PC 61 (18-4) – #7 North Carolina (17-4) 59

 (February 11, 1978) 

PC 61 (18-4) – #7 North Carolina (17-4) 59

 (February 11, 1978)


ON MONDAY FEBRUARY 5TH, Mother Nature delivered a two-day thunder-snow storm to Rhode Island, burying the state with its worst blizzard in history.  Frosty Mo Nature delivered 26 inches that was on top of about a foot of ice that was still on many roads from an earlier storm that blacked out much of the state. 

The weekend of the ice storm, my mother did not want to venture out at night and talked me into going to the opera with my father in her place; little did I know that the winter gods would reward me so soon thereafter as I would get to go the previously sold out PC-North Carolina game.

Jumping forward to the Sunday after the Blizzard, the National Guard had shut down most of the state to traffic, but you were more than welcome to come to the Civic Center to watch this nationally televised matchup so long as you did so by foot or train.  While Mapquest and the State of Rhode Island dispute my contention that my father and I walked 19 miles uphill both ways (okay — it was a relatively flat 1.9 miles), we and about 7,000 other die-hard fans braved the not-so vast wintry tundra to see a classic basketball game in choice seats.

North Carolina came in ranked 7th led by forward Mike O’Koren and guard Phil Ford (who the Bleacher Report not only still includes in the all-time Tar Heel starting five but adds “Ford was pure magic. From Rocky Mount, North Carolina, he is the second greatest basketball player to ever come out of North Carolina.”)  Ford led Smith’s controversial Four Corners offense (by the way – it should have been called the four corners dofense or nofense since it definitely was not offense and was an insult to the fans who showed up to see basketball), which with halftime scores of 7-0 the following year versus Duke led to the introduction of the shot clock to college basketball. 

Al McGuire, whose Marquette team had beat Dean Smith’s Tar Heels in the National Championship game the year before, was now on hand as part of NBC’s national television broadcast and they had little difficulty in getting the crowd fired up for the launch of the broadcast.  It was a tight game, but the snow angels appeared to be abandoning us when North Carolina went into the dreaded four-corners offense leading 58-52 with 3:30 to go.  


The snow angels quickly appeared as Providence magically went on a 7-1 run and then poetry tooks it course.  For nothing could warm your bones more on such a cold day than to see that the ball was in the hands of the Friar’s leading scorer – Bruce “Soup” Campbell –  at the top of the key.  As the Tar Heels swarmed upon him,  Campbell fed the ball to an open Bill Eason at the baseline, Eason not only sunk the game winning shot but PC became the first team to beat the Tar Heels after they had gone into the four-corners.

The snow angels quickly appeared as Providence magically went on a 7-1 run and then poetry tooks it course.  For nothing could warm your bones more on such a cold day than to see that the ball was in the hands of the Friar’s leading scorer – Bruce “Soup” Campbell –  at the top of the key.  As the Tar Heels swarmed upon him,  Campbell fed the ball to an open Bill Eason at the baseline, Eason not only sunk the game winning shot but PC became the first team to beat the Tar Heels after they had gone into the four-corners.

The win was a huge psychic boost to a beleagured state and is still one of the most talked about non-tournament Friar wins.
 
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