The ACC Basketball Book of Fame. Duke Edition

137 Pages·2013·3.4 MB·English

by  Dan Collins

The ACC Basketball
Book of Fame
Duke Edition PUBLISHER’S NOTE
In putting together The ACC Basketball Book of Fame by
Dan Collins, we noticed that the book included a large
number of Duke players. We thought Duke fans might
enjoy a separate e-book that only featured the former Duke
players. If reading this selection piques your interest, you
can read about all 79 players in the complete book, which is
available as a hardcover printed book or an e-book.
Also by Dan Collins
Tales from the
Wake Forest Hardwood

1406 Plaza Drive
Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27103
www.blairpub.com
Copyright © 2013 by Dan Collins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the
publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. For information address John F.
Blair, Publisher, Subsidiary Rights Department, 1406 Plaza Drive, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27103.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Collins, Dan, 1952-
The ACC basketball book of fame / by Dan Collins ; foreword by Dave Odom.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-89587-606-5 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-89587-619-5 (ebook) 1. Basketball—
Tournaments—United States—History. 2. Atlantic Coast Conference—History. 3.
Basketball—Records—United States—History. I. Title.
GV885.49.A84C67 2013
796.3230973—dc23
2013013545
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Front cover image: ©Shutterstock.com / B. Calkins; background: psdgraphics.com
Design by Debra Long Hampton
CONTENTS
Foreword by Dave Odom
Introduction
Nolan Smith
Kyle Singler
Shelden Williams
J. J. Redick
Jason Williams
Shane Battier
Chris Carrawell
Trajan Langdon
Grant Hill
Bobby Hurley
Christian Laettner
Danny Ferry
Johnny Dawkins
Mark Alarie
Gene Banks
Mike Gminski
Jim Spanarkel
Bob Verga
Jack Marin
Jeff Mullins
Art Heyman
The Portico of Prominence
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index
FOREWORD
For six decades, the Atlantic Coast Conference has brought excitement, joy, and
even an occasional tear to fans living within its geographic footprint. While
ACC teams have excelled in nearly every sport, men’s basketball has
unquestionably been the league’s beacon.
Growing up in eastern North Carolina, I learned early on that the best
Christmas gift was a ticket to the legendary Dixie Classic, held in Reynolds
Coliseum on the campus of North Carolina State University. It was there that I
cheered the exploits of my heroes—Ronnie Shavlik, Lennie Rosenbluth, Len
Chappell, Art Heyman—who were coached by some of the game’s best—
Everett Case, Frank McGuire, Bones McKinney, Vic Bubas—as their Tobacco
Road teams conquered national powers daring to visit that historic event.
In the late 1960s, the landscape of college basketball changed, and the ACC
found itself at the forefront for the next two decades. Coaches such as Dean
Smith, Lefty Driesell, Norm Sloan, and Terry Holland fueled the fire of fans and
generated unsurpassed media attention. Outstanding players—Jordan, Bias,
Thompson, Sampson—filled the rosters, and championships became as frequent
as beautiful Southern sunsets. National titles in 1974, 1982, and 1983, National
Players of the Year (10 awards), and national rankings that routinely included
five or six conference teams—more than half the league’s membership—were
celebrated fervently.
The 1980s and 1990s brought leaders such as Mike Krzyzewski, Jim
Valvano, Bobby Cremins, and Gary Williams, as well as more great players—
Laettner, Price, and two of my personal favorites, Childress and Duncan. Over a
19-year span, eight more national championship banners were hung in ACC
arenas.
In no other sport in any other conference has the media been more woven
into the fiber of history than with ACC basketball. Through the written word and
stirring broadcasts long into the night, journalists and colorful commentators
have always been part of ACC lore. Fans revel in the play-by-play calls and
can’t wait until the next day to read their favorite columnist’s analysis of action
on the court and the locker-room aftermath. Television, of course, has played a
key role in the popularity of ACC basketball, first on the regional level, then
throughout the country, helping to make the ACC truly America’s conference.
Few, if any, reporters have covered ACC basketball longer or more capably
than Dan Collins. He came on the scene as an undergraduate student in the days
of the peerless David Thompson and witnessed arguably the greatest game ever
played in the league when N.C. State defeated Maryland in the 1974 ACC
championship game. Dan joined the Winston-Salem Journal staff in 1978 and
has continued to follow closely every aspect of the ACC through portions of five
decades.
In The ACC Basketball Book of Fame, Dan shares his unique perceptions
from a lifetime of covering the country’s premier college basketball conference.
To diehard ACC fans, this volume will prove a treasure chest of the names and
games that have made ACC basketball truly the lifeblood of college sports for
more than half a century.
Dave Odom
INTRODUCTION
In the late summer and early fall of 2002, on the impending grand occasion of
the ACC’s 50th anniversary, a “blue-ribbon committee” selected the 50 greatest
players in the league’s illustrious basketball history. The committee had 120
members, and I was one.
Thinking back, I never got my blue ribbon to show for it.
Regardless, it was a great honor, of which I wrote for the Winston-Salem
Journal edition of September 27, 2002. An even greater honor was bestowed
when the ACC reprinted the article on the first page of the conference’s 2002–3
media guide. Of my millions of words as a sportswriter since joining the staff of
the Chapel Hill Newspaper in the fall of 1972, these, given the subject and how
they were used, may be my favorites:
We grew up together, my generation and the Atlantic Coast
Conference. This is not ancient history, although my kids might beg to
differ.
The league will turn 50 in May. I turned 50 last month. My
freshman year in college was 1970, which means that of the 49 years of
the ACC’s existence, I was involved in 32 of them.
And I am not alone. As a member of the Baby Boomer Generation, I
seldom am. The ACC yesterday released the long-awaited list of its 50
greatest basketball players, selected by a panel of which I was a member.
I saw 40 of them play in college, and if you’re 60, and were lucky
enough to have lived close to an ACC school, you might well have seen
them all. No wonder it means so much to so many. It’s a part of who we
are and who we have always been.
Who, among us, could imagine a cold, hard winter without ACC
hoops?