Don't expect Mark Gottfried fervently to run around looking for someone to hug the next time something spectacular happens to the N.C. State basketball program. Been there and done that, sort of.
The Wolfpack's hugging session upon learning about its inclusion in this year's NCAA Tournament was enough for the 47-year-old coach. He hurt his lower back when 6-foot-9, 231-pound junior DeShawn Painter corralled and hoisted the first-year N.C. State head man into the air in celebration.
If N.C. State strikes gold again, as it did in capturing the 1983 NCAA title, prompting the late Jim Valvano's famous search for someone to embrace that remains one of the tournaments greatest moments, Gottfried's reaction will find a place in Wolfpack lore. Even if he just stands there smiling.
But this time the story that marks the moment in time will be more about the achievement, or that should be achievements – plural – and re-connecting N.C. State with its terrific but largely forgotten past.
Just getting to Friday's Midwest Region semifinals versus Kansas is a considerable accomplishment. This is just its second Sweet 16 since Valvano patrolled the sidelines in 1990. The other came in 2005, when Herb Sendek's N.C. State squad was ousted by Wisconsin.
Otherwise, there's been little to boast about by this once-proud program.
Les Robinson replaced Valvano amid charges of wrongdoing in the program and cleaned things up, but he didn't win, and after six years was let go. Sendek was at the helm for a decade, but left town because his warm seat was never going to cool in Raleigh.
Sidney Lowe, the point guard of that 1983 “Cardiac Pack” team, took the job after nobody else would in 2006, and was fired last spring, having never taken his alma mater to the NCAA tournament.
Enter Gottfried.
Athletic director Debbie Yow's fascinating choice to bring Gottfried out of the TV booth and back onto the sidelines was a brilliant one. In one year, Gottfried has completely changed the culture and perception of N.C. State basketball, and he's just getting started.
He had to break this team down and somewhat start over. Junior Scott Wood half-joked they ran more drills the first day of practice under Gottfried than in two years under Lowe. It wasn't entirely a disrespectful jab at the former coach and Wolfpack legend, but a compliment to the new man in charge.
Since being hired, Gottfried has infused C.J. Leslie, whom he calls Calvin, which is the player's first name, with enough inspiration and hoops IQ that the 6-foot-9 sophomore has become a consistent load for opponents and might be one of the top players remaining in the tournament.
The Pack has learned to run, play quickly in the half court and to also exercise patience when being defended well. Defensively, State isn't the same team it was in November. Gottfried and his capable staff, which includes former longtime Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz, have appropriately layered their teachings so the Wolfpack is solid and sometimes excellent.
And now, the last layer, is the team's disposition.
For years, N.C. State's players talked a good game but rarely backed it up. The media walked away each time knowing that, too. But the Addams Family cloud that once hovered over Wolfpack basketball has been lifted. The players believe what the coaches say, just like Chris Corchiani, Thurl Bailey, David Thompson and Ronnie Shavlik did under Valvano, Norm Sloan and Everett Case.
This team is connecting itself with a wonderful past that has been lost on recent generations of new hoops fans.
Case was the Pack's coach from 1946-1964 and is widely regarded as the father of the ACC. His teams dominated the Southern Conference and the early days of the ACC, when the league was born in 1953.
Thompson is regarded as the ACC's greatest player ever and led the Wolfpack to the 1974 national title, ending UCLA's seven-year run as champs. That victory changed many mindsets of schools around the country, showing them it was possible to rise to the top.
Bailey was the cornerstone of the 1983 title team, and Corchiani was the all-time NCAA leader in assists when his career ended in 1991.
Not much has happened since then, so excuse the red and white if they are a bit boisterous these days. The long-suffering fans have watched neighbors UNC and Duke win a combined seven national titles and advance to a combined 20 Final Fours since the Pack was last on the most prominent stage in the game.
N.C. State isn't back entirely, but it is rekindling a flame that is finally once again more than a flicker in the distance.
