WRAL Sports Fan

Colleges

Former Triangle basketball players named ACC legends

Jan 31, 2013

Greensboro, N.C. — Three former Triangle-area basketball players were among a group of 13 people added to the Atlantic Coast Conference's legends class Thursday, league commissioner John Swofford announced.

Trajan Langdon, Dereck Whittenburg and Mike O'Koren are members of a class that features the former commissioner of the league, Gene Corrigan, and two successful head coaches, Maryland's Gary Williams and Wake Forest's Carl Tacy.

Langdon, who played guard at Duke from 1994-99, was one of the most accurate long-range shooters in league history, making 42.6 percent of his shots from deep.

He was a three-time All-ACC selection and was drafted in the first-round of the 1999 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Whittenburg, one of the key players on NC State's 1983 National Championship team, was a three-year starter for legendary head coach Jim Valvano. He is a long-time board member for the Jimmy V Foundation, which raises money for cancer research, and he serves as a game-day and studio analyst for ESPNU. 

One of the most versatile players in North Carolina history, O'Koren was the centerpiece of Tar Heel squads that captured league titles in 1977 and 1979. He is the only UNC player to have recorded at least 1,500 points, 800 rebounds and 300 assists in a career. 

O'Koren was a three-time All-America selection, two-time All-ACC selection and was drafted 6th overall by the New Jersey Nets in 1980.

Gene Corrigan, the league's commissioner from 1987-97, oversaw the ACC during a 10-year period when the conference captured three NCAA Tournament Championships and made 11 trips to the Final Four. 

Williams, the recently-retired coach of the Maryland Terrapins, led his team to the 2002 NCAA title and made 15 NCAA Tournament appearances in his 22-year career in College Park. Tacy had a similar impact in Winston-Salem, leading the Demon Deacons to 222 victories in 13 seasons between 1973-85. 

Other members of the 2013 legends class included Gerry Ward, a forward at Boston College from 1961-63, Terrell McIntyre, a guard Clemson from 1995-99, Tharon Mayes, a guard at Florida State from 1988-90, Mark Price, legendary Georgia Tech point guard who played at Georgia Tech from 1982-86, Mike Wittman, a Miami forward from 1964-67, Travis Watson, a forward for Virginia from 1999-03 and Ace Custis, a Virginia Tech forward from 1993-97. 

The newest inductees will be honored at the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, March 14-17.