THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070596
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 245 lines
Since its birth in 1954, the ACC tournament had been called the greatest basketball show on earth - three days of heart-popping thrills, spills and chills in which anything could happen.
But for the first two decades, ``anything'' wasn't happening. There were enough early-round upsets to fuel the hype, but higher-seed teams were winning 75 percent of the games and no second-division team ever had won the championship.
Then, on March 6, 1976 it happened. In what league historians now refer to as ``The Miracle in Landover,'' the hype became reality.
Twenty years ago, for three glorious days, it was a tournament in which anything not only could happen, but finally did.
A sixth-seeded Virginia team that finished one game ahead of last-place Duke in the regular season rolled into the Capital Centre in Landover, Md., and pulled what remains the biggest surprise in tournament history.
The Cavaliers, who had not beaten a ranked team all season, toppled two top-10 teams and one top-20 team to win the school's first and only ACC tournament championship.
Several members of that '76 team returned to Charlottesville in January to be recognized prior to the North Carolina State game. Now company presidents, stock brokers, doctors and lawyers, they remember what happened two decades ago with special pride.
But, as was the case then, none believes the accomplishment was a fluke or ``a miracle.''
``Some people may think that, but we never did,'' says Terry Holland, the coach of the '76 team and now Virginia's athletic director.
``We were not the best team during the season, but we proved we were the best in the tournament,'' spunky guard Bill Langloh said following the championship game. ``You don't beat three ranked teams in three days and not be the best.''
Such logic is difficult to debate, and if observers had not been so anxiously anticipating a title showdown between ninth-ranked Maryland and fourth-ranked North Carolina, they might have given the Cavaliers more respect.
Instead, the Cavaliers heard one insult after another coming off a 4-8 league record (18-12 overall).
Wally Walker, a senior and the team's best player, was left off the All-ACC first team. A Washington writer suggested the Cavaliers should be arrested for loitering when trying to run a fast break.
``No one took us seriously but ourselves,'' says Langloh.
The Cavaliers had tried to warn people they were coming to the tournament to win it. Holland remembers telling people in Charlottesville that for 120 minutes, or three games, the Cavaliers were the best team in the tournament.
``I realized we could run into a team that was hot or we could have a bad 40 minutes and lose,'' Holland says. ``But we ended up proving what I thought to be right.''
Where did such confidence come from?
Holland, in his second year of coaching the Cavaliers, says he noticed a steady improvement in his young team throughout the season. Virginia had lost at home by two points to N.C. State, by three points at home to Maryland, and in the biggest confidence-booster of all, by two points at UNC.
``When we left the court in Chapel Hill, there was no question that we deserved to have won that game,'' Holland says.
The Cavaliers had something else going for them, too. For the first time, the tournament was being played outside the state of North Carolina. Previous sites had been Raleigh, Greensboro and Charlotte. North Carolina schools had won 20 of those 22 tournaments.
The most apparent disadvantage for Virginia, or any other team that might have to play UNC in the title game, was that the Tar Heels would be more rested.
The departure of South Carolina in 1972 had left the league with only seven members and the regular-season champion was awarded a first-round bye. (Georgia Tech would not join the conference until July 1979) North Carolina had to win only two games to claim the championship while everyone else had to win three.
No. 17 N.C. State, which tied Maryland for second place in regular season with a 7-5 record, was Virginia's first-round opponent. The Wolfpack, two years after winning the national title, was hoping to to get back to the NCAA tournament.
State had a strong inside game, built around Kenny Carr and Phil Spence, with 7-foot freshman Glen Sudhop coming off the bench, and had won 11 straight games against Virginia.
Still, Holland was confident this was a team his Cavaliers could beat, and it was quickly evident his players felt the same way. Virginia dashed to a 30-10 lead and finished strong after the Wolfpack narrowed the margin to six points with 7:43 remaining.
The next seven points belonged to Virginia en route to a 75-63 victory.
Walker, a gifted 6-foot-7 forward with floppy dark hair, led both teams with 25 points. He was 10 for 13 from the floor, 5 for 5 from the line.
``I can understand why some people may consider this an upset, but we don't,'' Walker told reporters. ``We thought we were capable of winning from the start.''
Holland was not as confident about the semifinal against No. 9 Maryland, which had survived an overtime scare from Duke.
``Maryland was the team I was most concerned about coming into the tournament,'' Holland recalls. ``They had beaten us pretty good (81-73) in our last regular-season game and I knew we had problems matching up with their quickness in the backcourt. I was hoping someone would knock them off for us and we wouldn't have to play them.''
Holland, though, kept his doubts well hidden.
``If coach Holland felt Maryland was a problem, he didn't let us know about that,'' says Otis Fulton, a 6-foot-11 freshman center on the '76 team. ``But we knew Maryland had wonderful individual players who could beat you with their athleticism. If they made you play their game, you were in trouble.''
In pregame meetings, the Cavaliers committed themselves to making the Terps, then coached by Lefty Driesell, play ``Virginia basketball.''
``With our style of play, if we were ahead we could drive a team crazy,'' says Marc Iavaroni, then a sophomore forward. ``We were not a fast-breaking team and we didn't have to worry about a shot clock. Coach Holland beat into us every day the importance of every possession. He made us realize the ball was gold.''
The Terp that most concerned the Cavaliers was All-American guard John Lucas. ``He was capable of taking over a game by himself, and we knew we couldn't let him do that,'' Fulton says.
Lucas was one of three NBA-bound guards starting for the Terps, along with Brad Davis and Mo Howard. With Lucas at the point, the Terps delighted in crushing opponents with fast-break goals, but they had little patience for Virginia's ball-control game.
Trying to press the action against the ``loitering'' Cavaliers eventually took a toll on the favored Terps.
Virginia once again got an early lead and Maryland plunged into foul trouble trying to catch up. Lucas fouled out with 4:36 remaining after making only 5 of 15 field-goal attempts, and the Terps were eliminated 73-65.
Walker was his wonderful self again, scoring a game-high 27 points while Langloh added 20 more to upstage each of Maryland's trio of backcourt starters. Fulton took only one shot and missed it. But he didn't care.
``We all had our roles,'' he says. ``For most of us, that was to play tough defense and get the ball to Wally on offense.''
Two other freshmen, Bobby Stokes, now a physician in Richmond, and Steve Castellan, played key offensive roles at the free-throw line.
Stokes, after missing his first two free throws, hit five straight in the final 2:17 and Castellan made all four of his to help the Cavaliers advance to a championship meeting with No. 4 North Carolina.
``Everyone said Virginia is the doormat in the ACC, but here we are in the final,'' crowed Iavaroni.
If everyone was surprised by the Cavaliers being there - and they should have been since it was their first visit to a championship game - UNC was an expected participant.
Dean Smith, in his 15th year at UNC, had his program firmly established and the '76 team still rates among his all-time best. All five starters went on to the NBA - guards Phil Ford and John Kuester, forwards Walter Davis and Tommy LaGarde and center Mitch Kupchak.
The Heels had won the regular season by four games, losing only to Wake Forest in the Big Four tournament and to N.C. State in regular season, and had won 13 straight entering the tournament.
Smith good-naturedly reminded everyone that the Tar Heels had ``trounced'' Virginia by three and and two points during the season.
Those games were just as bitterly contested as they were close. No one played the Tar Heels with more fire than Iavaroni, who is now back at U.Va. following a pro career, attending graduate school and doing commentary for the school's basketball network.
``One of the things I was relieved to see when we got together in January was that Marc has settled down,'' Fulton says with a chuckle. ``We used to call him `Psycho.' It was a nickname he deserved, especially when he played against North Carolina.''
Iavaroni admits he was excited playing North Carolina in the title game.
``I had a natural competitive urge whenever we played North Carolina,'' he says. ``They were the team with the best record, had been the best in regular season, and had the national reputation. You wanted to play your best against them because of all those things.''
Whereas the key to beating Maryland was on the perimeter, North Carolina was too balanced to concentrate on any one area. But Holland realized the Cavaliers had to keep Kupchak off the boards, and that was Fulton's mission.
``Coach Holland told me not to worry about getting defensive rebounds, just to keep Kupchak off the boards,'' Fulton recalls.
He was so focused on doing so, that a couple of times while shadowing Kupchak he would look and realize he was out of bounds.
``I would not even turn to see where the ball was going,'' he says. ``I was just keeping Kupchak off the boards. I was determined he was not going anywhere near the basket.''
Ironically, it was an offensive move by Fulton just before intermission that gave the Cavaliers a much-needed lift and a 35-30 lead. Fulton says Langloh made an unexpected pass from midcourt to him as he was standing near the free-throw line, just behind LaGarde.
``I knew there were about two seconds left on the clock,'' Fulton says. ``Instead of bringing the ball down, I jumped around and tossed it toward the basket in one motion. It rolled around and dropped in. I was just glad it hit the rim.''
The game remained tight throughout the second half with U.Va. wrapping up a 67-62 victory in the final seconds from the free-throw line.
Langloh hit two free throws with 34 seconds remaining, putting the Cavaliers ahead for good.
Walker, who received the Everett Case Award as the tournament's most valuable player, again led the way with 21 points. Iavaroni added 15, and Fulton made all six of his attempts for 12 points.
``This is what we talked about, coming to the tournament and winning it and having Wally Walker make MVP because he was left off first team All-ACC,'' Holland said afterward.
``This was no fluke, no upset. I said before the season we were young and were going to be a helluva lot better in March than in November, and that is the way it worked out.''
Langloh and Iavaroni joined Walker on the all-tournament team and Stokes made second-team. The Cavaliers made the media pay for the pre-tournament snubs, too, by locking them out of their dressing room.
Holland tried to intervene, telling the players to open the door, but they refused to do so and eventually met reporters in the corridor outside the room.
Maybe, as Holland contended, the Cavaliers were not surprised by winning the tournament, but they did have some rescheduling to do.
Walker and several other teammates had planned to spend the next week on spring break in Fort Lauderdale, and those reservations had to be canceled.
The Cavaliers had their first ticket to the NCAA tournament and a first-round pairing against DePaul in Charlotte.
But the big prize was not getting to the NCAA.
``To be honest with you, winning the ACC tournament was far more exciting to us,'' Holland says, ``but I know that wouldn't be true today.''
The Cavaliers lost to DePaul 69-60.
``We went from the glitz and glamour of Landover to a dumpy coliseum in Charlotte, where we were just another team,'' Iavaroni remembers. ``Wally was really sick with the flu, and the rest of us just didn't pick it up. I did not play well and it was a very empty feeling. It was like going from Mt. Everest to Death Valley.''
Without Walker, a first-round draft choice by Portland, the Cavaliers made it back to the ACC championship game the following year but lost to UNC 75-69.
``We didn't have the stamina,'' recalls Holland. ``I think we were up by six or seven points when we ran out of gas with about seven minutes left.''
The Cavaliers since have been involved in four other title games, losing 47-45 to UNC in 1982, 81-78 to N.C. State in '83, 70-61 to Georgia Tech in '90, and 73-66 to UNC in '94.
The ``Miracle in Landover'' remains the university's only tournament championship.
``That is amazing we haven't won it again,'' says Holland. ``Maybe we can do it again this time. That would make a nice 20th anniversary present.''
If so, the seventh-seeded Cavaliers would make history again. Since 1976, three other sixth-seeded teams have won the tournament, but none below that. ILLUSTRATION: 20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
After finishing next to last in the 1976 regular season, Marc
Iavaroni, above, and Virginia pulled off "The Miracle in Landover,"
putting together three great games to win their only ACC title.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF U.VA ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT
Wally Walker and coach Terry Holland celebrate after winning the ACC
tournament in 1976. Holland, then in his second year as Cavaliers
coach, says the accomplishment was no fluke.
[Historical recaps of the games, see microfilm.]
AT A GLANCE
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB