FIBA Basketball
Leader of the Pack is back
The conversation was 26 years ago, but Bob Valvano remembers his brother's words and the excitement in his voice. Jim Valvano had been coach at N.C. State only a few weeks. He was just getting a feel for his new players.
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The conversation was 26 years ago, but Bob Valvano remembers his brother's words and the excitement in his voice.
Jim Valvano had been coach at N.C. State only a few weeks. He was just getting a feel for his new players.
"The first thing he said to me, before talking about the conference or the school or anything was, 'It's going to be fun, because I've got the best point guard I've ever coached,' " Bob Valvano said this past week.
"I asked who it was, and Jim said, 'His name is Sidney Lowe, he'll be great and we could do some great things."
That was in 1980. Three years later, as a senior, Lowe helped orchestrate one of the NCAA Tournament's most improbable stories.
Great things? The Pack, after winning the ACC Tournament, escaped a first-round NCAA scare against Pepperdine and then didn't stop playing until Lorenzo Charles' dunk at the buzzer won the national championship game against Houston, 54-52.
Jim Valvano died in 1993 of cancer. But Valvano and the "Cardiac Pack," with all it accomplished in 1983, never will be forgotten by State fans, by basketball fans, by those who cheer for underdogs and are inspired by their success.
As one writer put it during State's scintillating run to the championship, the Pack "had no All-Americas, just all of America."
The backcourt of Lowe and Dereck Whittenburg had played together since their high school days at DeMatha in Hyattsville, Md. Thurl Bailey, another senior, was a graceful 6-foot-11 forward who could score inside and out.
Sophomore center Cozell McQueen was strong on the boards and active on defense. Charles, another sophomore, was a bruising power forward with a soft shooting touch. Guard Terry Gannon provided points off the bench. Ernie Myers, Alvin Battle and George McClain offered quality depth.
Whittenburg, a pure shooter with a quick trigger finger and unlimited range, broke his right foot in a January game against Virginia at Reynolds Coliseum. The Pack slumped at first, then rallied behind Lowe and Bailey. And Whittenburg provided a huge boost when he returned late in the regular season.
The Pack was 17-10 entering the ACC Tournament, needing some big wins to make it into the NCAA Tournament. But State topped Wake Forest, North Carolina and then Virginia for the title in Atlanta's Omni.
State opened NCAA play in Corvallis, Ore., edging Pepperdine in two overtimes. The Wolfpack then beat Nevada-Las Vegas and knocked off Utah in the West Regional semifinals in Ogden, Utah. That set up another game against Virginia and All-America center Ralph Sampson, but State won again to advance to the Final Four at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M.
After a victory over Georgia and the heart-stopper over a Houston team nicknamed "Phi Slamma Jamma" for its dunking skills and ability to get the ball to the basket, Lowe, Whittenburg and Bailey were beaming and hoisting the NCAA trophy.
Lowe was the only State player to go all 40 minutes in the title game -- and he did it without a turnover.
"That's where it started for me, winning a championship," Lowe said this week. "That's sort of where I made my name."
A name that State fans were saying fondly Saturday.
Download source here
The conversation was 26 years ago, but Bob Valvano remembers his brother's words and the excitement in his voice.
Jim Valvano had been coach at N.C. State only a few weeks. He was just getting a feel for his new players.
"The first thing he said to me, before talking about the conference or the school or anything was, 'It's going to be fun, because I've got the best point guard I've ever coached,' " Bob Valvano said this past week.
"I asked who it was, and Jim said, 'His name is Sidney Lowe, he'll be great and we could do some great things."
That was in 1980. Three years later, as a senior, Lowe helped orchestrate one of the NCAA Tournament's most improbable stories.
Great things? The Pack, after winning the ACC Tournament, escaped a first-round NCAA scare against Pepperdine and then didn't stop playing until Lorenzo Charles' dunk at the buzzer won the national championship game against Houston, 54-52.
Jim Valvano died in 1993 of cancer. But Valvano and the "Cardiac Pack," with all it accomplished in 1983, never will be forgotten by State fans, by basketball fans, by those who cheer for underdogs and are inspired by their success.
As one writer put it during State's scintillating run to the championship, the Pack "had no All-Americas, just all of America."
The backcourt of Lowe and Dereck Whittenburg had played together since their high school days at DeMatha in Hyattsville, Md. Thurl Bailey, another senior, was a graceful 6-foot-11 forward who could score inside and out.
Sophomore center Cozell McQueen was strong on the boards and active on defense. Charles, another sophomore, was a bruising power forward with a soft shooting touch. Guard Terry Gannon provided points off the bench. Ernie Myers, Alvin Battle and George McClain offered quality depth.
Whittenburg, a pure shooter with a quick trigger finger and unlimited range, broke his right foot in a January game against Virginia at Reynolds Coliseum. The Pack slumped at first, then rallied behind Lowe and Bailey. And Whittenburg provided a huge boost when he returned late in the regular season.
The Pack was 17-10 entering the ACC Tournament, needing some big wins to make it into the NCAA Tournament. But State topped Wake Forest, North Carolina and then Virginia for the title in Atlanta's Omni.
State opened NCAA play in Corvallis, Ore., edging Pepperdine in two overtimes. The Wolfpack then beat Nevada-Las Vegas and knocked off Utah in the West Regional semifinals in Ogden, Utah. That set up another game against Virginia and All-America center Ralph Sampson, but State won again to advance to the Final Four at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M.
After a victory over Georgia and the heart-stopper over a Houston team nicknamed "Phi Slamma Jamma" for its dunking skills and ability to get the ball to the basket, Lowe, Whittenburg and Bailey were beaming and hoisting the NCAA trophy.
Lowe was the only State player to go all 40 minutes in the title game -- and he did it without a turnover.
"That's where it started for me, winning a championship," Lowe said this week. "That's sort of where I made my name."
A name that State fans were saying fondly Saturday.