I just saw a great story on Jim Valvano and the North Carolina State basketball team that went on an incredible winning streak to win the 1983 NCAA championship with one of the greatest wins over a heavily favored Houston team.
The NC State team followed up an air ball shot with seconds remaining to win in dramatic, unbelievable fashion. One of the first things Coach Valvano did when he came to NC from Iona was tell the team that he had a vision that he was going to win a national championship and that this was the team to accomplish the goal.
He was so committed to the goal that he devoted an entire practice to cutting down the nets, which is a tradition for the winning team. Each player takes a turn to cut down a piece of the net with the coach cutting down the last thread. The team would get out a step ladder, grab the scissors, and each take turns cutting a piece of the net. And this did not just happen once, the team would regularly have practices were they would cut down the nets. Who does that?
The first time the team did it felt goofy, funny, unreal, but as the team continued to practice cutting down the nets and celebrating their victory they began to believe it could actually happen. Perhaps subconsciously at first but the seed was planted.
Coach Valvano genius was in having the team share in his vision, in having the players share the same belief that he did. This NC State team could win a national championship. This happened at the time when the ACC league had Michael Jordan at North Carolina and Ralph Sampson at Virginia, two of the greatest players in ACC history. NC State wasn't even figured to be a contender for the league championship let alone the national championship.
Fast forward and after a mediocre regular season, NC State must win the ACC league championship tournament just to make the NCAA tourney. Entering the NCAA's as a six seed, the team goes on in dramatic fashion to beat Houston in one of the greatest college games in history to actually win the national championship.
What once was a dream had now become real.
And it all started with a simple vision of Cutting Down the Nets.
With Love,
Tom Kaufmann
Coach K
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