The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/947448
72 ■ THE WOLFPACKER ■ PACK PAST do. Duke led 4-2 at the half. Action picked up early in the second half, with the Blue Devils taking an 8-6 lead. Then Sloan instructed Kretzer to hold the ball again. For the next 13 minutes and 45 seconds, he dribbled the ball continuously, without help from his teammates or pressure from Duke's defense. Both radio and television broadcasts went to commercial breaks while the clock was running — and no one missed any part of the game. North Carolina play-by-play an- nouncer Bill Currie said on the air "this game is about as exciting as watching artificial in- semination." Kretzer was an unlikely ball-handling hero. At 6-6, he was the smallest starting center in the ACC. His eyesight was so bad, Sloan once claimed, he couldn't see the scoreboard. His small hands kept him from catching the ball in Sloan's motion offense, so all play- ers were instructed not to throw the ball to Kretzer if either of them were moving. "It was certainly one of the most bizarre games that anyone has participated in," said Kretzer, who died in 1999 shortly after retir- ing as chief executive officer of Greensboro- based textile giant Unifi Inc. "We had played Duke twice, and, quite candidly, they had better talent than we had as a whole. "In each of the regular-season games, we were fairly competitive for a while until we got into a stretch where we would get into a running game with them. They would make a spurt, and we could never recover." This time out, Kretzer paced back and forth near midcourt, carefully dribbling while the crowd waited for something to happen. "I think I dribbled more that night than the entire time I played college basketball," Kretzer said in a 1973 interview. "I went back and forth across the court. I had to do some- thing. I was afraid if I just stood there drib- bling the ball I would lapse into a coma or something and bounce the ball off my foot." As the clock wound down inside five min- utes, Biedenbach and Williford walked over to the sidelines, where they got final instruc- Bill Kretzer was instructed by head coach Norm Sloan to hold the ball, so he dribbled it for nearly 14 minutes continuously at one point in the second half. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS Build on the foundation of our dedicated accounting. Treating numbers like numbers and people like people. Raleigh • Greensboro 800-331-5325 • wopcpa.com ConstruCtion serviCes Group • Financial Reporting for Bonding and Surety • Construction-Specific Tax Strategy • Business Consultants for Contractors The Wolfpacker 1-800-421-7751 PO Box 2331 • Durham, NC 27702 www.TheWolfpackerOnline.com Items are shipped direct from manufacturer. Returns accepted only in case of defect or shipping error. NC, IN & MI Residents Add Sales Tax GO PACK! MATS #2251-SS #2261-SS #2252-FBSS SOUTHERN STYLE MATS $29.95 + $6.99 S&H #2251-SS Starter Mat Size: 19" x 30" #2261-SS Outdoor Vinyl Doormat Size: 31.25" x 19.5" #2252-FBSS Football Mat Size: 32.5" x 20.5"