1982–83 NC State Wolfpack men's basketball team

The Wolfpack entered the season ranked in the Top 20 and entered conference play ranked #19 in the nation. Their first conference game was against Virginia, ranked #2 in the country at the time and undefeated against the Wolfpack's senior class. NC State took a lead early behind the shooting of guard and senior captain Dereck Whittenburg, but later in the game Whittenburg went down with a broken foot after landing on a Virginia player Othell Wilson's foot following a shot. He would miss the rest of the game and the seventeen that followed, with the Wolfpack losing to Virginia and going 10–7 in the other games.

NC State entered the ACC Tournament in Atlanta with ten losses. The NCAA had expanded the men's tournament field from 48 teams to 52 for 1983, meaning that there were four extra spots available for potential qualifiers. Still, with a 64-team field some years away from being implemented, there was not much room for error for the Wolfpack with double-digit losses and their safest bet to reach the tournament was to secure the ACC champion's automatic bid. They did just that, winning three games in the tournament to claim the title. In the process, NC State defeated Wake Forest, their in-state rival North Carolina, the defending national champions, and managed to finally defeat #2 Virginia to claim the title.

On Selection Sunday, NC State found out it would be playing in the West Region of the tournament as the number six seed. This region presented the Wolfpack with a potentially difficult road to the Final Four. All four of the top seeds in the region were ranked within the top 11 in the final polls and three of those schools had spent time as the top ranked team in the nation. Virginia, their conference rival and ranked #4 after the Wolfpack defeated them, was placed in the region as its number one seed. The second seed was Larry Farmer's UCLA Bruins, which had spent most of the season near the top five in the polls and finished ranked #7. The third seed was the PCAA champion, Jerry Tarkanian's UNLV Runnin' Rebels, which had won its first twenty-four games before losing and finished at #6 with 28 victories. In addition, all three of these squads had spent time at number one.

Unlike today's tournament, which tends to place higher seeded teams closer to their home for the first weekend of the tournament, all of the four regions took place within their specific geographical area of the country. As the #6 seed in the West Region, the Wolfpack were sent to Corvallis, Oregon to play in the sub-regional games at Oregon State University's Gill Coliseum. There, in their first matchup, they played the #11 seeded team, West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine, for the right to face UNLV in the second round (as part of the tournament structure at the time, the top four seeds in each region were given byes to the second round). The Wolfpack rallied late to force overtime and then forced a second overtime before emerging victorious. They then stunned UNLV by winning 71-70 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

The West Regional was held at the Dee Events Center at what is now Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. The Wolfpack won easily over Western Athletic Conference champion Utah, the #10 seed whose coach Jerry Pimm led them to an upset of UCLA in Corvallis. This set up a rematch between NC State and Virginia, who toppled #4 seeded Boston College, led by future national championship winner Gary Williams, in the other regional semifinal. For the third time in four games, NC State emerged with a close victory, winning 62-61 after Virginia star Ralph Sampson missed a shot as time expired.

At the Final Four in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Wolfpack finished off their run to the championship game by defeating Georgia in the semifinals on Saturday, which set up a matchup with top-ranked and heavily-favored Houston on Monday night at The Pit. During this run, N.C. State earned the nickname "Cardiac Pack" based in part on their "Wolfpack" mascot and the series of close games that took them to the title.

Head coach Jim Valvano was noted for employing a then-little used strategy late in games. The NCAA had yet to adopt a shot clock for college basketball, and as the games wore on some teams were just content to keep possession of the ball late in games to protect a lead, passing the ball around until the clock hit zero. Valvano would instruct his players to intentionally foul opposing players, thus putting them on the free-throw line. While this strategy was risky, as it allowed NC State's opponents a chance to increase their lead, it enabled the Wolfpack to extend the game as each foul stopped the clock and the team could also capitalize if the opponents missed their free throws. They used this to great effect in the ACC tournament, including against rival North Carolina and Virginia, and employed it again in four of their six NCAA victories. Nowhere was the strategy more widely seen, however, than in the national championship game.

In the final game on April 4 in Albuquerque, NC State led at halftime by a score of 33–25. Houston was hampered by foul trouble that plagued star Clyde Drexler, who picked up three fouls within the first few minutes. Drexler begged to remain in the game, but was forced to come out after Wolfpack sophomore guard Terry Gannon drew a charging foul on him. The foul was controversial as replays showed that Gannon appeared to grab Drexler's legs as he went down, and Drexler believed the foul should have gone against Gannon and not him (Gannon later said that Drexler never forgot the call; in the ESPN documentary about the team, he told his teammates that years later, by which time he had become a sports broadcaster, Gannon saw Drexler in the locker room at the 1991 NBA All-Star Game and once Drexler found out who he was he instantly cursed him out over the foul).

In the second half, the Cougars came out with a second wind and established control of the game. With Cougars coach Guy Lewis shifting his focus to getting center Hakeem Olajuwon the basketball on offense, using the advantage he had over NC State's big men Lorenzo Charles and Cozell McQueen, Houston outscored the Wolfpack 17–2 in the first ten minutes of the half to give themselves a 42–35 lead.

However, things were not all good for Houston. Albuquerque is located in the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico and has an elevation of 5,100-foot (1,550 m). Thus, as is the case with other high-altitude cities, athletes are tested by the effects of the elevation as well as their own physical capabilities. One of the players most affected by the altitude change was Olajuwon, who had taken on an increased workload to try and get his team back in the game. Eventually, Coach Lewis had to take Olajuwon out of the game so he could take oxygen and recover. He then decided that in order to preserve his star center's health, the Cougars needed to start slowing the game down. Thus, he called for his "Locomotion" offensive set to be put into play. This meant that instead of driving to the basket every possession, Houston would pass the ball around to wind down the clock before passing to one of the designated scorers.

The move, however, failed for two reasons. One, it deviated from Houston's strength by abandoning their strategy of pushing the ball up the court. Second, it enabled Valvano to go to his fallback option of extending the game by fouling. Exacerbating the situation was the fact that Houston, as high powered offensively as it was, had not been a strong free-throw shooting team during the season. As such, the Wolfpack were able to both force the Cougars into mistakes and take advantage of the missed free throws to chip away at Houston's advantage. NC State outscored Houston 17–10 in the eight minutes that followed and tied the game at 52.

On what would be Houston's last possession, Valvano called for his defenders to sit back and let Cougars point guard Alvin Franklin advance the ball and begin passing it around. Lewis wanted to keep the ball in the hands of Drexler and sophomore forward Reid Gettys, his two best foul shooters, to try and force them to foul either one of those two players and for anyone else to quickly give it up once they had the ball. Valvano instead wanted Franklin, a freshman, to take the shots and instructed his players to foul him once he got the ball back. Franklin received the ball with 1:05 left but instead of immediately passing it, as he had done already on the play, he held the ball for an additional second. Wolfpack senior point guard Dereck Whittenburg took advantage of Franklin's momentary lapse in concentration and committed the foul to send Franklin, a 63% free throw shooter, to the line for a one-and-one. The idea, as later stated by Whittenburg and fellow senior Thurl Bailey years later, was to not only put a poor foul shooter on the line but force Franklin, as the youngest starter on the squad, to face the enormity of the moment with a sellout crowd at The Pit and millions of viewers watching at home. Whatever the idea may have ultimately been, it worked as Franklin missed the shot. NC State took the rebound and with 44 seconds on the clock, Valvano called a time out and drew up a final play for his point guard Whittenburg to take the last shot.

Houston, meanwhile, needed a defensive stop to extend the game. Lewis decided to move from the man-to-man defense his team had been running the whole game to a half court trap with Benny Anders as the point man, with the goal being to force NC State to spread the ball around and force a turnover. The Wolfpack, who were not expecting the defensive adjustment, were forced to deviate and began passing the ball around just to keep the Cougars from stealing it. Houston nearly got the turnover it was looking for when Whittenburg made an errant pass to Gannon that Drexler nearly came away with before the sophomore regained control. The ball eventually found its way to Sidney Lowe, who found Bailey standing in the lower left-hand corner of the court and passed it his way so he could take the shot. Bailey, however, wanted no part of Lowe's idea as he had not had a good half shooting the ball and began looking back toward Whittenburg. With a pair of defenders on him, Bailey threw what his teammate later called a "poor fundamental" overhand pass that Anders could easily have stolen.

At that moment Whittenburg harkened back to his high school days with Morgan Wootten at DeMatha Catholic High School in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. One thing Wootten always taught his players was that when receiving the ball, bring it in with both hands. As Anders went for the ball, Whittenburg was able to put that lesson to use and by getting his other hand on the ball, he was able to get more control of it and prevent Anders from knocking it away. Anders was only able to get his fingertips on the ball, which temporarily stripped the ball from Whittenburg but did not enable him to take it away. Had Anders been able to steal, he would have likely had an uncontested breakaway to the other end of the court where he could have easily dunked the ball and given the Cougars the lead. Since the rules of the day dictated that the entire game be played with a running clock, the Wolfpack would most likely not have been able to get the ball up the court in time for a potential tying shot.

When Whittenburg regained control, five seconds were showing on the clock and he turned to try to get some sort of shot off from his position thirty-five feet from the goal. While the shot was in line with the basket, Whittenburg had not gotten enough on it and the ball was going to come up well short. At the foot of the goal stood Olajuwon and Wolfpack center Lorenzo Charles, who watched Whittenburg's air ball. Olajuwon hesitated briefly, as he was in position to grab the ball and likely force overtime but did not want to jump too soon and be called for goaltending. Charles took advantage of the hesitation and went up for the errant shot. With two seconds left on the clock Charles took the ball and drove it through the hoop with two hands for the decisive score and gave the Wolfpack its first national championship since 1974.

The team's story was chronicled in "Survive and Advance", an episode in the ESPN 30 for 30 series. Dereck Whittenburg produced the documentary and was one of several players who appeared in it, alongside his teammates Thurl Bailey, Sidney Lowe, Terry Gannon, Cozell McQueen, and Ernie Myers. Valvano's widow, Pam Valvano Strasser, also appears in the documentary as do several of his assistants. Hakeem Olajuwon, David Rose, and Reid Gettys of the defeated Houston squad also appear to offer their take on their loss, as do then-North Carolina assistant Roy Williams and then-Pepperdine coach Jim Harrick, whose teams were defeated in the ACC and NCAA tournaments by the Wolfpack. Mike Krzyzewski is also featured prominently in the film, describing how his relationship with Valvano (who started at NC State the same year Krzyzewski took over at Duke) evolved over the years from an adversarial one to one where the two men became close friends.

In addition to the 1982–83 team's season (and their 30-year reunion, which is marked by the absence of the recently deceased Lorenzo Charles), Valvano's career after that season is a major focal point, including the scandal that led to his resignation from NC State in 1990.

The emotional impact Valvano's cancer diagnosis had on his players and coaches is also heavily featured. In addition to Valvano's famous speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards, special attention is paid to his appearance at the ceremony honoring the 1982–83 team held several weeks earlier. Valvano had not been expected to attend, partly due to his illness but also to lingering bad feelings present from his forced resignation three years earlier. However, in what would prove to be the last time many of his players would see him, Valvano made his appearance toward the end of the ceremony and spoke to the crowd about how the team never gave up and how it inspired him to continue his fight against cancer.

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