They would sit for hours, the black basketball star from Washington, D.C., and the white, Italian coach from Queens, and talk about how they had come to a school in the heart of the tobacco industry and what the future might hold.
“We played hard for Jim [Valvano] because it wasn’t just about basketball,” Dereck Whittenburg told The Post. “It was about who we were and what were our dreams.”
The dream came true 20 years ago when N.C. State upset Houston 54-52 to win the NCAA Tournament. It was Whittenburg’s 40-foot airball that Lorenzo Charles plucked out of the air and dunked for the game-winning basket to give the Wolfpack their second NCAA title.
Valvano died of cancer in 1993. Whittenburg, who is now the coach at Wagner (18-8, 14-2 in the Northeast Conference after a 79-71 win over Sacred Heart last night), said at yesterday’s Met College Basketball Writers Luncheon that he teaches and talks to his players just as he and Valvano used to talk about the world around them.
“Chemistry is a big part of our team,” said Whittenburg. “The wins and losses are important, but it’s how we treat each other as people, that’s what counts.”