25 Years Later North Carolina State's Championship Run Remains the Most Amazing Story in NCAA Tournament History

It's the 25th anniversary of the year when the North Carolina State Wolfpack turned the college basketball world upside down by coming out of nowhere to win both the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. And while this year's version of the Wolfpack did the exact opposite and underachieved, it is still a good time to remember the Cardiac Pack and both the road it took to the championship and the players who helped achieve the unthinkable.

State came into the ACC Tournament as the fourth seed in the eight-team tournament. It drew Wake Forest in the opening game and emerged with a 71-70 victory. The semifinals was a matchup between defending champion North Carolina and Michael Jordan. The Wolfpack won in overtime, advancing to the championship game thanks to a 91-84 win. State punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament thanks to an 81-78 win over Ralph Sampson and Virginia.

As thrilling as all of those games were, they paled in comparison to the NCAA Tournament games. The opening-round game against Pepperdine went into double-overtime, thanks to the Wolfpack missing its first 12 shots and then Pepperdine's best foul shooter missing twice on the front end of one-and-ones at the end of regulation.

That brought a matchup with number-three seed UNLV and State advanced thanks to a last second shot by Thurl Bailey. The Wolfpack won 71-70. State dodged a bullet thanks to Utah upsetting number-two seed UCLA. Pace Mannion played brilliantly in the UCLA game, but he couldn't get the Utes past the Wolfpack, who advanced to the West Regional Final with a 75-56 win.

State squared off against old nemesis Virginia in the Elite Eight game. Dereck Whittenburg shot the Wolfpack into the Final Four, as he poured in 24 points and helped State to its second win over the Cavaliers in two weeks, as it edged Virginia, 63-62.

For those who were not around at the time, it is impossible to portray accurately how the nation viewed the two Final Four games. It is no exaggeration to say that 99.99% of the country viewed the Louisville-Houston game as the real National Championship game, with the actual title game a mere formality.

The Wolfpack downed Georgia in the first semifinal, 67-60, as they held the Bulldogs to a measly 35 percent shooting day (yes, this was an age when they played both semifinal games in the afternoon). Meanwhile, Houston demoralized Louisville, 94-81, and the national media crowned the Cougars champions.

Here's how Dave Kindred viewed the matchup between North Carolina State and Houston in his column the day of the championship, April 3, 1983:

"Trees will tap dance, elephants will ride in the Indianapolis 500, and Orson Welles will skip breakfast, lunch and dinner before State finds a way to beat Houston."

Only they didn't tell North Carolina State.

Coach Jim Valvano became a media sensation during the tournament. He consistently told the press that the Wolfpack was going to counter the mighty Cougars by holding the ball during the game, as neither the shot clock nor the 3-point basket was yet in play in the NCAA Tournament. Valvano, in one of his many funny lines during the magical run, told everyone his team wasn't going to shoot until Tuesday.

But come game time, the Wolfpack came out firing. Of course they did not choose to get into a sprint with the famous Phi Slamma Jamma, but they did jump out to a 33-25 halftime advantage. The Cougars bounced back in the second half, using a 17-2 run to start the final 20 minutes to take a 42-35 lead.

Whittenburg and Sidney Lowe help State to forge a 52-52 tie. The Wolfpack fouled and sent freshman Alvin Franklin to the line, who missed the front end of a one-and-one. With just over a minute to play, State held for the last shot. The ball went to Bailey, who started the game off so strong, in the corner but he wanted no part of taking the final shot, so with four seconds remaining, he fired to Whittenburg at the top of the key. The ball is tipped but Whittenburg recovered and he shot what turned out to be the most famous air ball in history.

Whittenburg was way, way out - somewhere around 35 feet from the basket - and the shot fell predictably short. And the only player who seemed to understand this was sophomore Lorenzo Charles, who grabbed the ball and dunked it as time expired to give the Wolfpack a 54-52 win.

Prior to the game, all the talk was about Houston and how they had 14 dunks in the semifinal game versus Louisville. Akeem Olajuown said before the National Championship that the team with the most dunks would win. He was right. NC State had two dunks and Houston had one. Poetically, the Wolfpack dunks were their first and last points of the game. Bailey opened with a dunk and Charles finished it off with the dunk heard round the world.

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Here are the players on the 1983 NC State National Championship team and my memories of them.

Thurl Bailey - 6'11 center who was just as comfortable from the wing as he was from the outside. He went on to a fine career in the pros with the Utah Jazz.

Alvin Battle - 6'7 forward who joined the team out of JuCo. Was supposed to be a great leaper and scorer but my recollection is that he was used as more of a defensive player.

Lorenzo Charles - Listed at 6'7 but was probably several inches shorter than that. The next year at State, I bumped into him at a water fountain at Carmichael Gym and he quickly said "excuse me". I joked to all of my friends that if he didn't apologize I was going to kick his ass, which was quite humorous as he was all muscle and I was all bones.

Tommy DiNardo - 6'5 forward who I got to play a pickup game against. He never played much at all for State and he was clearly the best player in that pickup game, which gave me an indication of how good these guys really were. He shook my hand after the game, glad that I didn't foul him too much, I guess.

Walt Densmore - 6'6 forward that I have no recollection of whatsoever.

Terry Gannon - 6'0 guard that all the girls thought was so cute. A great shooter but my main memory is walking into Darryl's one night and seeing him passed out in a chair in the front lobby.

Quinton Leonard - 6'8 forward that I don't remember.

Sidney Lowe - 6'0 guard who is now the team's coach. Sidney used up his four years of eligibility after the championship game but was around State campus quite often the following fall semester. I saw him signing autographs more than once, which has got to be a wild thing at the place where you just finished going to school.

George McClain - 6'0 guard that I actually partied with one night. My roommate freshman year went to the same high school as a player on the team and he knew most of the players. I ran into them one night and was the token honky. It was a fun evening.

Cozell McQueen - 6'11 center who was the guy who never, ever committed a foul. Anytime the ref blew the whistle, Co acted like he was shocked beyond belief that anyone could think he did something wrong. He also had a giant knot in the shape of a ball on his shoulder.

Ernie Myers - 6'4 guard who eventually developed this routine where he did dance steps at the free-throw line before shooting a foul shot.

Dinky Proctor - I'm drawing a blank on this 6'8 forward.

Harold Thompson - 6'5 forward who was a crowd favorite and was the defensive stopper.

Mike Warren - 6-7 forward who was skinnier than I was but who I saw put on an amazing dunking exhibition one night at the gym.

Dereck Whittenburg - 6'0 guard who had a great jumper. In the championship year, the ACC experimented with a 3-point line that was inside the top of the key. The line was in place the following year at Carmichael Gym and one night I was shooting from the line and he came up and retrieved my last few shots for me. I was thinking I was hot shit after hitting 7-of-10 from the arc. Whittenburg proceeded to knock down 10 straight and left without saying a word.

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It's amazing to think that this was 25 years ago. It's hard enough to think that Valvano has been gone for 15 years later this month. It was an amazing ride for college basketball fans everywhere and was simply incredible for anyone who got to experience it up close. I wish every sports fan has a memory somewhat similar to the Cardiac Pack in 1983 and their improbable run to an NCAA Championship win.

Sources:

1983 NCAA Tournament Bracket

Peeler: When March Went Mad (excerpt)

The Sporting News: Kindred, Dave

Drehs: Magical tournament run still stuff of dreams

Stinson: 1983 Final Four Dogs 'just pulled it together'

1982-83 NC State Men's Basketball Roster