UNC was stunningly impressive in their solid defeat of the Wolfpack Wednesday night. There has been a lot of criticism of NCSU this week; some founded, some unfounded. However a lot of facts have gotten distorted regarding NCSU’s last few chapters.

Yes, NCSU fans are WAY too focused on beating Carolina. Only two of the games on State’s schedule are against the Heels. The key to greatness however, is taking care of business in the middle of the conference. That means taking care of the Florida States, Virginias, and Boston Colleges of the world. In all fairness, some of the things being said about NCSU fans could also be said about many UNC fans regarding their obsession with Duke.

Too much is made of “the big rivalry”, and teams are evaluated too heavily on where they got in the NCAA tourney. Wouldn’t we all say the UNC 1994 team was clearly superior in every way to the 2000 team? Those who simply say 2000 was better because they got to the Final Four are ignoring all factors involved. The same can be said for many NCSU teams. As lucky as the ‘83 team was, the ‘89 NCSU team was one of the ACC’s finest in the last 25 years.

A lot of people like to rewrite history, as well. The FACTS are that the UNC System’s investigation of Valvano’s team revealed absolutely NO WRONGDOING. The NCAA investigation revealed that two players had sold their tickets and freebie shoes. PERIOD. Anything else that Peter Golenbach or the News & Observer (especially columnist Mickey McCarthy) drummed up was pure speculation and proved to be WRONG.

When one reflects upon Valvano, don’t forget the FACTS. At the time of the release of the book, which largely relied on reports from a disgruntled former team manager, Valvano was the A.D. and the basketball coach. This was a situation that many universities were trying in the 80’s and ultimately found didn’t work because of oversight problems and conflicts of interest.

Valvano resigned because of pressure from the university’s faculty. After the Chris Washburn stereo theft scandal, Valvano’s use of Reynolds Coliseum for a car commercial without proper compensation to the University, the expose on CBS’ 48 Hours which featured an embarassing interview with Charles Shackleford, and the minor NCAA violations involving shoe sales and ticket sales by impoverished athletes, the faculty felt Valvano wasn’t overseeing the program adequately. They DID NOT advise Bruce Poulton to push for Valvano’s resignation “because he was cheating”.

Ultimately Valvano was responsible for the actions of some very low-class players he had recruited. THAT was his fatal flaw. The contrast between Shackleford and Chris Corchiani on 48 Hours was quite revealing; a few bad eggs were spoiling the bunch. Corchiani seemed to even know it at the time as he scoffed on TV at Shackleford’s ignorance.

Shackleford told local reporters a couple of weeks later that he believed “the team can make the EN DOUBLE AY SEE PEES” if they win a couple more games. Of course we all still laugh about his claims of being “amphibious”. One can easily imagine the embarassment the faculty felt. I know I certainly wouldn’t want to put my dental license in the hands of someone like Bennie Bolton or Charles Shackleford. Valvano unfortunately did the equivalent and took the fall for it.

Had he not gotten sick, Valvano probably would have gone on to coach somewhere else after being a great analyst on ESPN. We’ll never know, however we can at least get the facts right about the late 80’s.

Ever since Duke’s narrow win over Boston College, there has been a lot of talk this week about the officiating in the ACC. There has been a feeling for many years with many that Duke gets an advantage due to biased officiating. Whether there is an advantage or isn’t, or whether the referees intentionally give an advantage or subconsciously give an advantage, the culture in college basketball is far too focused on the officials’ mistakes.

The ACC should follow the NHL’s lead. That is a league that has their coaches under control. They follow a paradigm that it is only appropriate to ask an official to clarify a call.

IT IS NEVER APPROPRIATE TO BERATE THE OFFICIALS OR YAMMER IN THEIR EAR FOR AN ENTIRE POSSESSION OR TIMEOUT.

ANY occasion during which a coach questions a call or tells the referee what call should have been made should result in a technical foul. If this rule were enforced, and entirely different culture and standard of conduct would ensue. The assumption that one coach is getting an advantage because he has “swayed the ref” would be gone, too. Fans and coaches would then get back to the task at hand, rooting for THEIR TEAM to play better.