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Stormin' Norman RIP

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Charlie

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Oct 11, 2006, 10:51:19 PM10/11/06
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A big part of ACC history.....

http://newsobserver.com/sports/


A colorful winner
An 'underrated' coach, Norm Sloan brought NCSU Its first NCAA title

By CHIP ALEXANDER, Staff Writer

It may have been the defining moment in Norm Sloan's coaching life.


related

'Golden Years' coach dies

Pillar of the Pack upheld program's greatness

Remembering Sloan

Norm Sloan: the coach's chronicle


N.C. State was playing UCLA in the 1974 NCAA Tournament semifinals in
Greensboro. The Bruins, coached by legendary John Wooden, and led by
All-America center Bill Walton, were ahead seven points in a second
overtime.

During a timeout, Sloan crouched in front of his players, looked them in
the eyes. Instead of fire, instead of tension, they saw calm, reassuring
confidence, former Wolfpack center Tom Burleson recalled Tuesday.

"Coach Sloan simply told us we were too good to go down without a fight.
He said we were too good to lose, to UCLA or anybody else.

"I can still hear him now -- 'You're too good.' "

The Pack rallied and won 80-77. The "Wizard of Westwood," as Wooden was
called, had been outcoached and the "Walton Gang" outplayed and beaten.
Two nights later, State was still "too good," defeating Marquette 76-64
to win the school's first NCAA championship.

In 1974, Sloan, who died Tuesday at age 77, was at the zenith of his
career. It began at tiny Presbyterian College in 1952, included a stop
at The Citadel and ended in 1990 with his second stint at the University
of Florida. His overall record was 627-395.

"I always thought Norman was an underrated coach," former Maryland coach
Lefty Driesell said Tuesday. "He never had McDonald's All-Americas, but
he knew how to coach and get the most out of his players. They always
competed hard."

In 1974, Driesell's Terps could have been the team facing UCLA in March.
Maryland was among the nation's four or five best teams that season but
couldn't beat the Wolfpack when it counted most.

In the ACC Tournament final, on the same Greensboro Coliseum court where
the Final Four would be played, Burleson and David Thompson paced the
Pack to a 103-100 victory over the Terps. Both teams were unyielding,
almost as if they were playing for the national title that March night,
but it was State that advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

"That was a great team and won the national championship, but if you
think about it, only David went on to play a lot and star in the pros,"
Driesell said.

"Norman got the most out of that team. Norman was a great coach, but he
was always, you know, overshadowed a little by Dean."

That was Dean Smith, the North Carolina coach when Sloan was at NCSU. If
Sloan had a foil, it was Smith. The two exchanged many an icy stare
during games.

Sloan lost his first 10 games and 14 of the first 15 against Smith's
Heels. But with Burleson and Thompson, the Pack won nine in a row
against UNC.

"Sure, we didn't always get along when we were rivals," Smith said
Tuesday in a statement. "He was always one of the great coaches we
competed against. I mean that. His teams played as hard as they could
possibly play."

Monte Towe was the floor leader for the Pack on the '74 champions, only
5 feet 7 but a mirror of Sloan's intensity on the court. Later, after
Sloan left NCSU for Florida, he would be an assistant on Sloan's staff.

"He always had his teams prepared well, especially mentally," said Towe,
now head coach at the University of New Orleans. "If we were playing
UCLA, he had us ready to play. If we were playing Appalachian State, he
had us ready to play.

"He was very cool in tight situations. Oh, he was fiery and emotional,
and I thrived off that stuff. But he could be very cool with the
pressure on. He was a great strategist."

In the 1968 ACC Tournament, the Pack used a stall to upset sixth-ranked
Duke 12-10. Two years later, State again ran time off the clock and
outlasted sixth-ranked South Carolina 42-39 in double overtime for the
ACC title.

"He's remembered as a taskmaster, but he also was a very good X-and-O
coach," said Frank Weedon, a longtime associate athletics director at
NCSU. "He knew the game. He learned it under a great tutor."

Sloan came to N.C. State in the late 1940s to play basketball for
Everett Case. He was one of the "Hoosier Hotshots" Case imported from
Indiana, and Case's fast-paced brand of game soon packed Reynolds Coliseum.

"Norm was a good player, a scrappy player," said Dick Dickey, one of
Case's first All-Americas at State. "Boy, was he competitive. You saw
that as a player and later as a coach."

And in recruiting. Sloan worked hard to entice Burleson and Thompson to
sign with NCSU.

"He was a charmer," Burleson said. "He could charm the parents, make
everybody feel good about N.C. State."

Burleson, a lean 7-foot-4 center from Newland, entered NCSU in the fall
of 1970. Soon, he said, reality hit -- and hard.

"Coach Sloan sat the freshmen down and gave us the speech," he said. "He
said the steak dinners and shrimp cocktails were over and the recruiting
phase had passed. No more fluff.

"He said N.C. State had given us a scholarship and would pay for our
education, and now was the time to start paying back. He said we had
work to do -- on the court, in the classroom and in being good role
models in the community.

"He emphasized it like a drill sergeant. ... It was time to go to work."

At every coaching stop, Sloan was successful.

Sloan is in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. He's in the Indiana
Basketball Hall of Fame. But he's not in the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame with such ACC coaches as Smith and Duke's Mike
Krzyzewski.

"He should be," Burleson said. "He was the coach of the year in every
conference he was in, won conference championships everywhere he went
and the national championship. To me, he meets all the benchmarks of a
Hall of Famer."

NCSU coach Herb Sendek said he would remember Sloan more as "a regular
guy, a friend." Sloan attended many of the Pack's home games and always
made himself available to Sendek -- coach to coach, man to man.

"The thing that stands out is that despite his successes and his
stature, he was always careful not to be imposing," Sendek said Tuesday.
"I tried to encourage him and say, 'Coach, please stop by any time. I
want to listen to you, I want you to be a part of our program and for
you to know the reason we're here today is because of your efforts.'

"We had some good heart-to-heart talks. He'd relate things in his own
way [and] was careful not to impose too much."

In coaching, Sendek said, it's not always about wins and losses.

"I don't think it matters how many people remember you or if they can
quote you win percentage," he said. " ... What really matters is the
help you give people you come in contact with.

"Up until his last day, he was doing that with me. I'm sure he was other
people in his life."

That was the way it was with Sloan and Towe.

"He helped me in life and touched me in so many ways," Towe said. "He
was a great coach but a better man. To me, that's a real Hall of Famer."

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