That, too, has added to the legend of the game, since the ending lives only in the memories of the few hundred thousand people who claim they were there that afternoon.
Thompson was in the last class of basketball and football players who were ineligible to compete as freshmen. As good as the freshman team was Thompson’s last year, it was a shame to keep him from being a four-year player. The Wolfpups (as the freshman team was called) lost one game when Thompson and Towe were on the team, a one-point loss to North Carolina. Thompson vowed he would never lose to the Tar Heels again. The next time they played, he scored 56 points against the UNC freshmen before fouling out with five minutes to play.
He led the varsity to nine straight wins over UNC before losing again.
Thompson, Towe and Tommy Burleson played at a perfect time for exposure. They weren’t undercovered like the 1957 North Carolina team that won the ACC’s first national championship. They weren’t over-analyzed because of having every one of its games on television.
Enough people knew about and watched the Wolfpack win that championship and recognized that they were watching something special.
“There is a lot of folklore and intrigue around that team,” Towe said. “We were very close and tight-knit because of all the attention we got, but we just went out and played. There was a lot of pressure, but not nearly the scrutiny of what kids get today.”
Towe says there is a simple reason why no one has ever taken Thompson’s place: “It is what it is,” Towe said. “David was just the best to ever play the game.”
UNC-Asheville coach Eddie Biedenbach, who recruited Thompson from Shelby’s Crest High School as an assistant to Wolfpack coach Norm Sloan, was also in attendance at Friday’s breakfast. And he couldn’t have put it any better.
“David was uncanny,” Biedenbach said. “He had an unbelievable understanding of the game and how it was played. He was spectacular on the court, but the most humble player in the world off the court. It was hard to find any kind of flaw in his game or his personality.”
Perhaps that’s why Thompson’s legacy has lingered for so long. It’s completely unlike the list of the ACC’s best football players. You could start a good bar fight trying to pick from names like Roman Gabriel, Randy White, Ted Brown, Lawrence Taylor, Charlie Ward, Peter Warrick, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan. The nominees would be numerous, and the final pick would be arguable.
But Towe, even on the day he was honored as a legend, agrees: college basketball has never had a better player than NC State’s David Thompson and there has never been a better game than when the Wolfpack beat Maryland at the Greensboro Coliseum in March 9, 1974.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
