Saw a video clip about this, didn't realize that it was our very own Norm Sloan. 12-10 win over Duke in the days before the shot clock. https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/nc-state/article203685514.html From the opening tap, Norm Sloan, N.C. State’s second-year head coach, believed the Wolfpack’s best chance to win was to draw Duke out of its 2-3 zone defense. In so doing, N.C. State could move Duke’s Lewis away from the basket and allow the Wolfpack’s smaller and quicker guards to score around the basket. Vic Bubas, Duke’s ninth-year head coach who had guided his teams to Final Four appearances in 1963, 1964 and 1966, decided not to play along with Sloan’s strategy. The Blue Devils had survived a slowdown game in the opening round, a 43-40 victory over Clemson, and there was every reason to believe they could do it again against N.C. State. So, N.C. State took advantage of not having a shot clock and held the ball without challenge from Duke for most of the game. At one point in the first half, Bill Kretzer, the Wolfpack’s senior center, retained possession of the ball near midcourt for 14 consecutive minutes. Duke led 4-2 at halftime, but N.C. State secured the win in a flurry of action in the final two minutes of the game. One Charlotte newspaper headlined the game as the “Refrigerator Bowl.” Both coaches defended their game plans afterward. “I was coach, and I’m hired to win,” Sloan said at the time. “I accept full responsibility for choosing to do it that way,” Bubas told reporters. That does not make it any easier to explain today.
I was in a 12-8 game in high school. Our coach wanted to shorten the game because we were overmatched. We held the ball near mid court and they never extended their defense. It was surreal.
