Memories of 1987 a reminder to NC State that ACC Tournament dreams can come true

Mike Giomi remembers grabbing the rebound, falling into the lane and clutching the basketball to his chest as the final buzzer sounded.

Clutching it like it was an ACC championship trophy.

No one expected N.C. State to be the ACC champion in 1987. North Carolina was undefeated in the league and ranked No. 2 in the country. The Pack had gone through a disjointed, disappointing season, losing 10 of 12 games at one point down the stretch as Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano struggled to find some answers.

Win an ACC championship? Pipe dream. Or so it seemed.

When the 1987 ACC Tournament ended, it was all Wolfpack red on one end of the court at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, a Washington, D.C. suburb. The nets came down, Valvano winning a conference title for a second time.

Valvano also found someone to hug this time when the game ended, first quickly with Del Negro, then making a mad dash onto the floor — past UNC coach Dean Smith — to jump into the arms of the Pack’s Chucky Brown.

All these years later, it remains the last ACC championship for a program steeped in basketball history stretching back to the days of Everett Case and the beginnings of the conference.

“I was looking back recently and saw they haven’t won another one since ‘87 and it was like, ‘Wow, that’s a long time,’” Giomi, a real-estate developer in Seattle, said in an interview.

Many Wolfpack fans would loudly agree.

With the 2024 ACC Tournament beginning Tuesday in Washington, N.C. State (17-14, 9-11 ACC) is a longshot to win it. It would take five wins in five days, starting with Louisville on Tuesday and then with Syracuse and Duke both having byes and waiting in the next two games should the Pack advance.

“I told my team, and this will be my seventh ACC Tournament, that this is the most parity I’ve ever seen,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said Saturday after an 81-73 loss at Pittsburgh to end the regular season. “It doesn’t matter what your record is now. Everybody’s 0-0 and you’ve got to figure out how to survive and advance.”

Complicating the Pack’s situation is a hip-flexor injury to guard D.J. Horne, its leading scorer this season. Horne limped off the court in the first half Saturday at Pitt and did not return to the game.

A good sign for the Pack: Horne was at Monday’s practice at Capital One Arena and could play Tuesday after first testing his bruised hip. Keatts said Monday that Horne would be a game-time decision.

In 1987, the Pack was 17-13 entering the tournament, finishing sixth in an eight-school ACC. In three days, the Wolfpack beat No. 14 Duke in overtime, Wake Forest in two overtimes and then topped UNC 68-67 in the championship game to cut down the nets in Landover.

“We had struggled that year,” Giomi said. “We started off well and then we lost quite a few in a row and it was kind of rough.

“But Coach V had a way of saying, ‘Hey, the ACC Tournament is a whole new ball game.’ We beat Duke, then we beat Wake Forest. We never stopped believing.”

It had been just four years since Valvano and the Pack’s magical ride to the 1983 national championship. State fought past North Carolina and Michael Jordan in the semifinals, then Ralph Sampson and Virginia the next day to win the 1983 ACC Tournament in Atlanta.

Giomi was a transfer in 1987 from Indiana, where the 6-8 forward had played three seasons under Bob Knight. Nor was his senior season with the Pack a smooth one.

“The losses ate on all of us,” Giomi said. “We came in with high expectations. I came in with high expectations of myself and didn’t have the year that I wanted to have. That drove me to go out with an ACC championship.

“We didn’t have the greatest record. But to go in there and start over fresh … I think you get that with the enthusiasm of Coach V. He just had a way of bringing that out. He wasn’t happy and we weren’t happy, but the ACC Tournament was a way of changing that.”

It came down to the final seconds against Carolina. Two free throws by Vinny Del Negro gave the Pack the 68-67 lead with 14 seconds left, but the Tar Heels had the ball for the last shot. Two, in fact.

UNC’s Joe Wolf missed a jumper with seven seconds remaining, the ball bounding out to Ranzino Smith, who got off an outside shot with four seconds showing. Smith’s shot was long and missed the rim, Giomi corralling the rebound as he fell to the court.

Let the celebration begin.

The Wolfpack would lose in the first game of the 1987 NCAA Tournament, to Florida and former State coach Norm Sloan. But the memories of Landover remain for Wolfpack fans of a certain age and for Giomi, who played professionally overseas for several years before establishing roots in the Seattle area and raising a family.

Giomi, 59, said he recently pulled out his ACC championship ring for another look, for a few moments of reflection.

“As a team, we did something extraordinary,” Giomi said. “It’s all mental. The physical part, everybody has great talent. It’s all about belief.”