The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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48 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BASKETBALL PREVIEW 2017-18 BY TIM PEELER E verett Case, 1946-47, 26-5 over- all, 11-2 Southern Conference, regular-season and tournament champions, lost to Kentucky in NIT semifinals To be clear, the expectations for this season were lower than the bottom of the swimming pool in the basement of Thompson Gymna- sium. The previous year, led by a part-time coach who was a full-time member of the North Carolina Highway Commission, the Terrors won only six games and tied for ninth in the 16-team Southern Conference. The athletics department changed its en- tire roster of war-time coaches and hired, full-time, a high school coach named Everett Case to take over the basketball program, as well as new coaches for football, baseball and swimming. Case retained only one player from the previous team, Leo Katkavek, and brought in a handful of "Hoosier Hotshots" from In- diana, including future head coach Norman Sloan, to fill out his roster. They were pri- marily players Case had coached at Franklin High School prior to the war or players, like three-time All-American and four-time All- Southern Conference selection Dick Dickey, that Case had faced as the coach of a Navy all-star team during the war. No one paid much attention to what the future Hall of Fame coach and his team did until a six-game post-Christmas road trip that was highlighted by a win over eventual 1947 national champion Holy Cross. The Terrors returned home to standing room-only crowds and even had its Senior Day game against North Carolina canceled because too many students, faculty and lo- cal fans showed up to see the contest at the crumbling on-campus gym that the team had suddenly outgrown. The Terrors entered Southern Conference play at 9-2, won 11 of 13 league games, captured the first of six consecutive SoCon championships and was invited to play in its first postseason championship event, the National Invitation Tournament, in what is likely the greatest start to a coaching career in any Wolfpack sport. Press Maravich, 1964-65, 21-5 overall, 10-4 ACC, tied for second in regular-sea- son standings, ACC tournament cham- pions, lost in first round of NCAA East Region to Princeton Maravich, the former head coach at Clem- son, was Case's hand-picked successor who had joined the program in 1962 as an assis- tant. He was scheduled to become head coach for the 1965-66 season, after Case was forced to take mandatory retirement by the state of North Carolina and when his son, Brough- ton High School All-American "Pistol" Pete Maravich would enroll at NC State. However, Case's failing health forced him to retire two games into the 1964-65 season, following a 68-60 loss at Wake Forest, and Maravich took over the team nearly a full season ahead of schedule. The Pack wasn't exactly loaded that sea- son, with no single standout player. Pete Coker and Larry Lakins, however, were good inside building blocks, and sophomore Eddie Biedenbach was a future All-ACC player. Guards Billy Moffitt and Tommy Maddocks rounded out a starting lineup that managed 11 straight wins after Maravich took over for Case. The Pack finished tied for second in the ACC, but were well behind top-10 Duke heading into the ACC Tournament. Still, Maravich and his squad, led by reserve Larry Worsley, pulled off three consecutive wins, WOLFPACK DEBUTS A Look Back At The First Years Of NC State's Basketball Coaches Since Everett Case Took The Helm In 1946-47 Everett Case's Wolfpack tenure began with a 26-5 overall mark, including first-place finishes in the Southern Conference's regular-season standings and postseason tournament, en route to the NIT semifinals. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS