The image of Jim Valvano running around looking for someone to hug conjures up memories of a magical night in Albuquerque.
No glass slippers, no little schools rising to the top, no underdog capturing everyone's fancy, at least not this year.
There will be no fairly tale ending or Cinderella story because all that remains are big hulking behemoths. Goliaths in every sense of the word as for the first time number one seeds from each region advanced to the final four and Kansas and Memphis will wrestle for the title.
But 25 years ago, ahhh, now that was a shocker. It ranks right up there with Villanova over Georgetown. North Carolina State's 54-52 win over the University of Houston was an upset that capped off one of the most magical runs in tourney history.
All you have to do is think about the Wolfpack being on the proverbial bubble heading into the ACC tournament. They eventually won the ACC title cementing a spot in the tournament by defeating the likes of Virginia with Ralph Sampson and North Carolina featuring Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins. While the story goes that NC State may not have received an invite to the dance, they had a good feeling they might be in after taking out Jordan and company in the ACC semi-final but they weren't taking any chances.
After winning the ACC title, the Wolfpack's fairy tale ride continued in the first round of the tournament as they defeated Pepperdine by a point after one of the Waves best free-throw shooters, Dane Suttle, an 83.5% marksman, missed the front end of the bonus not once but twice. Then there was a one point win over UNLV, followed by a victory over Utah setting up another meeting and subsequent win over Sampson and the Cavaliers.
The Final Four in 1983 consisted of one contest that was termed the "JV" game as NC State defeated Georgia and the high flying second semi-final where Houston and the famed "Phi-Slamma-Jamma", led by Akeem Olajuwon (he hadn't yet added the "H" to his name) and Clyde Drexler defeated the "Doctors of Dunk" from Louisville.
It was a foregone conclusion in everyone's mind that Houston would win the title after defeating Louisville in one of the most exciting games ever played. At one point while leaving the court Valvano was taunted by the Cougar fans.
"He felt like he was in the mafia, with the fans telling him that he was next," said Jim's brother, Bob Valvano now a basketball analyst and radio host for ESPN.
Jimmy V made light of slowing the Cougars high wire act.
"He joked that if they won the tip, (in Monday night's final) they weren't going to shoot until Tuesday," said Bob who was attending his first Final Four as a head coach. He may have been kidding but Valvano did have a plan.
Jimmy V coined the phrase 'survive and advance' helping his teams focus on one game at a time, unlike those of us that write out a bracket and agonize over games that will never happen as we look ahead. But he had another adage that does not get as much notoriety that he adhered to closely as part of his upset concoction.
"Run, hold, run was what he liked to say," said Bob. "Jimmy used to say when you're an underdog you can control the tempo and lose respectfully and receive kudos for keeping it close but if you were going to win, you had to make a run, hold on and withstand a blow from the big boys and then make a run at the end to win it."
"We sat in a coffee shop the night before with his assistant Tom Abetemarco and he knew that he had great guard play with Sidney Lowe, Terry Gannon, and Ernie Myers along with Dereck Wittenburg," remarked Valvano. "It will be a close game, our guards are too good" was what Bob remembered Jim saying.
NC State ran early in its "run-hold-run" game plan as the notion of slowing things down was a bit of a smokescreen. The Wolfpack took 18 shots in the first five minutes of the game even though there was no shot clock to dictate the pace. It helped that they had a solid defensive game plan. They fronted Olajuwon and gave him more than the usual share of attention forcing the Cougars to beat them from the outside and holding Houston to 31% shooting in the first half.
Houston took the lead in the second half and, without a shot clock forcing them to relinquish the ball, the Cougars took the air out of the ball and forced the Wolfpack out of its zone. In retrospect some Houston players felt that slowing the game was counter productive and if they had pushed the pace, the result may have been different.
The Cougar aerial attack produced 22 points on dunks in the 94-81 semi-final win over Louisville but they had only one throw down against NC State.
"He (Jim) told them 'the team with the most dunks wins', and it turned out he was right," according to Bob Valvano. "It was two dunks to one with the last one being Lorenzo Charles."
There was some unconventional strategy employed as Valvano ordered NC State to foul Houston with close to two minutes to play. After securing the rebound NC State played for the final shot where Wittenberg's 30 foot heave off a broken play, where a pass was tipped, was dunked in by Charles for the game winner.
NC State's miraculous season was accomplished with their senior guard Wittenburg missing part of the campaign due to a broken foot. Wittenburg was actually the man Valvano was looking for to hug at the end of the tournament.
According to Jimmy V's brother Bob, the story goes that after Wittenburg suffered his broken foot, his brother Jim literally cried. He then latched on to the thought that he would motivate Wittenburg to return by telling him that he would play again before his senior season was done. After every game they would hug with the knowledge that the season wasn't over and Wittenburg would have one more shot at coming back to play.
"When he couldn't find Wittenburg, guys were all paired up and he started to run around looking for someone to hug and he eventually found the Athletic Director Willis Casey who kissed him on the lips," chuckled Bob. "Jimmy later laughed saying that moment was a high point and low point all wrapped up in one."
Nearly ten years later, in March 1993, Jim Valvano gave a passionate acceptance speech as he received ESPN's inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award at the First Annual ESPY's.
Jim Valvano's stirring oratory that night is still with me. I remember sitting in front of my TV hearing his words "don't ever give up" as he was fighting cancer. But there is another image of Valvano who I had the pleasure of meeting in 1990 that is indelibly etched in my mind. It is the same one that I recall every year when the tournament ends and the final buzzer goes to conclude another college basketball season.
