On Feb. 14, NC State men’s basketball head coach Mark Gottfried attempted to silence critics at his media availability by mentioning the 1983 championship team, saying “That team wasn’t going anywhere.” This is the latest in a long line of excuses from Gottfried, and while a championship victory is technically still possible for the Wolfpack, the coach’s statement is far from an accurate comparison.
On Feb. 19, 1983 the Wolfpack hosted archrival UNC-Chapel Hill inside Reynolds Coliseum, coming off a 90-69 win against UNC-Wilmington on Feb. 16. Going into this game, Jim Valvano’s Cardiac Pack was without senior guard and captain Dereck Whittenburg due to a foot injury sustained on Jan. 12. Whittenburg’s record makes the starters on this year’s roster look like a high school team; his 3-point percentage of 47.6 in ‘83 is unparalleled and he holds the honor of top scorer in that year’s tournament, with 120 points. Even without Whit’s dominating presence, the Bell Tower lit up red on Feb. 19, thanks in part to the on-court leadership from senior co-captains Sydney Lowe and Thurl Bailey – a former NC State coach and a first-round NBA draft pick, respectively. Coach V and his ‘83 team were strong enough to survive and advance without one of their best players; Gottfried’s coaching history doesn’t inspire the same level of confidence.
The ‘83 team’s previous matchup against UNC ended in a 99-81 loss, the first in a three-game losing streak followed by Wake Forest and Memphis State before bouncing back in a win against Duke (with Coach K actually coaching). Before hosting the Tar Heels, the Pack had a 14-8 record (5-4 ACC). Of those eight losses, five came to ranked opponents. The Wolfpack had only lost three games to unranked opponents, and only one of those losses was at home, when State fell 43-42 to Notre Dame in Reynolds.
NC State’s current team will be coming off a five-game losing streak with a record of 14-12 (3-10 ACC). On Jan. 11, the Pack gave ACC bottom feeder Boston College a 74-66 win. The last time it faced UNC, the team limped down I-40 East carrying the burden of an unprecedented 51-point loss that even a victory at Duke couldn’t make up for. Virginia Tech and Duke are the only ranked teams who haven’t throttled the Pack, and the last three games in PNC Arena have ended in embarrassment. In its most recent game, NC State handed Wake Forest a 30-point victory. These point differences were unheard of in ‘83, when State held its opponents to no more than 18-point deficits in its harshest losses on the road at UNC and Wake Forest.
In 2017, the Wolfpack has won three of the 12 games it’s played. The Pack is currently on the bottom tier of the ACC about to face the best the conference has to offer, and Mark Gottfried’s strategy seems to be calling on the memory of Jimmy V to bless his team with a victory.
That 1983 Wolfpack didn’t have a record that was barely above .500, and it had an overall winning conference record when it played UNC in Reynolds. It bounced back from its road loss at UNC and won; that’s what makes that team so memorable, its ability to turn around and win. It certainly wasn’t “going nowhere,” and Gottfried is doing a disservice to the ‘83 team by trying to play off his failing season as a similar underdog moment. Gottfried is no Jimmy V, and his mediocre season is nothing like the Cinderella run that brought NC State to its last NCAA Championship. Before he asks for faith and confidence from Wolfpack fans by invoking its greatest tournament victory, Gottfried needs to reconsider how his season holds up against the great Jim Valvano and the 1983 champions.
