Between the Blues on Tobacco Rd.

Not quite nine years old, I stayed up late with Dad to watch the game on TV.

Tom Gugliotta lifted N.C. State to a 99-88 win over North Carolina with a performance unforgettable to a revering third-grader. The Wolfpack was wallowing in the darkest days in program history; its two bitter rivals were amid a three-year stranglehold on basketball’s title belt. The past quarter-century brought brighter days to State, but the boys in blue only tightened their grips on hoops supremacy and separated themselves further from the Pack.

That’s why we savor moments like these.

– Joe Overby, S&A Communications