For one night, Reynolds rattles back to life
Markell Johnson said afterward he knew he would get a technical foul for slapping the backboard after a tip dunk, and it must have been a fair price to pay for what it would do to Reynolds Coliseum.
The dunk got people going, the technical got them screaming and when Hofstra star Justin Wright-Foreman dunked at the other end on the very next possession and hung on the rim for just a millisecond longer than needed, the crowd was positively apoplectic and it was as poisonous a bear pit as it ever was.
If you looked closely enough, you could almost see the cigarette smoke hanging overhead.
Welcome back.
“The fact we had a sellout today is incredible, being in the NIT and all,” N.C. State’s C.J. Bryce said. “I give them a lot of credit for still sticking behind the team.”
N.C. State’s 84-78 opening-round NIT win over Hofstra was notable for the way the Wolfpack shook off the disappointment of missing the NCAA tournament to put the game away with two late Johnson drives, but it was also a rare meaningful game played at the renovated Reynolds. The reduced capacity actually seemed to compress the action into a smaller space, the noise reverberating and ringing.
Hofstra coach Joe Mihalich could only curse his bad luck. Instead of being sent to play in some half-empty arena in front of some half-engaged crowd against some half-motivated team, he got sent to Reynolds on a night everyone, players and fans alike, seemed intent on not only waking a few of the old ghosts but keeping them up all night.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” Mihalich said. “I’m not taking anything away from Kevin (Keatts) and his kids, but they had a sixth man tonight. It had to be worth 10 points.”
Mihalich would know. He coached under Speedy Morris at La Salle for decades before setting out on his own. He’s lived in the great buildings of Philadelphia and the northeast. His basketball DNA is hard-wired to appreciate a building as historic and intimate as Reynolds, even if he would have preferred it to be under different circumstances.
“So cool,” he said. “The smartest thing N.C. State ever did was playing this game here. You could tell all the old-timers wanted to be in the building.”
The choice of location was partly circumstance, with PNC Arena occupied by the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins. But Mihalich raised the point many N.C. State fans raise often: Why not play more games there?
The answer is fiscal, of course, and the game of college basketball at the highest levels long ago moved beyond buildings like this. Unless you can charge what Duke charges – and no one else can – you’ve got to get more butts in more seats. The relentless pace of progress left Reynolds behind long ago, and the reduction in seating as it was primped and polished – and it is gorgeous now – made that permanent, forever and ever.
“As you know, this is a special building,” Keatts said. “It’s electric. I’m going to talk to coach Yow about scheduling some more games in Reynolds.”
Athletic director Debbie Yow, standing to the side, piped up quickly: “Can’t afford it.”
Keatts shook his head.
“I know,” he said. “I know.
N.C. State still plays its one game a year in Reynolds, but it’s not always an easy game to schedule. Teams from smaller conferences taking guarantee money don’t want to play there. They play in a lot of gyms like Reynolds. They want to play in the big house, the pro arena, with the big scoreboard and all the seats.
And even in the games that are played at Reynolds, the crowd isn’t always in it like this. Even if it isn’t the NCAA tournament, this game mattered, and you could feel that. It’s tough to be that engaged for a Southern Conference team in November, unless Karl Hess is throwing technicals around.
This was special. Sunday night against the Georgetown-Harvard winner figures to be special as well. There aren’t many opportunities to play real games in this building. If anything, it’s the only positive to come out of the Wolfpack missing the NCAA tournament, other than a commitment to scheduling better nonconference games in the future.
After the game, Mihalich ran into Dereck Whittenburg, who was a senior at DeMatha High outside Washington when Mihalich first got into coaching as an assistant there. They have known each other for almost four decades.
“How did you ever lose to anyone here?” Mihalich asked Whittenburg.
The reply, Mihalich said, was succinct.
“We didn’t.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2019 at 10:08 PM with the headline "For one night, Reynolds rattles back to life."
