The 1.4 billion people in China are all NBA basketball fans. But not many of them care about the U.S. college basketball games. My father was a lifelong basketball fan. He played for Soochow University in Shanghai as a guard. When the family moved to Taiwan, he took my brother and I to many basketball games when he was able to get tickets.
In August 1972, I came to Raleigh to study at North Carolina State University. By October, the school newspaper and my classmates began to talk about the men’s basketball team. Three names came up most frequently: David Thompson, Tommy Burleson and Monte Towe. They did not mean anything to me yet — after all, NC State was 16-10 in the 1971-72 season.
I guessed that everyone had high hopes for this team. In the 1972-73 preseason poll, NC State ranked No. 8 overall. All students were excited after the poll came out. Students could get free tickets to ball games. So, a number of us friends took turns to wait in line for long hours to get tickets. After seeing a few games in person, I was totally immersed in the atmosphere of ACC basketball. In the 25 regular season games, NC State had scored over 100 points nine times. It was really joyful to watch these high flying, gun-and-run games.
Basketball really became the talk of the town in week eight. NC State ranked No. 2, Maryland No. 3 and UNC-Chapel Hill No. 4. It was the first time three ACC teams ranked within the top five. The University of California at Los Angeles was still unanimous No. 1, as it had been for the last three years.
By March, NC State had stayed undefeated 25-0 into the ACC tournament. We were all poor students. Fortunately, we had a friend who worked and had a house. We all gathered at his house and watched Wake Forest upset UNC-Chapel Hill. Then, Maryland knocked off Wake Forest.
It was No. 8 vs No. 2. It was a very close game all the way through. NC State defeated Maryland, 76–74, to win the championship. Maryland had a very tall front line: 6-foot-11 Tom McMillen and 6-foot-9 Len Elmore. Tom was the best high school basketball player in the nation when Maryland recruited him. Then Tommy Burleson was named the tournament MVP.
Thanks to the internet and YouTube, I was able to relive and watch the entire game again. NC State was banned from post-tournament games because of recruiting violations. NC State would have gone as far as Maryland had reached in the NCAA tournament, but Maryland lost in the East Regional final to Providence. They never reached the Final Four. So, it was never proven how far NC State could have reached in the 1973 NCAA tournament.
For the first time, the nation had two undefeated college men’s basketball teams. It was the perfect opportunity for commercial promotion. UCLA had won seven straight NCAA championships and were on a winning streak of 75, both records that still stand today. With no team able to dominate the college basketball field for more than two years in the modern era, these records are unlikely to be broken. Another factor is that more talented players turn pro now after only one year in college. For UCLA, their reign began with Lewis Alcindor — now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — in the center from 1966 to 1969. Then, Bill Walton from 1971 to 1974.
On Dec. 1, 1973, UCLA beat then No. 4 Maryland by one point, 65-64. The whole nation was watching to see if NC State could stop UCLA. On Dec. 15, 1973, the two teams met in St. Louis, Missouri, in a nationally televised game.
From the very beginning, Bill Walton was in foul trouble. He sat out for 21 minutes and seven seconds. But NC State was not able to pull away. The score was tied at 54-54 with 9:53 to go in the second half. When Bill returned to the court, UCLA scored nine straight points to an 84-66 victory.
With that loss, NC State dropped to No. 5 in the AP poll. Meanwhile, UCLA lost to Notre Dame on Jan. 19, 1974, who were ironically also their last defeat in January of 1971. In February, UCLA lost two straight games to Oregon State and Oregon. Since their loss, NC State had remained undefeated and climbed to No. 1 ranking in the AP poll on Feb. 18, 1974.
In the 1974 ACC championship tournament, No. 4 Maryland defeated No. 6 UNC in the second round, 105-85. Then it was No. 1 NC State (25-1) and No. 4 Maryland (23-4) again in the championship game. It was, again, a very close game. The score was tied at 97 in the regular season. NC State won it in overtime, 103-100.
It was widely regarded as the best college basketball game ever until Duke beat Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA East Regional final, 104–103.
“I know they call the Duke–Kentucky game the greatest now,” Burleson said in 1999 at a 25-year commemoration of the 1974 game. “But we’re still the greatest ACC game ever.”
At that time, only the champion team from each conference could go to the NCAA tournament. Maryland shot 65% and still lost the game. They ranked No. 4 but had to sit out. That led to the expansion of the NCAA tournament to 32 teams in 1975, followed by a major expansion to 64 teams in 1985. The creation of March Madness turned out to be a huge commercial success. People in every corner of the country feel personally involved. Tens of thousands of office pools are formed every season.
On March 23, 1974, No. 1 NC State, East Region Champion and No. 2 UCLA, West Region Champion, met again in Greensboro, North Carolina, in the semi-final. NC State was considered to have a home court advantage.
We could not afford the tournament tickets and, like a million Americans, watched the game on TV. The coliseum had a sold-out crowd of 15,829.
The game was tightly contested — tied at halftime, end of regulation and through the first overtime. UCLA grabbed a seven-point lead in the second overtime, where it began to look like the championship run was over for the Wolfpack.
Jump-started by two made free throws from Towe, NC State began their comeback. Following a made UCLA free throw, Thompson scored a field goal before Tom Burleson scored an and-one, cutting the UCLA lead to a single point.
UCLA’s Dave Meyers missed a one-and-one free throw, allowing Thompson to capitalize again and give the Wolfpack the lead with 53 seconds left. Nineteen seconds later, Thompson put the game away with two foul shots that finally put UCLA away.
I watched the entire game again on YouTube. I still embraced all the excitement as I did 50 years ago.
Thompson scored 28 points and snagged 10 rebounds. He held UCLA All-American Jamaal Wilkes to 15 points. Burleson added 20 points and 14 boards while having to guard Walton all night. Walton scored 29 points and grabbed 18 rebounds while playing all 50 minutes.
Two days later, NC State beat Marquette 76-64 behind 21 points from Thompson for the NCAA crown.
I played basketball at the school gym when I went to NC State. One of the friends I met was a senior from Iran. He told me his first three years were at UCLA. Then he transferred to NC State for the last year in 1974. What a lucky guy!
Que sera, sera; the future’s not ours to see. Forty-nine years later, I became a volunteer to the 2023 NCAA Final Four.
