Greensboro has been site of many memorable ACC moments

ACC Tournament

Greensboro has been site of many memorable ACC moments

By Ken Medlin

Mar 11, 2010

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Greensboro, N.C. — Sunday will mark the 22nd time the Atlantic Coast Conference crowns its men’s basketball champion in Greensboro.

The Greensboro Coliseum practically overflows with basketball history. No venue has hosted the ACC tournament more often.

Greensboro was the site of what's still considered the greatest ACC game ever played, North Carolina State's 103-100 triple overtime win against Maryland in the 1974 final.

Greensboro's the place where Mike Krzyzewski won his first ACC Tournament in 1986. Dean Smith won his first, in 1967 and his last, in 1997, both in Greensboro.

Lefty Driesell scored the only ACC tournament win of his career at Maryland in Greensboro in 1984.

"After we'd lost it a couple of times, I said, ‘If we ever win this thing, I'm going to take that trophy and screw it on the hood of my car and drive all around the state of North Carolina for a couple of weeks,’" Driesell said at the time.

Maybe the best start to an ACC Final came in 1982, when James Worthy dunked off the opening tip against Virginia. That was in Greensboro.

The best finish? It's hard to beat 1971. South Carolina beat North Carolina when 6-foot-3 Kevin Joyce outjumped 6-foot-10 Lee Dedmon in the closing seconds.

Wake Forest's Randolph Childress put on a show in 1995, scoring 35 points per game that weekend as the Deacons won their first tournament title in three decades. "This was the biggest win of my career,” Childress said at the time.

Another memorable Greensboro moment took place that same weekend, when Carolina’s Smith and Clemson coach Rick Barnes went toe-to-toe after a hard foul.

"I looked down and Dean's pointing at him (Clemson player Iker Iturbe), and I don't think that should happen," Barnes said after the confrontation.

Greensboro has seen two State-Carolina finals and one State-Duke title game. Four times, the title games have sent Duke and Carolina out for an extra "Battle of the Blues."

Most Recent Comments

RE: Greensboro has been site of many memorable ACC moments

^it is true...one overtime.

Here is an article that discusses it: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-03-12/sports/0903110161_1_maryland-teams-second-chances
- Posted by Clarksa

Thanks, Clarksa.

RE: Greensboro has been site of many memorable ACC moments

^it is true...one overtime.

Here is an article that discusses it: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-03-12/sports/0903110161_1_maryland-teams-second-chances

RE: Greensboro has been site of many memorable ACC moments

Greensboro was the site of what's still considered the greatest ACC game ever played, North Carolina State's 103-100 triple overtime win against Maryland in the 1974 final.

I read somewhere yesterday that this so-called "triple overtime" game was actually just ONE overtime. But the game had such magnitude and importance, that people confuse it with another State-Maryland game that DID go to three overtimes.

If this is true, it's funny that even people in the media would also make this mistake. It's just become accepted that this game went to three overtimes.

Or am I wrong?

UPDATE: I found a couple of links that discuss this game, and they only refer to it as "overtime". There's no mention of three overtimes.

http://www.umterps.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/022199aab.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_ACC_Men%27s_Basketball_Tournament

RE: Greensboro has been site of many memorable ACC moments

2004 The last year of having only 9 teams. The Terps beat #3 NC State, #2 Wake, and #1 Duke(overtime game) to capture the title. An amazing run. It also halted Duke from winning 6 consecutive ACC titles.

RE: Greensboro has been site of many memorable ACC moments

The two greatest games in NCAA history were played at Greensboro, ironically in the same year, 1974. First was the ACC Championship between State and Maryland. I think the argument can be made that had Maryland won that game, they would have been NCAA champs, as they were legitimately the second best team around that year. the second game came a week or so later when State beat UCLA in double OT to advance to the title game, which was against Marquette.

WRAL Sports Fan

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