Tim Peeler: Looking back at the last NC State men's basketball opening-night sellout

Based on attendance numbers alone, the last time there was this much excitement to start an NC State men’s basketball season was more than a quarter century and three arena names ago.

The much-anticipated Will Wade era of reckoning will begin on Monday, Nov. 3, against North Carolina Central, bringing to an end all of the off-season anticipation and kicking off the tenure of the sixth coach since Jim Valvano left in a non-amicable departure in 1990,

The State men’s program — despite four Sweet Sixteen appearances under Herb Sendek, Mark Gottfried and Kevin Keatts and the emotionally satisfying but totally out-of-the-blue ACC tournament title and Final Four appearance in 2024 — has been looking for sustained success ever since.

In a new era of college basketball, with its transfer portal and name, image and likeness earnings, Wade has promised that will change during his tenure and Wolfpack fans are eager to see if that will come true by snapping up all 19,500 tickets for the game at what is now the Lenovo Center.

That was similarly the case on Nov. 19, 1999, when Sendek’s squad took to the still gleaming floor for the inaugural game at the Entertainment and Sports Arena (ESA) against Georgia after 50 years at historic Reynolds Coliseum (1949-99).

Many of the 19,507 fans showed up in tuxedoes or their Sunday best for the Friday night contest against the Bulldogs, a tip of the top-hat to the start of something special at the $167 million Raleigh-Wake County-Gale Force Holdings venture that eventually became home to the 2006 Stanley Cup and the 2024 ACC championship trophy.

It brought to an end Valvano’s vision from 15 years earlier to replace Reynolds, the iconic on-campus multi-purpose facility that was home to 10 ACC champion and two national championship teams.

The bright and bold baby was born of the fivesome marriage of Raleigh, Wake County, the state of North Carolina, NC State’s Wolfpack Club and the Carolina Hurricanes’ owner Gale Force Holdings, was tinged with paternity questions and child support battles.

On its arrival on the perimeter of the North Carolina State Fairgrounds adjacent to Carter-Finley Stadium, however, it was loved all the same whether called the generic ESA, or the RBC Center after a 20-year naming rights deal was secured in in 2002. However, after PNC Financial bought Royal Canada Bank in 2012, the name was changed to PNC Arena. Last September, Triangle-based Lenovo secured a new 10-year rights deal with the Centennial Authority to put a new name on the building, which still ranks as the eighth-largest college basketball home court 26 years after it opened.

The 1999-2000 season was also one of great anticipation for Sendek’s Wolfpack, his fifth edition since taking over for Les Robinson. He had had some success, appearing in the ACC tournament finals in his first season, but had yet to make an appearance in the Big Dance, continuing a nine-year drought since Robinson’s team qualified for the 1991 tournament.

With the nation’s No. 1 recruit in forward Damien Wilkins, sophomore guards Anthony Grundy and Archie Miller and upperclassmen Justin Gainey, Damon Thornton, Kenny Inge and Ron Kelley, Sendek had his deepest, most balanced team.

The outlook wasn’t brilliant after the first five minutes, with Georgia scoring the game’s first 10 points and forcing Sendek to call the first time out in arena history. The Pack closed the game to three points later in the first half and trailed 38-31 at intermission.

It continued the slow comeback until Kelley hit a pair of free throws to give his team its first lead at 55-53 with 8:15 remaining in the game. Georgia retook the lead on several occasions, but the Pack went ahead to stay when Miller, who had missed five of his first six 3-pointers, nailed his seventh attempt, swishing a corner jumper with 58 seconds left on the clock to give his team a 66-63 lead. Gainey hit a free throw with 41 seconds remaining to provide the 68-63 final school.

While Miller made the game’s biggest shot, the late Grundy emerged as a reliable go-to player, scoring a team-high 13 points, along with four rebounds, four assists and seven steals, sending most of the inaugural sell-out crowd giddy with anticipation for a strong season.

Sendek’s Pack won its first seven games, even entering The Associated Press’ Top 25 in December and reaching as high as No. 21 in January. However, February hit hard, with the Wolfpack losing eight of nine games in one stretch and going on a seven-game losing streak. 

NC State won its quarter-final game against Virginia in the ACC tournament at Charlotte, but lost in the semifinals to No. 20 Maryland, ending its hopes of an NCAA bid. In Sendek’s fourth consecutive trip to the National Invitation Tournament, the Pack beat Tulane and Arizona State in its new arena, then won at Mississippi to advance to the NIT semifinals at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, the granddaddy of all college basketball arenas.

The season ended with an overtime loss to ACC-rival Wake Forest in the NIT seminfinals and a consolation game loss to Penn State.

NC State won its first 16 home-openers at its new arena and 23 of its first 25, with the only home losses to William & Mary in 2015 and Georgia Tech in 2019.

But the only sellout until now was in the 1999 arena opener.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].