Jan. 9, 2008

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

Super Bowl Sunday has become something of a secular holiday. Pregame football analysis, the actual football game, lots of commercials, the postgame wrap-up... makes for a busy day. But those who find the pregame hype a bit too much can always find a college basketball game. And it's likely to be an ACC game.

We can thank C.D. Chesley for that. Last month I talked about how Chesley put together an ACC television network that became the envy of college basketball. By the early 1970s, Chesley was looking for new worlds to conquer. At the ACC's May 1972 meeting, he convinced the league that it was time to go national.

Sounds logical, but not for 1972. College basketball simply wasn't a national TV sport in the early 1970s. The 1968 Houston-UCLA contest had been a success but it didn't lead to much. Chesley thought he could do better. His bold proposal was to move the NC State at Maryland game to the Sunday of the Super Bowl game and augment the ACC network with as many stations as he could find. Colleges didn't play Sunday games in those days, either. But Chesley was a salesman with a track record and he convinced 145 stations all across the country to come on board.

The two teams certainly cooperated. North Carolina dominated the ACC in 1972 but lost five of its top seven players. Maryland and NC State were the preseason favorites, making their match-up a logical showcase for the league.

The Wolfpack began the season ranked 8th in the AP poll. Norm Sloan's team returned four starters from its 16-10 1972 team, including 7'4" junior Tommy Burleson, the ACC's second-leading scorer and leading rebounder in 1972. But much of the buzz was for a trio of sophomores, 5'7" point guard Monte Towe, burly forward and future major-league pitcher Tim Stoddard, and most importantly, 6'4" forward David Thompson. Thompson had averaged 35 points per game for State's last freshman team and knowledgeable observers like Purdue coach Fred Schaus claimed that he was one of the nation's top 10 players as a freshman. The 1972 freshman team was the last freshman team because the NCAA allowed freshmen to play varsity ball in 1972-'73, for the first time since the Korean War.

State's optimism was curbed by a season of probation. The Wolfpack knew its season would end with the ACC Tournament in Greensboro.

Thompson got off to a spectacular start, scoring 33 points in his first varsity game, a 130-54 route of Appalachian State. He had 32 in his second game, 40 in his third. State handled Wake Forest and North Carolina to capture the Big Four tournament in Greensboro. They entered the Maryland game at 11-0 and were averaging a stunning 103 points per game. State had moved up to third in the AP poll.

Defending NCAA champion UCLA was number one of course, and Maryland was second. The Terps had finished second to North Carolina in the 1972 ACC regular season and tournament. They captured the NIT, the first ACC team to win that event. But unlike the Tar Heels, Maryland returned almost everyone, including stars Tom McMillen, Len Elmore and Jim O'Brien. They also added John Lucas, a freshman guard from Durham who had spurned the in-state schools to play for Lefty Driesell. Lucas took over the reins of a veteran team and quickly erased any doubts as to the ability of freshmen to play at a high level in the ACC.

Maryland began the season ranked third nationally and favored to capture the ACC. The Terps won their first 10 games, including wins over ACC teams Clemson and Virginia and victories over Georgia Tech and Syracuse to win the Maryland Invitational.

The big game was set for January 14. (If that seems early for a Super Bowl, keep in mind that NFL teams only played 14 games in those days.) There was a sub-plot. The Super Bowl, played in Los Angeles, matched the undefeated Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins. A big day for D.C. sports fans.

Some observers thought that playing the game prior to the Super Bowl would diminish it. They were mistaken. Towe, now an assistant coach at his alma mater, says, "We had this game circled all season. We knew it was going to be huge. When I walked into Cole Field House for the first time, I almost turned around and went back to the locker room. I had never played basketball in any place so big and so loud."

Both teams thrived on full-court, fast-paced basketball - Don't blink or you'll miss something. Burleson remembers, "Lefty was a great recruiter and he had so much talent. They had too much talent to be completely stopped. We knew we were going to have to outscore them to win."

Often, the reality doesn't match the hype. This wasn't the case that day, as two highly-talented college basketball teams spent the afternoon displaying jaw-dropping athleticism and skills in runs that would have buried lesser teams.

Maryland used a zone press off and on but dropped back into a man-to-man. Thompson couldn't believe his good fortune. "When I hit the first three or four shots, I felt pretty good," he said after the game. "Most teams have been zoning us lately and I have a tendency to stand around in a zone. I'm much better against a man-to-man. I have better movement and I have the ball more."

Maryland forward Darrell Brown was expected to get the assignment against Thompson but was held out of the game for violating team rules. Maryland tried O'Brien, Bob Bodell, and Owen Brown, but to no avail. Towe says, "Maryland always had a lot of trouble matching up with David. Big, small, quick, strong, no matter what they tried, it didn't work."

State had Maryland in trouble early. The Wolfpack led by 11 points on five different occasions in the first half. It was 53-44 at intermission. State extended the lead to 63-50 early in the second half. Then things started to go wrong. Burleson picked up his fourth foul with 14 minutes left and took a seat on the bench. Maryland began heating up, especially McMillen, a mobile, 6'11" junior with the shooting touch of a guard. Burleson says, "We played too conservatively in the second half. We thought we could trade baskets and be okay. We lost our edge."

Sloan put Burleson back in with 10 minutes left. It was a risk but a calculated one. Burleson says, "I didn't foul out much. I knew how to play without fouls. I didn't get cheap fouls." Burleson stayed on the floor, providing State with interior scoring, rebounding, and defense to complement Thompson's full-court virtuosity.

Still, Maryland kept coming, spurred by a frenzied sell-out crowd. They caught up and then went ahead. Towe joined Burleson with four fouls. Maryland led 85-79 with 5:32 left when Driesell instructed his team to spread the court and make the Wolfpack come out and chase. It was a decision that college basketball coaches make all the time and in the absence of a shot clock, Maryland had time on its side.

But this time, it was Maryland that lost its edge. Lucas and then Bodell passed up open 10-footers to bring the ball back outside. The Terps turned the ball over three times. Twice, McMillen went to the foul line with a one-and-one. One of the fouls sent Towe to the bench for the duration. McMillen was an 80 percent foul shooter but he came up empty both times. State caught up at 85 when Thompson converted a pair of foul shots. With just under two minutes remaining, McMillen missed a sweeping hook shot inside and Greg Hawkins, in the lineup only because Towe had fouled out, grabbed the rebound. State called timeout with 37 seconds left and again with 12 seconds left to discuss strategy.

The Wolfpack wasn't overly dependent on Xs and Os and, with Towe out, its options were even more limited. The 14,500 fans in Cole and the estimated 25 million people watching on television all knew that the plan was to get the ball Thompson. Of course, Maryland realized this and blanketed the State star. Burleson got the ball about 18 feet from the basket, not an area where he normally did much damage. "I was trying to get it to David but he just wasn't open. Elmore was all over me and I was afraid of getting a five-second count."

So Burleson launched an awkward jumper. It never really had a chance but it didn't matter. Thompson skied for the rebound and gently laid in the follow-shot. Burleson says, "He just climbed the ladder to places where most players just can't go. We were all exhausted except David, who was the best-conditioned athlete I ever played with. It was like everybody else was in slow motion."

Thompson's take? "I was just determined to get that one. If I had to jump to the ceiling, I was going to get that one."

The clock still showed three seconds. After a timeout, Maryland tried a long pass to O'Brien but Hawkins picked it off to end the game, 87-85. Incredibly, the home-standing Terps had not scored a single point in the final 5:32. After the game, Driesell lamented "I might have gone into the stall too soon. But you can always second guess yourself. I think the theory is still good. We wanted them to come out and foul us and we got our best foul shooter to the line twice. We just didn't make the shots."

Thompson ended the game with 37 points, making 15-of-26 field goals and all seven free throws. Burleson added 20 points and led everyone with 15 rebounds. Towe and Stoddard added eight points apiece.

McMillen led Maryland with 29 points and 14 rebounds, while the Lucas added 18 points and eight assists. Elmore battled Burleson for 15 points and 11 rebounds. The victors were out-rebounded 45-36 but blistered the nets for 52.1% from the field and 78.6% from the line.

After the game, Sloan joked that State practiced that play all the time but struggled with getting Burleson to miss in just the right way. Towe says that was typical. "Coach Sloan knew how to keep us loose, how to keep us focused. That win was a tribute to our ability to maintain our poise under pressure."

Burleson agrees. "Two premier teams, with a lot to prove, playing on national TV. I still think it was neat. We took a lot from that game. We knew how to finish. After this game, we knew we could go into any venue, play any team and come out on top."

The Super Bowl Sunday game introduced Thompson to a national audience and helped kick off a compelling rivalry that would see the Thompson-Burleson Wolfpack edge Maryland six times over two seasons, including the 1973 and 1974 ACC Tournament title games. It also helped sell college basketball as a national television sport. In fact, State hosted Maryland the following season on the same day, winning 80-74 behind Thompson's 41 points.

This year, a pair of ACC games - Wake Forest at NC State and North Carolina at Florida State - will precede the Super Bowl on February 3, lineal descendants of that marvelous game 35 years ago.

Jim Sumner's articles on southern sports history have appeared in the ACC Handbook, the ACC Area Sports Journal, Blue Devil Weekly, Inside Carolina, the Wolfpacker, Baseball America, Basketball America, and other publications. His latest book, Tales From the Duke Blue Devils Hardwood, was published in 2005. In his bimonthly column "Looking Back... by Jim Sumner", he will examine the rich history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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