Valvano's NC State Champs Advance to Final 69-62 Over 1990 Ball State

In this blurry TV shot (see the actual video here), 12-seed Ball State in 1990 had the ball inside the foul line, about to throw up a lob for an alley-oop that would have sent them to overtime against eventual champion UNLV Runnin' Rebels. If that play had connected, perhaps Ball State would have gone on to become an even bigger Cinderella story—joining the level reached by NC State Wolfpack under Jim Valvano.

It’s been a week since we posted our all-time championship game, in which the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers dethroned the 1972 UCLA Bruins as our greatest team of all time—drawing a record 34,000 views in the seven days between posts.

Now we return to finish the Final Four of our newly created teams, along with the NIT Final Four of All-Time Small Conference teams. In our first Final Four matchup, Jim Valvano’s 1983 NC State squad defeated fellow Cinderella hopeful 1990 Ball State.

While Ball State reached only the Sweet 16—rather than winning a surprise national title like NC State—they were just one basket away from possibly joining that same historic tier, having lost by a single basket to eventual champion UNLV.

In our Value Add Basketball Game semifinal, Ball State battled hard. However, NC State pulled away early in the second half when Dereck Whittenburg hit a pair of three-pointers to break a tie and seize control.

That result sets up a championship game among the new teams we created this season. In a couple of cases, though, we were actually recreating older teams after finally compiling enough statistical data to produce realistic player cards. In fact, NC State will face one of the two oldest great teams in our project—the 1950 CCNY Beavers squad, the only team in history to win both the NIT and NCAA titles in the same season, or the 1939 Long Island University Blackbirds team, college basketball’s first repeat champion and an early dynasty.

NC State had climbed sharply in our rankings entering this matchup, but they will actually drop slightly after this game. Ball State’s card rating was -9, and NC State won by just seven points. In our KenPom-style rating system, that closer-than-expected margin—especially after a couple of dominant wins following the creation of these cards—will cause a slight dip despite the victory.

Pos	Ball State 1990	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ball State 1990 Stats
1-PG	Scott Nichols	5	0	2	1	2	1	1	0	1	6'1,1.0 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 2.8 Ast
2-SG	Billy Butts	2	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	3	6'3,8.8 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 2.1 Ast
3-SG	Chandler Thompson	12	0	5	2	2	5	0	0	4	6'4,11.7 Pts, 5.6 Reb, 1.8 Ast
4-PF	Paris McCurdy	9	0	3	3	6	9	5	1	1	6'7,11.8 Pts, 8.3 Reb, 0.9 Ast
5-C	Curtis Kidd	14	0	5	4	6	4	2	1	2	6'9,10.7 Pts, 6.9 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Bench
1-PG	Mike Spicer	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'11,1.5 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 2.0 Ast
2-SG	Emanuel Cross	7	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'1,7.8 Pts, 1.6 Reb, 2.2 Ast
3-SG	Shawn Parrish	4	0	1	2	2	4	1	0	1	6'5,5.1 Pts, 4.7 Reb, 1.2 Ast
4-PF	Greg Miller	3	0	1	1	2	2	1	0	1	6'8,7.4 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 0.9 Ast
5-C	Roman Muller	4	0	1	2	2	1	0	0	1	7'1,3.5 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 0.1 Ast
	12 Turnovers	62	1	22	15	22	29	12	2	17
Pos	NC State 1983	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	NC State 1983 Stats
1-PG	Sidney Lowe	9	1	2	2	2	2	2	0	2	nba,6'0,11.3 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 7.5 Ast
2-SG	Dereck Whittenburg	24	2	8	2	2	3	1	0	1	6'1,17.5 Pts, 2.7 Reb, 2.4 Ast
3-SG	Ernie Myers	11	0	4	3	4	4	1	0	3	6'5,11.2 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 1.3 Ast
4-PF	Lorenzo Charles	9	0	4	1	2	7	0	1	4	nba,6'7,8.1 Pts, 6.0 Reb, 0.5 Ast
5-C	Thurl Bailey	4	0	2	0	0	10	1	3	4	nba,6'11,16.7 Pts, 7.7 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Pos	Bench	0	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Bench
1-PG	Terry Gannon	2	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	1	6'1,7.3 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 1.2 Ast
2-SG	George McClain	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'0,2.7 Pts, 0.5 Reb, 0.8 Ast
3-SG	Alvin Battle	4	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'7,2.7 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 0.3 Ast
4-PF	Walter Dinky Proctor	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'8,0.9 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 0.5 Ast
5-C	Cozell McQueen	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	nba,6'11,3.5 Pts, 5.6 Reb, 0.9 Ast
	19 Turnovers	69	3	26	8	10	33	7	4	21