Tim Peeler: Remembering NC State's 1974 clashes with North Carolina

For the second year in a row, beating North Carolina was thrice as nice for NC State’s top-of-the-polls men’s basketball team.

During a seven-week span in early 1974, head coach Norm Sloan’s Wolfpack, featuring the most dynamic lineup in school history, scored back-to-back-to-back victories over Dean Smith’s Tar Heels – just as they had done the year before during an unbeaten 1972-73 season.

Those six games were the meat of State’s nine-game winning streak over the Heels, the second longest in the history of the century-old rivalry, short only of the 15-game winning streak Everett Case had in the 1940s and ‘50s. This year’s regular-season series renews at 8 p.m. today at PNC Arena, as both teams enter the rivalry game 3-0 in ACC play for the first time since 1974.

Two of those wins each year counted in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings and one was designated a non-conference game as part of the Big Four Championship in Greensboro.

The next season, David Thompson’s senior year, the two old foes met four times, with State winning yet another Big Four meeting and in the regular-season matchup in Reynolds Coliseum, while North Carolina finally ended the run with a win in Carmichael Auditorium in Chapel Hill and again in the Greensboro Coliseum in the game that ended the careers of Thompson, point guard Monte Towe and the late Moe Rivers.

It was the three wins in 1974 – 50 years ago – that made the Wolfpack battle-ready to challenge first Maryland and then UCLA and Marquette to win both ACC and NCAA championships later that season.

Both coaches agreed that the first game that season, just after New Year’s Day, meant practically nothing. At least that what they said, but it’s not how they coached as the Wolfpack used a pair of quick-draw Towe free throws to seal a 78-77 victory.

“Didn’t mean a thing,” Sloan said afterwards. “We still have two, maybe three, games to play against Carolina.”

What did Carolina’s coach think?

“It was a game we wanted badly,” Smith said afterwards. “And we’re terribly disappointed. There were a lot of crazy bounces – not many our way. What did it prove? That State is one point better than we are.”

Two and a half weeks later, the Wolfpack went to Chapel Hill looking to extend its winning streak over the Tar Heels to six games at heated Carmichael Auditorium. The outcome was similarly close, 83-80, and Towe again was the hero, this time for his ball-handling and foul-evading skills.

The Pack took the lead in the game 10 minutes into the first half and never trailed again, though the Tar Heels closed within two points with 50 seconds remaining. The 5-foot-7 point guard darted around Carmichael’s court like a pinball for 39 seconds without getting tackled, as the Tar Heels tried to stop the clock with a foul.

“We wanted to commit a foul with 25 seconds left if we couldn’t make a steal,” Smith said. “But we never could catch Towe.”

They did catch Thompson, the All-America forward and future national player of the year. He made one of two free throws with 11 seconds to play to give his team the winning margin.

Smith was left shaking his head about the impressive Pack.

“This loss is not the end of the season for us, but if State plays like they did tonight for the rest of the year, they may go undefeated (in the conference) again,” the hall of fame coach said. “We tried everything possible, but State was just the better team.”

Sloan, as he did throughout the season, tried to keep his team on an even keel but he knew that winning in Chapel Hill was huge for his team’s confidence.

“It was a game that could have gone either way,” Sloan said. “I feel we’re getting better all the time and tonight’s play bears me out, because we beat a great basketball team on their home floor.”

The final game in the three-game set was at Reynolds Coliseum and the outcome had a huge impact on the rest of the Pack’s run for the school’s first team national championship.

Because Tommy Burleson came alive.

The 7-foot-2 center from Newland, North Carolina, was held to just three points and two rebounds in the first half against an aggressive and physical North Carolina defense that gave the Heels a 34-32 lead at intermission. Sloan’s halftime speech awakened his giant.

Burleson scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the second half and helped his team pull away for a 83-72 victory that was the largest margin of victory in the Pack’s nine-game winning streak against the Smith’s Heels.

And Sloan did something he had never done in his coaching career: He gave Burleson the game ball.

It was the first step in the sly coach’s effort to inspire his emotional center, something that paid dividends later in the season against Maryland big man Len Elmore and UCLA center Bill Walton.

“He’s one of the finest centers in the country,” Sloan said. “I’m sick and tired of hearing people say he couldn’t do this or that. We’re a different team without him.

“He’s a heckuva player. I’ve never said much about him, but we’ve been undefeated in the conference the last two years and this guy’s been primarily responsible.

“Sure, we have David Thompson and Monte Towe, but without the big man it would be awfully tough. I think he just got tired of hearing about the things he couldn’t do. Right now, there is talk about who is going to make the all-conference team and I’ve heard a lot of people say they didn’t see how they could put him on it.

“I don’t see how anybody could be a sportswriter if you don’t vote for Burleson.”

Well, the ACC media selected Elmore as the top center in the league, and Sloan clipped a newspaper report where Elmore said something to the effect that it proved he was the league’s best center.

Sloan put that clipping in Burleson’s locker just before the 1974 ACC Championship game in Greensboro. Burleson, just like he did in the second half against Carolina a few weeks before, went off, scoring 38 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and earning his second consecutive tournament most valuable player award.

It remains one of the greatest performances in tournament history in a game that is remembered as the greatest college basketball game ever played.

Two weeks later, Burleson’s defense shut down Walton in the national semifinals and he was an integral part of the title game win over Marquette.

None of it would have happened, however, if he hadn’t gotten that game ball against Carolina.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].