SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – North Carolina State is back in the Final Four for the first time since the Wolfpack won the championship in 1983. Former Jazz forward and current Jazz broadcaster Thurl Bailey was the second leading scorer on that NC State team, and remembers beating Houston at the buzzer like it was yesterday. “I remember everything,” Bailey said. “Everything. I mean, it happened 41 years ago, but it hasn’t faded one bit.” It hasn’t faded because that was one of the most iconic championship runs in NCAA Tournament history. It was a run that included Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games in Ogden, Bailey’s first trip ever to
Utah. “I remember it was snowing when we landed,” he recalled. “I had never seen anything like the mountains here before. So it was kind of breathtaking, and little did I know I would be back not too long after that.” But before he was drafted by the Jazz shortly after winning the title in 1983, he and the 6th-seeded Wolfpack had to face Houston with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and Phi Slamma Jamma in the championship game. “Everybody knew Houston was going to win, but us,” Bailey said. “We were pretty inundated with Coach [Jim] Valvano’s confidence by that time.” Tied at 54 with second left, Dereck Whittenburg’s missed shot was rebounded and dunked in by Lorenzo Charles at the buzzer, and NC St pulled off the incredible upset, 54-52. “It never, ever goes away,” Bailey said. “Especially this time of year and in particular this year when my alma mater is in the Final Four. If 41 years has gone by and people are still talking about it, we knew it had to be special.” That was the last North Carolina State team to make it to the Final Four. But Thurl is pulling for this year’s team, an 11-seed, to get there and to win it all. “You root for those guys, you root for them to do it,” he said. andt’s partly why they believe so much in each other is because they know about our story and their mantra is, Why not us? So we feel we’re a part of it, even though we’re not out there playing. This NC State team has pulled off upsets over
Texas Tech, Marquette and Duke, along with a victory over Oakland, to reach the Final Four. The Wolfpack will once again be big underdogs against Purdue on Saturday, and Bailey has enjoyed every moment. “It’s awesome to be able to cheer for those guys,” he said. “When you’ve been a part of that, you’ve been able to experience that the way we did it. It’s unforgettable. It’s always a part of you. I hope that NC State can pull it off because that would be one for the ages as well.”