Best Coaching Job in WF BB History

[sailordeac]

The older fans here remember when the ACCT was almost bigger to ACC schools than the NCAAT. Remember when only the ACCT winner went to the NCAAT?. ACCT tickets used to be among the most sought after events in sports.
I remember BKF #15. Dean said after that game it was the worst loss he ever had at home.

I was at that game. My God it was fun! That UNC team had James Worthy and Sam Perkins, and an excellent outside shooter named Al Wood. Doh also played on that UNC team as did an excellent little point guard named Jimmy Black. IIRC, earlier that season, that same Carolina team had beaten Indiana in Chapel Hill. I was also at that game and came away very impressed with Indiana (although they had lost at the end). I know a lot of people on these boards don't like Coach Knight but they probably never saw his teams play during his prime (mid '70s to @'90). They played about as beautiful a brand of basketball as one could imagine: excellent man-to-man defense, great movement and ball movement on offense, no bad shots, very disciplined, almost no mistakes. Gorgeous sight to behold! Later that year UNC played Indiana for the national championship (and Indiana avenged its earlier defeat to become NCAA champs).

Hard to imagine when we will be able to hang a loss like that on an excellent Carolina team on their home court again. We can always dream, I guess.

 

[oldtrenchfighter]

i seldom agree with bkf on anything, but on carl tacy, he's 100% dead-eye accurate. that man was a coach.

 

[KeEpEr]

What a sad life you must lead.

Oh far from it. I didn't say it was the only happy day....just the happiest. You had to be there...

 

[KeEpEr]

In 1977 I was donating $5,000/year to the Deacon Club so that I could get ACC Tournament tickets. And $5,000 in 1977 was a lot more than $5,000 today. Last March, as I mentioned in an earlier post, five of us went up to the coliseum before the WF/BC game and bought side court tickets in the lower arena for $10 each.

Very sad.

 

[KeEpEr]

And in addition to those 10 wins over Dean Smith & Carolina, here are 9 more games that we could have won, but barely lost....many times as a result of questionable calls against us:

1/15/75: UNC 80, WF 78
3/06/75: UNC 101, WF 100 OT (worst WF loss in history, IMO)
1/28/76: UNC 88, WF 85 OT
1/13/77: UNC 77, WF 75
1/15/78: UNC 71, WF 69
1/09/80: UNC 72, WF 68
3/06/81: UNC 58, WF 57 (another awful call; something about March 6th ACCT games vs UNC)
1/27/83: UNC 80, WF 78
3/08/85: UNC 72, WF 61 OT (some Mar 8th ACCT days are better than others, huh, keeper?)

That's 19 Dean Smith vs Carl Tacy games that we either won, or came within a basket of winning. Dean Smith dreaded looking at the calendar and seeing a Carl Tacy-WF team coming up, I promise you!

Unfortunately the 85 call was correct. Just a bad rule. A rule that has now been changed.

 

[KeEpEr]

I didn't really comment on that call, though. I just included the game as a close loss since it went into overtime. The 1975 & 1981 ACCT games were the ones, in particular, where I thought we got jobbed at the end.

Also, the no call on the block against Danny Young under the basket in a tie game with 8 seconds left at Greensboro in 1983 against #3 UNC took a game away from us, in my opinion. What was your opinion of that one?

I don't remember it.

 

[EagleDeac]

Not gonna read the thread, but the greatest accomplishment Wake has had since the Final Four was winning the ACC regular season outright in (I believe) Skip's 1st year. Finishing 1st alone (untied) in a 16 game season in a league with Duke and Carolina is special. I know it doesn't get the same acclaim as winning the ACC Tournament, but finishing 1st over 16 games is a far greater accomplishment than winning three games in a tournament. Lots of mediocre teams have done that.