I was reminded why I resented Jim Valvano so much.

The ACC Tournament documentary is about half over, and the segment with the 1982 and ’83 seasons was almost a love and hate story for Carolina fans, including me. After coming home from six Final Fours without the national championship, Dean Smith finally won it all with one of the greatest teams ever assembled. Think about it.

Junior James Worthy, sophomore Sam Perkins and freshman Michael Jordan, with excellent role players Jimmy Black and Matt Doherty. When they cut down the nets at the Superdome, it was like all Tar Heels fans had crossed the desert and the Red Sea had parted.

Meanwhile, N.C. State had replaced Stormin’ Norman Sloan, who might have never cracked a joke in his life, with stand-up comedian Jim Valvano. Coming from a tiny school in New York, he would introduce himself by saying “Jim Valvano, Iona College.” People would respond, “Son, you’re too young to own a college.”

He knew he couldn’t beat Dean Smith, so he said, “I don’t plan to outcoach him, I plan to outlive him.” Unfortunately, that did not turn out to be a joke. But the year after Smith’s first title, Valvano won his first and only, and the way he did Carolina fans weren’t laughing.

Sure, Worthy was gone, but Perkins was still there, and Jordan had elevated his game to win National Player of the Year. Savvy point guard Black had graduated, but there was still enough firepower to at least win a third straight ACC tournament championship.

The Tar Heels played Valvano’s Wolfpack in the semifinals in Atlanta and led most of the way before State rallied to force overtime. They led by six points, when Jimmy V started fouling Carolina for a chance to shoot experimentally short 3-pointers on the other end. Brad Daugherty, Curtis Hunter and Jimmy Braddock missed three straight one-and-ones, and the Pack pulled off the shocker.

If State hadn’t won the ACC tournament it wouldn’t have even made the Big Dance. But Valvano’s Cinderella team took home the NCAA championship with six more improbable wins, and somehow that seemed to cheapen Smith’s long quest for his NCAA banner.

That’s why I didn’t like it then and still don’t like it now.

 

Photo via WRAL TV.

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