March 9, 1974: N.C. State vs. Maryland Changes College Basketball

March 9, 1974: The Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Final is held at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is considered one of the greatest games in college basketball history.

North Carolina State University, coached by Norm Sloan, had an exceptional team, with forward David Thompson, a spectacular aerial player known as the "Skywalker," and this was 3 years before Star Wars premiered; Tom Burleson, a 7-foot-2 center that dominated the inside in the East as much as UCLA's Bill Walton was then doing in the West; and Tim Stoddard, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound forward who was also one of college baseball's best pitchers. 

The season before, N.C. State had gone 27-0, but, due to being on probation, were ineligible for the ACC regular-season title, the ACC Tournament, or the NCAA Tournament. This time, 3 games into the season, in a game broadcast nationally by ABC, ranked Number 2 in the country, they played Number 1 and 7-time defending National Champion UCLA, which hadn't lost in 2 1/2 years, on neutral ground at the St. Louis Arena, and got clobbered, 84-66.

They did not lose again. They beat Villanova and Memphis State to win the Sugar Bowl Tournament in New Orleans. They beat Number 4 North Carolina and Wake Forest to win the Big Four Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina. They beat Number 3 Maryland both home and away, and they beat Number 4 North Carolina both home and away. They returned to Greensboro for the ACC Tournament, and beat Virginia in the Semifinal.

Their opponents in the Final were the University of Maryland, whose mascot, the Terrapin, is a kind of turtle, but they had plenty of speed, and they sure came out of their shells. They were 23-4, and ranked Number 4 in the country. Head coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell -- he was lefthanded, but was nicknamed for country singer William "Lefty" Frizzell -- had Len Elmore and John Lucas, both of whom were First Team All-ACC; and Tom McMillen, who was on the 1972 Olympic team that got hosed against the Soviet Union.

In the regular season, N.C. State roared through the ACC, going 12-0, while Maryland finished 2nd, going 9-3. In the ACC Tournament, the "Terps" crushed both Duke and North Carolina, setting up this epic encounter.

It's important to note that, at the time, the NCAA Tournament only admitted 24 teams, and so only Conference Champions (and a few independents with exceptional won-loss records) got invited. So the winner of this game was in, and the loser was out. N.C. State hadn't won the ACC, and thus hadn't made the NCAA Tournament, since 1954; Maryland, since 1958. And these may have been the 2 best teams in the country, and 1 wasn't even going to be in the Tournament, when it was going to be better than maybe 23 out of the 24 in it. So the pressure to win this game was huge.

UPDATE: In an interview for the 50th Anniversary of this game, in 2024, Elmore said, "The absurdity that one of the top three teams in the nation was not going to be able to compete for a national championship wasn't lost on us. But that's what it was. For all of us seniors, this was our last chance. How much more do you need to motivate you?"

A national TV audience saw Maryland start out as if they were the more motivated team, taking a 14-5 lead. "Maryland fans have gone into pandemonium," said NBC's Jim Thacker, broadcasting with Billy Packer. The Terrapins extended their lead to 13 points, before the Wolfpack began to come back. By the half, they had cut it to 55-50 -- which could have been expected to be the final score.

The officials' calls seemed to be going State's way, and Driesell could be seen at courtside, getting more and more infuriated. Maryland ended up being awarded 18 fewer free throws. State took the lead, and, shortly thereafter, Elmore was called for goaltending, giving State a 64-61 lead.

With 4:41 left to play, another goaltending call, on Mo Howard (not the Three Stooges member) on a shot by Moe Rivers turned an 89-89 tie into a 91-89 Wolfpack lead. Thacker and Packer agreed that it was a clean block, and the referee had blown the call.

With 1 minute to go, an Elmore layup tied the game at 97-97. With no shot clock in college basketball, Sloan had State try to stall, and get the final shot. It didn't work: McMillen stole a pass with 37 seconds left. Now, Maryland could set up the final shot, but Lucas' shot at the buzzer was an airball.

Even when the Terps got free throws, it didn't help them much: With a little over 2 minutes left in overtime, they led by 1, but Lucas missed the front end of a one-and-one. This led to a layup by Phil Spence, giving State a 101-100 lead.

With 20 seconds left, Lucas threw a cross-court pass over Elmore’s outstretched hand and out of bounds. Monte Towe sank a pair of free throws with 6 seconds remaining to give the Wolfpack a 103-100 lead. With the 3-point line unavailable in the college game, that would be the final score.

The Terps were determined to shut Thompson down. He scored 29 points, but only 8 in the 2nd half and the overtime. Burleson led all scorers with 38, while McMillen and Howard each topped Maryland with 22.

"It's a shame there had to be a loser tonight," Packer said in the somber Maryland locker room. "I hope the NCAA sees the light pretty soon, and allows 2 or even 3 teams from the ACC to advance into the regionals if they meet the standards."

Maryland declined an invitation to the NIT after taking a team vote: "Our goal was to win the National Championship, and we didn't," Driesell said. "Anything now would be a letdown. We showed we were among the top two or three teams in the nation. That was enough."

A few days later, McMillen suggested that Maryland leave the ACC, in part because the conference tournament had been held in the Tar Heel State every year since its inception:

There are just too many odds against a non-North Carolina team in this league. Greensboro isn't a neutral court. Most of the fans are against you. Heck, they even booed us in the awards ceremony after we lost to State. For three years, I've seen what it is like to go down there and have the whole world against you. It's not basketball anymore. The mental strain is tremendous.

N.C. State had 2 home games in the Tournament, beating Number 5 Providence and Number 13 Pittsburgh, to get into the Final Four. And said Final Four? It was in Greensboro. In other words, the Wolfpack never had to play more than 82 miles from home.

But for the Semifinal, they would have to play Number 2 UCLA, who had won 9 of the last 10 National Championships under head coach Bill Walton. The last 2 of those were with center Bill Walton, who was still there. N.C. State won, 80-77 in double overtime. They followed that by beating Number 3 Marquette in the Final.

"We played UCLA two overtimes in the national semifinals, but the Maryland game was tougher," Sloan said in an interview in 1984.

For 1975, the NCAA expanded the Tournament to 32 teams. It was expanded to 40 in 1979, 48 in 1980, 52 in 1983, 64 in 1985, 65 with a play-in game in 2001, and 68 with a play-in round in 2011. The shot clock was introduced in the NCAA for the 1985-86 season; the 3-point field goal, for 1986-87.

In 1976, the ACC tournament was held at the Capital Centre, in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland, for the first time. Did it help Maryland? Not much: Despite being ranked Number 9 in the country, they lost the Semifinal to Virginia. But the move did hurt a North Carolina-based team, as Virginia upset Number 4-ranked UNC in the Final.

However, even with the various conference realignments to follow, Greensboro remained, roughly, the geographic midpoint of the ACC, so holding the Tournament there still made some sense. From 1977 to 2021, the ACC Tournament was held at Greensboro 21 times, in Charlotte (also in North Carolina) 10, in Atlanta 6, the Washington area 4, and in Brooklyn once.

In 2014, Maryland left the ACC for the Big Ten Conference. Their roadtrips got a lot longer: The only Big 10 school anywhere near them is Rutgers, who joined at the same time. Through the 2021 Tournament, Maryland has never won the Big 10's regular season title, and have never reached the Final of its Tournament. (UPDATE: Through the 2025 season, those facts remain true.)

In 1979, one of the N.C. State players, Tim Stoddard, was the winning pitcher in Game 4 of the World Series for the Baltimore Orioles. This made him the 1st man to appear in an NCAA basketball Final Four game and a World Series game.

He has since been joined only by Kenny Lofton, who reached the Final Four with Arizona in 1988, and the World Series with 3 different teams, the 1st being the Cleveland Indians in 1995.

And Maryland's Tom McMillen was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, from a district in the Washington suburbs. He lost his seat when district lines were redrawn for 1992.

UPDATE: The Greensboro Coliseum was renamed the First Horizon Coliseum in 2024.

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March 9, 1974 was a Saturday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 88-75 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Capital Bullets -- as the team now known as the Washington Wizards were known in their 1st season in the D.C. area -- beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 106-103 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

The Atlanta Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls, 106-99 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 106-96 at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 109-100 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The Utah Stars beat the Virginia Squires, 109-103 at the Hampton Coliseum, outside Norfolk in Hampton, Virginia.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat their arch-rivals, the Indiana Pacers, 113-108 in overtime at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* And the San Diego Conquistadors, with Wilt Chamberlain legally prevented from playing for them but allowed to coach them, beat the Denver Rockets, 100-96 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). After the season, both Chamberlain's contract with the Los Angeles Lakers and the injunction they sought ran out, but he'd had enough, and never worked for a pro basketball team again. Meanwhile, the Rockets, anticipating joining the NBA, who already had the Houston Rockets, changed their name to the Denver Nuggets.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-5 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Boston Bruins and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 4-4 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And there were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association: 

* The Chicago Cougars beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-4 in overtime at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the Quebec Nordiques, 9-5 at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* And the Houston Aeros beat the Toronto Toros, 4-2 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.