Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993 TAG: 9303110418
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
40 YEARS WITH THE TOURNAMENT ACC
Greatest game playedPerhaps now there is a challenger. Duke-Kentucky, 1992. The Shot. Grant Hill, the 75-foot pass, to Christian Laettner, the 17-foot shot. Duke wins 104-103 in overtime.
However, that can not diminish the first game. Not only was the ACC final of 1974, North Carolina State against Maryland, a spectacular contest, but it played an important role in basketball history.
No. 1-ranked State, behind the 38 points of 7-foot-4 center Tommy Burleson, defeated No. 4 Maryland 103-100 in overtime.
So many great players. David Thompson, the skywalker, perhaps the finest player in ACC annals. Monte Towe, the little guard with the fancy passes. Tim Stoddard, who would pitch for more than a decade in the big leagues. They played for State.
Maryland had John Lucas, now the coach of the San Antonio Spurs, who has survived drug and alcohol addiction to become a leader and role model; Tom McMillen, a Rhodes Scholar and former Congressman; Len Elmore, lawyer, TV analyst, now a sports agent; and Owen Brown, one of three players under Lefty Driesell who died too young.
McMillen, Lucas, Elmore and Mo Howard played all 45 minutes for the Terrapins, which shot 61 percent (47-of-77) and lost.
Burleson, the towering country boy from the North Carolina mountains who did not make All-ACC, took out his frustration on Elmore, who did make the postseason team.
Burleson made 18 of 25 shots and collected 13 rebounds, and after it was over, a gracious Lefty Driesell walked into the State locker room and told him, "Son, that's the greatest game I've ever seen a big man play."
Maryland had a chance to win in regulation. Driesell never had won an ACC title, and it would be a decade later before he would get his only one. This time, a timeout with nine seconds left may have been his undoing.
Lefty wanted to set up the final shot. But it also enabled Norm Sloan to get Towe, who had been temporarily sidelined with cramps, back in the game.
The play was set for Lucas, who would be guarded by Moe Rivers. "Don't worry, Coach, I'll win this thing," Lucas said.
However, Rivers did his defensive job. Lucas was a left-hander and Rivers played him strong on that hand. Lucas drove, Towe pinched in, and the Maryland star passed the ball to a wide-open Howard.
There were four seconds left. Howard had made 10 of 13 shots, and there he was, 18 feet from the basket with a good look.
He who hesitates is lost. Howard didn't shoot. Towe jumped back at him, and the long-armed Burleson came running his way. Howard passed, back to Lucas, who simply threw the ball at the goal as the horn sounded. It wasn't close.
State led 101-100 with 2:04 left in overtime after Phil Spence made a layup. Less than a minute later, after Rivers missed the front end of a one-and-one with 1:16 to play, Driesell gambled on a final shot.
His team was exhausted. It was playing its third game in a row and he had no bench. State had gotten a first-round bye and breezed in its semifinal while the Terps were thrashing No. 6 North Carolina.
Lucas spotted Elmore, driving for the goal. He leaped and threw a pass - far over Elmore's head. Elmore, thinking the ball was going to somebody in the corner, pulled his arms down and the ball went out of bounds. "I've never forgotten that pass," Lucas said years later.
Towe wrapped it up with six seconds left when he made two free throws.
Three weeks later, on the same Greensboro court, State upset UCLA in the NCAA Tournament semifinals in double overtime, ending the Bruins' streak of seven straight national titles. Then the 'Pack beat Kansas for its first championship.
While State was winning the NCAA, Maryland went home. Only one team could get a bid in those days. In the ACC, it was the tournament champion.
The Terps turned down a bid to the NIT, which they had won two years previously. They were replaced by Carolina.
"It makes me sick," Driesell said. "I see who is getting bids to the NCAA Tournament and I know that we and Carolina are better than most of the teams. It's not fair."
Finally, the NCAA committee listened. It elected to increase the field from 25 to 32 teams the next year, permitting a second team from conferences to be eligible. That bid, ironically, went to Maryland.
Eventually, the field would be expanded to the present 64 teams. Since that happened in 1984, the ACC never has gotten fewer than five bids. This is expected to be the fifth time it will get six. But it all started with that game in 1974, when the committee could see the injustice of leaving a team such as Maryland at home.
\ The shot clock
It was 1982 in Greensboro, perhaps the most anticipated final in ACC history.
No. 1-ranked North Carolina against No. 3 Virginia.
Carolina had James Worthy, Sam Perkins and freshman Michael Jordan, perhaps the most talented trio ever to play on one college team. These Tar Heels would provide Dean Smith his only NCAA crown in 32 years of coaching.
Virginia countered with 7-4 Ralph Sampson, a junior who won eight national player-of-the-year awards from various organizations and shared a ninth with Worthy; current UVa coach Jeff Jones, and freshman Jimmy Miller.
What would happen in that game might have been forecast by the earlier action. Carolina won in a couple of slowdowns, 55-39 and 58-46. Virginia, which had lost its regular-season final to Maryland 47-46, squeaked into the title contest by beating Clemson 56-54 and Wake Forest 51-49 in overtime on a last-second shot by Ricky Stokes, now an assistant coach at Wake.
The first half was excellent. Both teams shot well, with Carolina ahead 34-31.
The second half was more cautious but still tense, and the Tar Heels led 44-43 with 7:30 left.
At that point, Carolina coach Dean Smith elected to hold the ball. He wanted to bring Sampson away from the basket. UVa coach Terry Holland kept his center close to the hoop.
For six minutes, nothing happened. All that talent, and everybody was standing around. Eventually, UVa had to foul. It took five fouls to finally send the Heels to the line, where Matt Doherty made the first of a one-and-one with 28 seconds left.
Virginia tried to set up a play, but Carolina, not in the penalty, fouled twice. With three seconds left, Miller lost the ball out of bounds. Doherty was fouled, made two shots, and UNC let Sampson dunk at the buzzer for a 47-45 victory.
The national media, well represented at the game, scalded the tactics. Bore-ball, they called it.
"It takes two to have a slower game," Smith said in defense of his strategy. "If a 7-4 guy wants to stay under the basket, fine. A coach thinks about winning the game under the present rules."
The rules committee had seen enough, had heard enough complaints. In the 1983 season, they initiated the 45-second shot clock. Virginia again reached the ACC final but this time did it by scoring 109 and 96 points, before losing 81-78 to State's Cardiac Kids, who were headed for their improbable NCAA championship.
\ The greatest comback
In the opening round in 1975, second-seeded North Carolina trailed last-place Wake Forest 90-82 with 55 seconds left.
First, Phil Ford, then Mitch Kupchak, scored for the Tar Heels, who benefited from a missed free throw by the Deacons.
After the Kupchak goal with 34 seconds left, Dean Smith took a timeout. On the inbounds play, Jerry Schellenberg threw the length of the court to Skip Brown, who seemingly was fouled.
However, as the ball arced some 80 feet, Ray Hite stood up on the Carolina bench and pointed to the scoreboard. Official Fred Hikel, working the game with current national officiating supervisor Hank Nichols, blew his whistle.
Hikel insisted the ball had ticked the huge scoreboard. The Deacons complained vigorously, but the play stood, and television replays later indicated the spin of the ball reversed as it apparently grazed the overhang.
Carolina ball. Walter Davis made a jumper, Brown missed a free throw for Wake Forest, and Brad Hoffman made a 14-footer on the baseline at the buzzer to send the game into overtime tied at 90.
Carolina went on to win 101-100. That tournament set an ACC record for closest margins of victory. The biggest margin was six points, State over Virginia, in the opening round. The total victory margin of the six games was a mere 20 points. The Tar Heels won their semifinal in overtime against Clemson 76-71, then beat State in regulation for the title 70-66.
\ The greatest upsets
In 1976, the ACC Tournament moved out of North Carolina for the first time, to the Capital Centre in Landover, Md.
Virginia won the championship for the only time, beating the nation's No. 17, No. 9 and No. 4 teams. The Cavaliers became the first sixth-seed to take the title. Only one other No. 6 seed ever has won the ACC, N.C. State in 1987; coincidentally, also at the Capital Centre.
UVa wasn't a bad team, with Wally Walker, Marc Iavaroni and Billy Langloh as its stars. The Cavs were 15-11, but 4-8 in the league, and Walker, who would be drafted in the first round by Portland, didn't make All-ACC.
Against State, Virginia took a 30-10 lead, shot 60.5 percent, and won easily 75-63. In the semifinals against Maryland, the No. 2 seed, the Cavs hit 54.3 percent in a 73-65 triumph, and they followed with 60 percent accuracy in a 67-62 triumph over top-seeded Carolina.
For the tournament, Walker scored 25, 27 and 21 points, making 28 of 41 shots from the floor and 17 of 18 free throws. He also led all rebounders with 21.
For Wally Wonderful, the unanimous most valuable player, it was one of the more spectacular tournaments ever and retribution for his career.
\ The worst games
1982, first round: N.C. State 40, Maryland 28. It was 13-11 at halftime and the teams left the Greensboro floor to a chorus of boos. State finished with nine baskets and 22 free throws. Maryland shot 27.2 percent.
\ 1983, first round: Virginia 109, Duke 66. It remains the worst loss in Blue Devils' history. UVa was accused of running up the score because a foul-plagued Ralph Sampson was on the floor late in the game. Duke won its next 16 games against UVa.
\ 1992, first round: Georgia Tech 68, Virginia 56. The Cavaliers shot 24.7 percent (20-of-81). They went to the NIT and won the championship.
\ 1963, first round: Wake Forest 80, Maryland 41. The Terps shot 17.2 percent (16-of-93).
\ Odds and ends
\ It made a difference when the regular-season champion also won the tournament.
From 1960-77, a total of 18 tournaments, the regular-season champion won the tournament 11 times, and 10 times advanced to the Final Four. The only time it didn't was in 1973, when N.C. State was undefeated (27-0) but on NCAA probation.
Conversely, during the same period, when an underdog won the tournament, it never reached the Final Four, and four of seven times it lost in the opening round.
The highest-seeded team gets to wear its home uniform in every game, but in the '81 final, North Carolina elected to play in blue.
Lefty Driesell sent his Maryland team out to warm up, wearing their mustard-colored road uniforms. He was informed that he would have to change.
"Dean is supposed to wear white," Lefty argued.
He was overruled. It was Smith's choice. The game couldn't start until Maryland changed into white uniforms.