The men’s college basketball season is coming to a close, and NC State is one of the teams that is ‘on the bubble’ for the NCAA tournament. If you have just recently become an NC State’s men basketball fan due to your acceptance, family, or because you just simply like wearing red, you have not missed much large-scale success.
Your parents could tell you more of the success of NC State during the 1980s, with Jimmy Valvano taking the reins of the team and winning the NCAA Championship in 1983, or even before that when they won in 1974, led by star-player, David Thompson. You may have heard the saying around campus, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”
This could either be pertaining to your late night studies, going for that girl or guy at a party, or more specifically, in basketball. The saying dates back to the 1993 ESPYs from Jimmy Valvano’s acceptance speech of the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award.
And maybe you have heard the phrase, the ‘Cardiac Pack.’ You know, the feeling when the boys are down by twenty-three at the half and then cut the game to a three point deficit with four minutes to go. The feeling of your heart racing, yelling words you did not even know you knew to the other team, and the constant standing and cheering or sitting and sulking depending on how the game is going.
It is what NC State basketball has been about in the past recent years, and I love it. The coined name, ‘Cardiac Park’ comes from the 1983 ACC and NCAA Tournaments that NC State competitively survived by beating the University of Virginia’s Cavaliers in the ACC Championship Game and beating the University of Houston, accompanied by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Dexter, in the NCAA Championship Game. All of this said and done, it has been 32 years since Valvano cut down the net, 32 years since Dereck Whittenburg air balled a shot to Lorenzo Charles with seconds left to win The Big Dance, 32 years since NC State has advanced past the Elite Eight.
I love Pack basketball as much as the next person, I love the games, the atmosphere, and that one guy who rubs his beard when the Fan Cam comes his way, keep doing your thing, bud. We have the players, the coaching staff and the environment to survive and advance once again, but what is holding us back? The Curse.
Since 1983, Valvano has been the only coach to lead us the farthest in the NCAA Tournament, to the Elite Eight. Coaches that followed, such as Les Robinson, who only led the Pack to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament, Herb Sendek met the Sweet Sixteen once and never again and Sidney Lowe finished barely above .500 in his career at NC State and only went as far as the NIT Quarterfinals.
We are in a new age of NC State basketball. Mark Gottfried, or as my favorite fan sign calls him, The Gottfather, has brought the team to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three seasons as head coach, advancing as far as the Sweet Sixteen in his first season. His 70 wins over his first three seasons are the most since the late 1930s with Everett Case as head coach. Gottfried also produced a fourteenth pick in the first round of the 2014 NBA Draft. Though, TJ Warren did all the dribbling and scoring, Gottfried has acquired an impressive resumé for himself in a few short years.
Coming from his head coaching job at Alabama in the SEC, the ACC is a whole new world. In addition to Gottfried, Cat Barber is currently scoring at his best, Trevor Lacey keeps being Trevor Lacey, BeeJay Anya is being The Beast he is expected to be, Kyle Washington keeps scaring every player that defends him(picture below), and freshman Malik Abu and the Martin twins keep proving themselves. Our big wins at home against Pittsburg and at the time ranked number two Duke and also at against previously ranked number nine Louisville, should help motivate the team and keep their spirits positive down the last stretch of the schedule.
So why throw all these statistics at you? Because every curse has to be broken. Some call it magic, some need a messiah and some just need pure luck. NC State has a coach like Gottfried and a team behind him who can hopefully fill the role of all three of those. I do not know how many times I can bear to say, “I know we’ll be better next season, though,” at the end of each year. Be our messiah, grab an elder wand and the luck will find its way. The team was 17-10 overall, 8-6 in the ACC, in 1983 entering the NCAA Tournament and went all the way. What is to say that, ’The Team of Destiny’ will not relive itself this tournament season?
