ACC Tournament
Ed Pinckney sat on a stool in the locker room Thursday and recalled how 20 years ago he participated in one of the greatest championship runs in NCAA Tournament history.
At the center of Pinckney's dark blue sweatshirt was a simple V. It stood for Villanova, but this weekend it also echoed Valvano, two V's for two unlikely victories.
Beneath the yawning white sky of the Carrier Dome, Villanova and N.C. State tonight will attempt to recreate the 1980s magic of two basketball teams that took their place among NCAA miracles.
For Villanova, it was the 1985 Wildcats, the team that won the school's first and only national championship by defeating the higher seed in five of its six games. The Wildcats' 66-64 victory over Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown stands as one of the greatest tournament championship games.
For State, it was the 1983 team coached by Jim Valvano. Hampered by a foot injury to Dereck Whittenburg, the Wolfpack finished the regular season 17-10 and had to win the ACC Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament.
In the NCAA Tournament, the Pack repeatedly upset opponents. In the championship, it knocked off overwhelming favorite Houston 54-52 when Lorenzo Charles converted Whittenburg's airball into a winning dunk, and Valvano raced across the floor looking for someone to hug.
Those Villanova and State teams overcame the longest odds in NCAA Tournament history. Villanova won the tournament as a No. 8 seed, the lowest seed ever for an NCAA champion. The 1983 State team won as a No. 6 seed, tied as the second-lowest seed to win the tournament. (No. 6 Kansas also won in 1988.)
Now the Wildcats and Wolfpack share an uphill challenge in the same year on the same night. No. 5-seeded Villanova takes on top-seeded North Carolina, and No. 10 N.C. State faces No. 6 Wisconsin.
Villanova and State are trying to survive into the future, by drawing inspiration from the past.
"We have in different ways tried to give our guys a feel of [the 1985 championship]," said Pinckney, now an assistant coach at Villanova. "We want to let them know it's possible to win six games in a row by trying to be the best team you can be."
State coach Herb Sendek said he doesn't dwell on the '83 run, but he thinks his players have State's history in mind.
For Villanova, the remembering is months old. The 1985 team was honored at halftime of the Jan. 15 game against Georgetown. Before the season, the team watched the 1985 title game at coach Jay Wright's home. And last week, on the bus to Syracuse, they got a preview of an HBO documentary on the 1985 game scheduled to be shown Monday.
Pinckney said he enjoyed the HBO show. Along with Villanova's memories, it provides the perspective of Georgetown players, coach John Thompson and a sense of the times when Ronald Reagan was president.
Villanova's sophomore guard Mike Nardi said this team is encouraged by the '85 team.
"It makes you believe anything can happen," said Nardi, who was born during the 1985 season. "They almost didn't make the tournament, and they came out on top."
In 1983, the Pack's Whittenburg's injured a foot in early January, but he recovered to give his team a tournament lift. This year's Pack has struggled with injuries and illness. Late in the season and so far in the postseason, freshman Andrew Brackman and junior Cameron Bennerman have turned in strong performances to fill gaps left by injuries to center Jordan Collins and Tony Bethel.
The Pack is in the round of 16 after finishing the regular ACC season with a losing record. It got here by finishing strong and winning two ACC Tournament games bolster its chances of earning an NCAA berth.
Frank Weedon, an associate athletics director emeritus and a member of State's athletics department since 1960, watched the Pack practice Thursday and saw a glimmer of State's last championship team.
"I just think the team is coming together and Herb has put them together at the right time," Weedon said. "It's a lot like that '83 team."
Of this season's Pack, he added, "They have that same little spark, magic or whatever word you want use, like Valvano's team in '83. They seem to be a good cohesive team, not a bunch of individuals."
Cohesiveness, Pinckney said, is a key to a team making a run. At some point late in a season, he said, a team confronted by adversity either fits together or falls apart. When everything clicks, he said, it can go a long way.
Will Roach, a fourth-year Wolfpack reserve who grew up in Raleigh and knows well the story of '83, senses he is on a team that could do it again.
"The chemistry with this team, how everyone gets along and how everyone treats each other, it's a lot different than any other team I've been part of, and the talent on this team is amazing," Roach said. "You just get this feeling when you start playing good and everything is going well for you. You feel like you're on top of the world."