North Carolina State University - Agromeck Yearbook (Raleigh, NC)

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missed a free throw with 32 seconds left. Charles grapped the rebound and the Pack held for the final shot. The dead-eye Whittenburg put up an 18-footer with eight sconds remaining, but missed. Bailey tapped it, but the ball wouldn ' t drop. Then Bailey grapped his missed tap over Green and put an in-your- mouth-Mr. Green-shot off backboard to put the Pack up by one. UNLV missed a prayer from 35- feet and it was on to Ogden, Utah, to showcase a new kind of game. An easy win. Led by Whittenburg ' s 27 points, the Pack ran past the Utes 75-56 even though Utah trailed only 32-30 early in the second half. Next on the roll call, Virginia and Samp- son. Round two. Many fully expected the parade to get rained out right here. The Cavs were the team that most picked to win it all, and after shaking first game jitters, the Cavs had disposed of dangerous Boston College and had their sights set on revenging the loss in the ACC finals. Virginia started out fast jumping to a 10-point lead , but the Pack came back and trailed 33-28 at halftime. The never-say-die Wolfpack tied the score at 43-43. As time ran down the two teams swap- ped baskets, with Sampson dominating play at the Virginia offensive end. Exuding confidence, Whittenburg drove to the basket with the Pack trailing 62-61 and less than 30 seconds remaining. Often kidded for not passing the ball, Whittenburg made the biggest pass of his life when he found himself trapped on the baseline and dished off to a wide-open Charles. As Charles went up for the power layup, Sampson came from nowhere to try and block Charles ' shot. Sampson missed the block, but got Charles to send the massive forward to the line. Charles calmly stepped to the line and canned both to give State a 63-62 lead with 23 agonizing ticks of the clock left. Virginia had one last chance when Tim Mullen took a wide-open 18-footer, but Mullen ' s shot missed and Othell Wilson grapped the rebound and threw up a six- footer that hit nothing but air. McQueen grapped the ball and held on long enough for time to expire. For Sampson, the loss ended a great four-year career, and for the Wolfpack, the win sent them to the Final Four. In the first game against Georgia, the Pack came out smoking and at one point led by as many as 18 points in the second half. But keeping the tradition going, the Pack squandered the lead and Georgia trailed by five with four minutes to go. The Pack regained its composure and hit its free throws to win 67-60. The road to the NCAA gold was an amazing run of great basketball, a little luck and sheer excitement, but could almost be considered a miracle when one takes into account that Whittenburg miss- ed 14 regular season games with a broken foot — returning only three games before the ACC tournament — and that members of the team (including Whittenburg and Valvano) had the flu during the Final Four. The men responsible for three weeks of basketball pandemonium are: Head Coach Jim Valvano and assistants Tom Abatemarco, Ray Martin, Ed McLean, and graduate assistant Max Pern, ' ; trainer Jim Rehbock; seniors Thurl Bailey, Quen- tin Leonard, Sidney Lowe and Dereck Whittenburg; underclassmen Alvin Battle, Lorenzo Charles, Walt Densmore, Tommy Dinardo, Tern, ' Gannon, George McLain, Cozell McQueen, Ernie Myers, Dinky Pro- ctor, Harold Thompson and Mike Warren. Thanks guys, it was funi — Tom DeSchriver Sports 141

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140 Sports i I

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Women S Basketball ACC regular season I I wi 142, Sports I