When the New Orleans Saints missed the Super Bowl on a bad call, NC State fans could only sigh

N.C. State fans could be excused a pang of sympathetic, if well-worn outrage when the New Orleans Saints were robbed on a missed late-game interference call observed by everyone except the officiating crew in the NFC championship game.

Granted, N.C. State backers have a propensity for discerning prejudice against the Wolfpack by officials in most any athletic setting, whether real or fanciful. Just Tuesday, coach Kevin Keatts grabbed a microphone to ask fans not to throw debris on the PNC court during the Virginia game following a disputed call by the refs.

But much of fans’ suspicion may appropriately trace to a call 30 years ago that doomed the men’s basketball squad on a crucial play at a high-stakes moment – in the final 1:47 of a 1989 NCAA Sweet 16 contest that ultimately concluded an odd, tumultuous season.

According to New Orleans coach Sean Payton in a phone conversation following the NFL game, the league’s senior vice president of officiating conceded the error that cost the Saints a Super Bowl berth. Likewise, months after the fact, coach Jim Valvano received a letter from official Rick Hartsell acknowledging a mistake in whistling N.C. State guard Chris Corchiani for traveling in a collision with Georgetown’s Alonzo Mourning on a drive to the basket.

Both injustices were instantly obvious. “Nowhere near a walk! Should have been a good basket and a foul!” TV commentator Billy Packer exclaimed during the NCAA game. Replay confirmed that assessment. “No steps at all. Not even close.”

But instead of a fifth, disqualifying foul on the dominating Hoya center, the call negated Corchiani’s layup and a chance at a free throw to tie the game. Georgetown advanced to the Elite Eight while Valvano, master of survive and advance, unknowingly had coached his final NCAA contest.

“Did it hurt?” Valvano asked rhetorically in his book, “They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared Me Dead.” “Nah. Devastation, death or a plague of locusts on my face would have been easier to take.”

And, looming over all, the January release of the dust jacket for “Personal Fouls,” a book of casual accuracy that alleged scandalous activities and irrevocably tainted Valvano’s program.

The unitards

No one questioned Valvano’s game coaching. He was unorthodox but effective, using a variety of junk defenses to stop opposing stars. Most memorable was a mid-January game in which the 6-foot Corchiani relentlessly hectored 6-9 Georgia Tech forward Tom Hammonds. The unanimous All-ACC selection was held 13 points below his average in a Wolfpack win.

By then N.C. State had tried, and abandoned, form-fitting unitards for its players. Valvano thought the unique one-piece uniforms, designed by Nike and made of the same Lycra worn by track stars, would increase player speed and mobility and make them look neater. Nike agreed to supply the thigh-length garb for three years.

That plan lasted two games. A key concern was what N&O reporter Sharon Overton politely described as a “Bulge Factor” evoking a codpiece. Before the unitards debuted, abashed players donned shorts for cover, the experiment canceled before Georgia Tech came to Raleigh.

Whatever they wore, the Wolfpack, picked fourth in the ACC, spent most of the year in the AP top 20. To close the regular season, they traveled to Greensboro to face Wake Forest with a chance to finish first in the conference, something the program hasn’t done since.

They succeeded, but not before matching an enduring league record by playing four overtimes. The first extra period was secured when Kelsey Weems purposely missed a free throw that bounced off the rim directly to fellow guard Rodney Monroe, who shot and tied the score while falling to the floor.

The Maryland upset

Less than a week later N.C. State took on last-place Maryland, the No. 8 seed, in the ACC tournament at The Omni in Atlanta. The Terrapins, directed by third-year coach Bob Wade, hired directly from a Baltimore high school, were similarly a program in turmoil.

Maryland milked the shot clock and stayed in a zone without its top player, a hobbled Jerrod Mustaf. Shockingly, for the only time in ACC tournament history the bottom-seed upset No. 1.

“They just beat us in every phase, every aspect of the game, and they looked good doing it,” Valvano said after the 22-point defeat in which his team shot 30.3 percent. Admitted Corchiani, “I’m totally embarrassed.”

Afterward, asked about his tenuous job status while standing in the hallway outside Dressing Room 9, Wade steered talk to his team’s ninth victory of the season. “I don’t delve into the politics,” the ACC’s first black head coach said. “As far as I’m concerned, it gives me another day to coach my team for this year.”

Then, complaining of chest pains, Wade collapsed onto a chair. He was rushed to a hospital, the diagnosis dehydration. Wade remained sidelined while his team lost by 30 to UNC in the ACC semifinals. Two months later, facing NCAA probation for recruiting violations and orchestrated lying to investigators, Wade resigned.

Vanquished N.C. State still earned a No. 5 seed in the ’89 NCAAs as six of eight ACC clubs made the tournament. A week after its history-making fall at Atlanta, State survived Iowa in double overtime to reach the Meadowlands and the East Region semifinal.

Then came the clash with top-seed Georgetown, a rally from a 16-point, second-half deficit, Corchiani’s drive through traffic trailing 56-53, and a whistle that echoes through the years.

This story was originally published January 31, 2019 at 10:24 AM.