Excerpts: Jim Valvano's Too Soon To Quit (part I)

In 1983, former NC State basketball coach Jim Valvano published an autobiographical account of his team's drive to the national title, a run so classic it has become part of the annals of college basketball.

Viewers got to rewatch that famous win over Houston in the championship game Saturday afternoon on CBS. Below are excerpts from Valvano's chapter on that contest titled, simply, "National Champions!"

Excerpt From Too Soon To Quit (Part I)

We had some decisions to make on how to approach the championship game. Were we going to do things differently? Were we going to hide our players away?

I decided to let the players prepare exactly as usual. We would have some meetings to watch films and discuss the game. Then on Monday in the locker room we would go over the game plan. But I was going to prepare differently.

The staff and I spent all day Sunday, all night Sunday and all day Monday watching Houston films. I knew we were on the threshold of doing something special. I didn’t want to say when it was over that, “I didn’t know that or I didn’t see that.”

We watched and watched some more to find things to formulate a game plan.

We knew we were not going to run and gun with Houston, but there were a lot of other questions to be answered. Did we want to play a complete stall in the championship game? How did we want to play the game defensively? What things did we want to try offensively? Did we want to go at Akeem Olajuwon, their All-American center? All those things had to be decided going into the final game. I wanted to know exactly what we were going to do on Monday night.

No one gave us a chance. The newspapers all over the country said the same thing, “It’s a mismatch,” and “Say good-bye, State.”

One quote I particularly like and repeat often came from Dave Kindred of The Washington Post. He said, “Trees will tap dance, elephants will ride in the Indianapolis 500 and Orson Welles will skip breakfast, lunch and dinner before State finds a way to beat Houston.” Much to Dave’s credit, he sent me a very nice note afterwards with a follow-up article. Dave, though, was certainly not by himself. Everyone was looking for a witty way to write what they thought was obvious, that we had no chance.

Our team certainly did not believe any of what was being said about us in the papers. You don’t beat the number five, four, three and two teams in the country and not have a chance. You don’t beat Carolina twice when they’re ranked in the top five and not have a chance. You don’t beat Virginia and Ralph Sampson twice and not have a chance.

Very few people took note of the nine games we had played against teams ranked No. 1 in the country at one time or another. We had played too many good teams and too many big games not to have a chance. There were some writers who thought we could win, but the overwhelming majority gave us no shot at all.

Our game plan was based in part on the atmosphere surrounding the contest. We felt we had a great opportunity to run some on Houston because everybody thought we were going to hold the ball.

Our decision was to set the tempo, which meant if we wanted to run, we were going to run, and if we wanted to slow down, we would; but we didn’t want them to ever run.

Another part of our game plan was not to allow any dunks. We knew the impact a dunk had on their team, and we didn’t want them to get something started. We didn’t want to get in a transition game with Houston. We were committed to stopping whichever Houston player got hot.

Our game plan was sound. We were going to go with some three-guard offense to try to draw them away from the basket. We wanted to get Akeem in foul trouble. We had to shoot well. The game had to be in the 50s. Cozell had to play his best game ever on the boards. Our defense had to be consistent.

We had our pregame locker room routine down pat. First, we’d get dressed to play. Then, I would go over the game plan. We’d start with our offense against their defense. We’d begin with what they did. Full-court, half-court, three-quarter-court, in a zone, in man-to-man and so on. Then we covered what we were going to do. We would consider special plays, matchups and anything else we thought would help us.

After we finished all that for the Houston game, I told the kids, “For two days now I’ve been telling everyone we’re going to hold the ball. I’ve been telling everybody we’re going to practice for two hours and not take a shot, that we’re going to get the opening tap on Monday and not shoot until Tuesday. I’ve been telling everybody that. Now I want to tell you guys something. I’ve waited all of my life to be in this position, to be playing on the last day, to be playing for the national championship. And I’m telling you something: We’re not holding that ball! Houston thinks we’re going to hold it. The whole country thinks we’re going to hold it. They’re all wrong. We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to shove it right down their throats!!”

I pointed at everyone and went over the whole starting team. I got right in their faces.

I said, “Sidney, Sidney Lowe! This is your last game ever. You’re the finest point guard I’ve ever had the privilege to be on the court with. But tonight you must play flawlessly. You can have no turnovers tonight, Sidney.” And I said, “You won’t. You’ll play the best damn game you’ve ever played and lead us to the national championship.

“Dereck Whittenburg! Dereck, you’ve come back from the dead. They said you’d never play again. You’re going to get those passes from Sidney, and you’re going to hit jump shots from all over the gym tonight and lead us to the national championship. We’re not holding the ball! We’re going right at them!

“Cozell! You’ll get every rebound there is tonight. You’re going to play the biggest game you’ve ever had. You’ll be going against ‘Akeem the Dream.’ You’re going to do a job on him. You’re going to be great tonight and lead us to the national championship.

“Lorenzo! You’re going to get inside and power for points and get rebounds. And you’re going to lead us to the national championship.

“Thurl! You’re going to hit jumpers. You’re going to get rebounds. You’re going to block shots. You’re going to get dunks, and you’re going to lead us to the national championship.

“Every guy in this room, you’ve all played your part this year. I’ve called upon you and you have produced. Someone tonight, I don’t know who, is going to come off the bench and help lead us to the national championship.

“We’re going to go out there and play our butts off. Yeah, we’re going to control tempo. We’ll run when we want to run! We’ll stop when we want to stop, and all I ask, all I ever ask, is to be in a position to win the game at the end. Not only are you going to have your best day, but I’m ready and I’m going to have my best game, too.

“We’re going to represent North Carolina State University, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and ourselves. And we’re going home with the second national championship in NC State’s history.

“So now, we’re going to leave this locker room, and we’re going to knock Houston right on their cans!”

The place erupted. Our players ran out of that locker room sky high. We were so hyper! We took 18 shots in five minutes, and they took six. I was on the bench telling my staff, “Damn, it’s worked.” The only problem was that we hadn’t made many of those 18 shots.