Survive and Advance - 1983 NC State Win

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Sparlimb

Sparlimb

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Watched another 30 for 30 tonight (ESPN Documentary) and it was on the 1983 run by NC State. That championship game against Houston was the beginning of my love for college basketball. First time I remember seeing a real underdog that I was cheering for slay the dragon.

What I didn't realize was that NC State wasn't even supposed to make the NCAA tournament as they finished the regular season 17-10 and had to win the ACC tournament to even get to the dance. They beat both North Carolina (with MJ) and Virginia (with Ralph Sampson) to punch their ticket and then went through some amazing teams to win it all (including a 30-2 UNLV team) and Virginia again.

Anyway, I've been real impressed with the 30 for 30 series (Don't know Bo was excellent), but this one has been the best so far. So if you are an old fart like me or just want to see some real history, give it a look. And all the Jimmy Valvano speaking moments are fantastic. That guy knew how to work a crowd...
 

I agree, a lot of the 30 for 30 films are great, and the basketball ones are the very best, IMO. Without Bias (Len Bias) and Once Brothers (Divac and Petrovic) are my two favorites. The Hank Gathers one was really good too.

Survive and Advance was good, but I was a kid really rooting for Phi Slamma Jamma as were all of my friends. The three biggest things the film reminded me of were how different and IMO boring the game was without a shot clock, all the pressure FT's at the end of games with everything being 1 and 1, and that Valvano was forced out because of NCAA violations in the program. Frankly it seems like it was a dirty program, but nobody remembers that because of Valvano's cancer fight.
 

Sparlimb said:
Watched another 30 for 30 tonight (ESPN Documentary) and it was on the 1983 run by NC State. That championship game against Houston was the beginning of my love for college basketball. First time I remember seeing a real underdog that I was cheering for slay the dragon.

What I didn't realize was that NC State wasn't even supposed to make the NCAA tournament as they finished the regular season 17-10 and had to win the ACC tournament to even get to the dance. They beat both North Carolina (with MJ) and Virginia (with Ralph Sampson) to punch their ticket and then went through some amazing teams to win it all (including a 30-2 UNLV team) and Virginia again.

Anyway, I've been real impressed with the 30 for 30 series (Don't know Bo was excellent), but this one has been the best so far. So if you are an old fart like me or just want to see some real history, give it a look. And all the Jimmy Valvano speaking moments are fantastic. That guy knew how to work a crowd...
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That was my senior year of high school. I distinctly remember watching NC State's first-round game vs. Pepperdine on a grainy back & white TV in my bedroom. That was back in the day when all the games weren't available on TV and CBS offered that game as it's late-night (West Coast) offering. NC State had no business winning that game, but they kept sending Pepperdine to the free-throw line, and the Waves kept missing. Not sure, but I think after that game is when Jimmy V coined his "survive and advance" mantra.
 

Thinking back, it is also pretty amazing how talented the ACC was at the time. I suppose all of basketball since Houston had two first ballot NBA hall of famers on their team as well. It was mentioned in the documentary how you faced an amazing player back then when he was a freshman and you still saw him 3 more years. The glory days of basketball in my eyes. Both college and pro basketball was so much better through the mid 90's. Then it all went to potential and no fundamentals...
 

Let us also not forget Rollie Massimino's Villanova upset of the highly rated Georgetown team in 1985.
 



Dr.Don said:
Let us also not forget Rollie Massimino's Villanova upset of the highly rated Georgetown team in 1985.
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NC State made me watch, and Villanova kept me going. Then Duke happened...
 

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