Dave Sez

Remembering Whittenburg's Foot

In their Return to Reynolds series, GoPack.com put up an article about the game in 1983 when Derrick Whittenburg broke his foot. I'm really glad they picked this one, because it's one of those significant details of history that is often forgotten.

That '83 State team is of course famous for running the table in the ACC and then NCAA tournament, one of the great Cinderella stories of college hoops. The thing is, they weren't really a Cinderella at all. That was a very, very good team. In that game, State was stomping a very good (and #2 ranked) Virginia team. If I remember correctly, the Wolfpack was up by around 20 when Whittenburg came down on Othell Wilson's foot and broke his foot.

With Whittenburg out, the Cavs stormed back and won the game. State went on to lose several more games in a strong ACC before Whittenburg came back just before the ACC tournament. With him in the lineup, State was easily a top ten team, and without him, other players were able to step up and develop their game so that when he returned, they were even better.

The ACC Hoops Blog wrote a bit about this (and one other game) as well.