Only hope remains from '83

RALEIGH -- After 25 years, the waistlines grow an inch or two wider and the magic gets a little more difficult to brew.

But in the finest spirit of N.C. State's 1983 NCAA championship team, most of those players returned for a Wolfpack basketball game on Saturday, hoping to inspire a struggling 2008 squad to a win over Clemson.

"We were a team with a lot of luck, so we hope we can bring some luck back in here today," Cozell McQueen, a star on that '83 team, said an hour before the game's start.

No such luck, however.

As much of the schedule has gone in Sidney Lowe's second season as State's head coach, the Wolfpack flirted with victory only to fade with success at hand.

Clemson (19-6, 7-4 ACC) pulled away late for a 71-64 win that left State (15-10, 4-7) with very little hope of sneaking into the NCAA Tournament and duplicating the incredible run that McQueen, Lowe and the rest of the '83 team pieced together all those years ago.

"We wanted to do it, and we gave it everything we could," State junior Courtney Fells said. "We knew we were here today today to honor one of the great teams ever, and that charged us up. It really did. We just didn't make the right plays when we had a chance to win this game."

While the loss hurt Wolfpack fans young and old, it didn't erase the day of remembrance. The centerpiece of the '83 run, Jim Valvano, was not alive to join in the reunion. Dereck Whittenburg, preparing to coach his Fordham team today against Charlotte, wasn't able to attend. Neither was Terry Gannon.

"But the bonds we made with each back then are as strong as ever," McQueen said. "I don't think that will ever go away. We did something special, and none of us could have done it without the rest of the chain that made what we did possible."

The current State team hasn't been able to create many special moments, in part because there is no Lowe-like playmaker on the court to complete just the right passes, convert crucial shots and lead in the fashion of a champion.

With freshman Javier Gonzalez -- from Carolina, Puerto Rico -- still learning on the job, each possession is an adventure. One play feast. Next play famine. Against the Tigers, Gonzalez offset four assists and seven points with four personal fouls and five turnovers.

It wasn't that Gonzalez lost the game. He didn't. But in mid-February, point guards have to do more than simply stand their ground. They have to find a way to give their teams a better-than-even chance to win. Gonzalez just isn't there yet.

"It's tough on him," Fells said. "He's in a tough situation, and there's not any doubt that he's doing everything in his power to help us win. It's up to the rest of us to give him more help, though.

"We just have to stay behind him, keep encouraging him and be there for him. It's no time for anybody on this team to give up and say it's a lost cause."

In that vein, the spirit of '83 isn't dead. And really, it likely will never die in State's basketball teams. Odds are, a run to rival '83 will never happen again. But there's always hope -- and hope is about all that the current State team has left.