Life and Death on Tobacco Road : The ACC Tournament Turns Best and Brightest Into Zanies

At seven minutes past noon on an overcast Friday, moments from the start of that little bit of heaven and hell known as the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament, the Duke and Virginia student bodies, who agree on precious little else, start chanting an impolite suggestion about the University of North Carolina.

The Duke mascot is wearing a piece of tape around his foam rubber size-20 Blue Devil head. On it is a week-old result:

“Duke 82 UNC 74.”

Or as NBC’s Al McGuire, as improbable as it sounds, a former North Carolina resident, says: “When those teams beat Dean like they did the last two weeks, they go on a Mardi Gras. It’s not a short party. It’s not a two-day party.”

Dean Smith and his Tar Heels aren’t even in the arena at the moment. Of course, they don’t have to wake up early to be here at noon. They’ll play in the featured 9 p.m. game.

The Dukies are just tuning up. Since 95% of ACC tournament tickets are reserved for boosters--around here, a $10,000 donation will make you a respectable booster--this is only a token force from the Duke student body.

The rest of the 3,000-humanoid Big Blue Zoo Crew is back in Durham, presumably throwing things at TV sets. Those prized young minds, being trained in such things as policy studies that they might keep this country great, are looking for new and meaner epithets for ACC opponents. It may be a down year for players and teams, but as long as the Duke student body can get hold of 100 tickets, there’ll always be a college basketball.

Inevitably, the Virginia and Duke students turn on one another.

“Lefty went to Duke!” the Virginia students chant. Lefty Driesell, the Maryland coach, affects a country bumpkin style which is not the height of fashion at Duke.

“Terry played for Lefty!” respond the Dukies. Virginia Coach Terry Holland played for Driesell at Davidson.

“Nixon went to Duke!” answers Virginia. Richard Nixon, a former U.S. President, attended Duke Law School.

And we’re still a few minutes from tipoff. So what if none of this means anything?

Six ACC teams have NCAA tournament bids locked up. In the halcyon pre-1975 days, only one of them would be getting out of here alive, if barely, and they’d be getting ready to let some serious blood.

Now the NCAA admits 64 teams, some with hyphens in their names. This affair, then, is reduced to Son of ACC Tournament, a gathering of the clans to celebrate some eternal truths: We love our basketball; we really love to bust each others’ chops; what we love above all else is hating Carolina.

Besides, this is an ACC season. Forget last year’s humiliation, three teams from that upstart Big East in the Final Four. The ACC has three of the top six ranked teams. Last year, Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova were 1-3-unranked going into the NCAA. Four of the top six finishers for the John Wooden Award were from the ACC.

But it still isn’t like the old days, when Duke’s Art Heyman hit an opposing male cheerleader; or South Carolina’s John Ribock decked Driesell, and Ribock’s coach, Frank McGuire, reviewed the films the next day and announced that Lefty must have hit himself; or when Wake Forest’s Dave Budd punched out two N.C. State players, and the ACC commissioner suspended him from the tournament, and the ACC athletic directors overruled the commissioner.

They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. . .

INTERLUDE: OBLIGATORY HISTORY LESSON

Who knows why it happened? Everyone knows when it started, 1947, when North Carolina State brought in Everett Case, an Indiana high school coach.

The local powers welcomed the new attraction. The Reynolds tobacco family built Case a 12,400-seat arena, huge at the time. Case brought in Indiana players and prospered, prompting North Carolina to hire an even more prominent ringer, Frank McGuire of St. John’s.

Frank McGuire later went to South Carolina, which later left the ACC, but in 1957, he and his underground railway load of New York Tar Heels stunned Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain in a three-overtime NCAA finale. It was the first game televised in the Carolinas. After that, McGuire, UNC, and basketball were kings for life. Well, almost for life.

One of McGuire’s proteges was Al, no relation, who had played for him at St. John’s. Frank got Al a job at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C. Cultures may have been colliding, but in North Carolina, they make exceptions for hoops.

“There’s been a bust-out for the South in the last 25 years,” Al said. “When I went down there, 1958 or ‘59, the gas stations sold beer. They had the shade-tree mechanics, fixing cars under a tree. It was just starting to move into the postwar boom. There were very limited Catholics.

“In those days, the tendency was for top players to leave home. In New York, there were three or four schools, but there was something about lying in the grass in front of the library. There was always the picture of the southern schools: the grass, a water fountain shooting in the air. And it was halfway to Fort Lauderdale. You didn’t have to drive too far for Easter.

“The ACC always had exposure. TV always does your recruiting. That’s what hurts you out in California. You people can’t carpetbag and everyone carpetbags you because nobody sees you play (since West Coast games start too late to be shown in the East). Look at those two guys going to Syracuse (L.A. guards Stevie Thompson and Earl Duncan). What’d Syracuse do, send ‘em slides? They must have visited the campus on July 8.

“The ACC doesn’t need a network. They can get their own sponsors. They can get exposure in their area. It’s so big, so established.

“But a guy like me, anybody in his right mind, you couldn’t pay me enough money to coach there. Because you can’t get away from it. You go to the playground, you go hunting, any place you go, that’s all they talk about.

“I have a great problem working games in the ACC. Anything you say, it’s, ‘You don’t like us. You’re favoring this one. You’re playing with my chain.’

“And it’s not an act. I lived there seven years. It’s not something that happened the last 15 years.

“It’s just a unique situation. The only other unique situation in basketball is Lexington (home of the University of Kentucky). Everywhere else, they play, they pack their arenas, they think they’re No. 1.

“ACC tournament tickets are so hard to come by. And the damn thing doesn’t mean anything!

“You know who this thing’s for? Clemson, Wake Forest and maybe Maryland. The other teams are already in. We’re going to pack the arena 1-2-3-4 times, do a network show that won’t even be seen in that area. They’ve got their own show.”

CAROLINA BLUES

It’s an all-world comment-off: Al McGuire for NBC, Billy Packer and Billy Cunningham for the regional telecasts, Dick Vitale for ESPN, all gathered for the Friday night finale, North Carolina vs. Maryland.

Two weeks ago, Carolina was No. 1 in the nation, before injuries led to three losses in four games. Two weeks later, Smith has had his streak of 19 straight first- or second-place ACC finishes broken.

Of course, the Tar Heels are expected to bounce back.

“Everyone is talking Maryland,” says Vitale before the game. “I’m looking for North Carolina to win by double figures.”

What more can be said about the Tar Heels? The school is respected, the campus beautiful, the program beyond reproach. Smith is right up there in the running for best coach working. He’s a stand-up guy, who pushed integration decades ago in an area where that wasn’t politic.

Personally self-effacing, he fought having the school’s new 21,444-seat arena named after him. It was, anyway, and is now known informally as the Deandome. His players flock back to Chapel Hill to be near him.

“I play golf with him during the summer,” says Billy Cunningham, UNC class of ’65. “He’s just a great guy to be around.”

So why does he bug so many people?

Al McGuire: “If people dislike Dean, and a lot do, obviously, it’s because of his efficiency. What you’re always doing with Dean--and I find myself doing it now and then--is looking for a chink in the armor.

“He’s forced a lot of those coaches out of there. I can get in trouble for saying that, but I think it’s true. No matter how good you get, no matter how hard you work, his program is still out in front of your program.”

Half the ACC coaches were once said to have hated Smith. State’s Norm Sloan was supposedly No. 1. Sloan won as many NCAA titles as Smith did--one--but hit the rip cord and bailed out to Florida.

Virginia’s Terry Holland had a dog named Dean. Holland also once asked, “Why is the Dean Smith I read about so different from the Dean Smith I know?”

Smith has worse problems. If losing guard Steve Hale derailed the Tar Heels, putting Hale back in the lineup doesn’t make everything the way it was.

Maryland--Len Bias and four coat-holders--destroys Carolina, 85-75. The Tar Heels have a lineup in which only one man, center Brad Daugherty, looks as if he wants to shoot the ball. Point guard Kenny Smith seems terrified of anything longer than a layup.

The Tar Heels, renowned for their poise, come apart at the seams. Daugherty tries to fight Maryland’s Derrick Lewis. Smith has to step in front of his center, personally. Long-time Carolina admirers, like Vitale, sit at press row and shake their heads.

OK, it’s time to see how they handle the agony of defeat.

In the press room, Smith congratulates Maryland, acknowledges disappointment, says he could have coached better. These are about the last gracious things he says.

He points out that several Tar Heels are injured.

“Just think, he was down to 10 high school All-Americans,” says a writer.

No one seems to want to come to grips with the horror show that has just ended. A delicate question is broached:

Is Smith concerned about a slump?

“Well,” he says in that familiar Donald Duck voice that every writer between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta mimics, “we took a one-game loss at Duke. I’ll give you a one-game slump.”

This was the Tar Heels’ fourth loss in five games, but who’s counting?

Certainly no one in their locker room.

Kenny Smith says: “We just have to know who’s going to play. We get into situations where we have a game plan and then someone gets hurt. All of a sudden, we have to make changes.”

Writers later suggest headlines such as: “Injury Bugaboo Hits Tars Heels.” In the Greensboro paper the next day, there is a reference to Carolina as having been “snakebit.”

Daugherty suggests, without rancor, that this isn’t easy to endure--”all you guys grilling us, saying what happened, throwing stuff in your face. . .

“When you have so many injuries, you can’t do anything but struggle. But we’re doing a lot of the things we’re supposed to be doing. No, I don’t think we’re struggling.”

Huh?

The sun doesn’t always shine on the same puppy’s tail and this is Lefty Driesell’s day, at last.

The Terrapins started this ACC campaign 0-6, whereupon the scribes went for the picks and shovels in earnest. But a familiar bald head is poking above the horizon again.

Lefty, confident as ever, even did the right thing. When three players, among them co-captains Bias and Jeff Baxter, broke curfew after the big upset at State, he sent them home, even if it meant losing at Clemson the next night, which the Terrapins did.

“We won six of our last eight,” Lefty says at the press conference. “It would have been seven if mah boys had stayed in bed.”

On Day 2, the Blue Devil mascot comes out with a sign that says: “Another Carolina Choke.” The Dukies have been denied the greatest satisfaction of all, settling the Tar Heels’ hash, themselves. They’ll have to settle for parting insults.

The Duke students once referred to their own coach, Mike Krzyzewski (pronounced Shi- shef -ski) as the altar boy. He is 39, looks 19, and more like the student manager than the coach.

He is short, thin, with a cherubic face and a preppy wardrobe. When he was hired, a Maryland assistant confided that there was no way this kid was going to survive among these alligators.

Surprise. All you need to know about Krzyzewski is that he was Bob Knight’s first captain at Army. He’s another demon for aggressive man-to-man defense. Unlike Knight, he is soft-spoken and laughs readily.

He lost 17 games in each of his first two seasons, but turned the program around with his second recruiting class: Jay Bilas of Southern California’s Rolling Hills High; Mark Alarie of Scottsdale, Ariz.; Johnny Dawkins of Washington, D.C.

Bilas was the first to sign. The story goes that Krzyzewski watched his front line go scoreless in a loss at Maryland, then hopped a plane and flew to Los Angeles just to watch Bilas practice, since he wasn’t allowed to talk to him.

“At first, I was recruited by an assistant, Chuck Swenson,” Bilas says. “You want to see boyish? This guy’s like 5-4 and looks like he’s 15.

“I hate to say this but my dad like laughed. He said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ Basketball coaches are supposed to look like players. I had Lute Olson recruiting me, Jim Boeheim. . . .

“Coach K, every year the freshmen come in and they can’t wait to start practicing. They get out there the first time and Coach K starts yelling. They say, ‘This guy yells?’ Tommy Amaker couldn’t believe it.

“His voice is kinda squeaky, but he scares you. He’ll be standing there, talking to the team wearing those coaching shorts, and he’ll get goose bumps all over his legs. You can’t fake something like that.”

A funny thing happened on the way to the future predicted for them. As freshmen, Duke’s hot recruits were part of a team that lost 17 games.

As sophomores, they were upset in the NCAA’s Western bracket by Washington.

As juniors, they were stunned by Boston College after Dawkins had missed a key free throw. Their three-year totals: no ACC championships, no ACC tournament championships, no trips to the Final Four.

Bilas says: “At Washington we got (bleeped). They took time off the clock. Brent Musburger even said it the next day. He said it was a crime. They had some old guy from Washington on the clock and he forgot to shut it off. Then Johnny Dawkins went up for an alley oop and got his feet cut out from under him. . . .

“Maybe it’s all been for the best. Maybe we wouldn’t be as single-minded now if it hadn’t been for some of the things that happened.”

Greatness is expected to be demonstrated here. They have no trouble remembering that none of Ralph Sampson’s four Virginia teams won an ACC tournament. Sampson may be in the Hall of Fame some day and along Tobacco Road, they’ll still be shaking their heads and saying, “You know it’s funny. . . .”

In the ACC semifinals, Duke meets Virginia, a dubious pleasure. Virginia’s Holland took mucho heat when Sampson’s teams failed to reach a Final Four. But a year after Ralph left, Holland took an unsung Cavalier team to the semifinals in Seattle.

In this tournament, still-unsung Virginia, knocked off 20th-ranked N.C. State in the opener. By now, it’s hardly a surprise.

“They’re a very nice tournament team,” says N.C. State Coach Jim Valvano. “They’re the kind of team, the other teams comes in, they’re high-fiving, they’re jumping, they’re dunking lobs, they look up and Virginia is still within a point.”

Virginia has several decent players who do what they’re supposed to, and one interesting one, a 6-11 junior center named Olden Polynice, who is beginning to intrigue pro scouts. Polynice was born in Haiti but emigrated to New York with his parents.

His parents liked movies and named their sons after stars--Olden for William Holden. The H was lost somewhere in their transition game. Olden has a brother, Widmark.

Virginia leads Duke by seven points in the second half before losing. Holland goes off to plan other upsets.

CINDERELLA PLUS ONE

What happens after Cinderella marries the prince and settles down in the castle? She burns the toast and her hubby tells her the butler’s off, can she go out and bring the paper in.

A year ago, Georgia Tech beat North Carolina in the ACC tournament final before a packed Omni in Atlanta. It wound up losing in the East regional final to Patrick Ewing and Georgetown, but looked good enough to become this year’s preseason No. 1 pick.

This season everyone struggled, starting with the two senior stars: center John Salley, who fell from the top of the NBA draft halfway down the first round, and guard Mark Price, whose succession of bad-shooting big games continued.

Amazingly, Tech kept winning, although Coach Bobby Cremins moaned right through it, if engagingly. The team seems to fall in behind its dominant personalities who are cool, cool kitties from New York City--Cremins, Salley and guard Bruce Dalrymple.

This results in an endearing brashness. At Maryland, where Salley had a rare 22-point game, Dalrymple was asked if his teammate had been playing better.

“He couldn’t play any worse,” Dalrymple said.

By tournament time, Salley was playing better. The Yellow Jackets dumped Maryland in the semifinals, and gained the final against Duke.

The Duke students started up again, chanting “Grecian Formula!” for Cremins’ gray hair, “Oh No, Not Neal!” at reserve guard Craig Neal, “Nice Hairdo!” at a Tech co-ed with two-color punk-style hair, and “Nectar-Sucking Bleep!” at the Yellow Jackets’ bumblebee mascot, Buzz.

The game was close throughout. With 1:03 left, Oh No Not Neal, who had taken two shots all day, drove right through the heart of Duke’s proud defense for a layup that put Tech up, 65-64.

But Alarie drilled a post-up jumper from the base line to regain the lead. The Blue Devils then cut off Price when he tried to penetrate, forcing him to throw the ball off to Neal, open in the corner.

Neal was very short on a 20-footer. That about did it.

There were long faces amid the Yellow Jackets, even if they didn’t stay long for long.

Neal began to joke about how his father, a high school coach back home in Indiana, was going to be on him for choking.

“Now my little brother is going through it,” Neal said. “My father wanted me to go to Indiana or Purdue. I said, ‘That’s not going to happen. I’d have you around all the time.’ ”

“You didn’t choke,” Dalrymple told him, grinning. “If you’d missed the rim, I would have said you choked. What you should have done was go in and pulverize it.”

“Like the one I tried?” Neal asked. He had missed a dunk on a breakaway, pausing to let Amaker run under him, then slamming the ball into the rim instead of over it. It squirted all the way to the press table.

“Julius Erving,” Dalrymple said, laughing. “Missed the rim.”

Life goes on after the ACC tournament these days. Cremins went over to Alarie and told him nice shot.

Everyone congratulated everyone else and not a discouraging word was heard, outside the Duke student section, anyway.