Ernie Myers won the national title for NC State in 1983. He gets to witness history again
If there’s anyone who understands how difficult it is to make an NCAA Tournament run, it’s N.C. State alumnus and broadcaster Ernie Myers.
Myers played for the Wolfpack from 1982-1986, winning the 1983 National Championship and playing in multiple regional finals. He was on Jim Valvano’s 1986 team — the last time the program made the Elite Eight — and served as a graduate assistant during the 1987 ACC Championship run.
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He’s also spent nearly two decades behind the microphone, calling N.C. State women’s basketball. There was a time when Reynolds Coliseum wasn’t always sold out, but he was there.
Myers talked about the N.C. State “curse” but always believed it could get back. Now he gets to witness the Wolfpack men and women earn a spot in the Elite Eight in the same season for the first time in history.
“The mentality was different than when I left. We were more the big dogs on the block,” Myers said. “When I came back, my mind was still thinking (that), because I hadn’t been to North Carolina, I found out it was a different reality for N.C. State.”
On the women’s side, Wes Moore has solidified himself in the upper echelon of coaches. He recruits well, knows how to adapt for each team and each player, and the NC State culture has never been healthier. Moore and his staff effectively balance fun and focus.
It’s why the program is in the Elite Eight for the second time in three seasons and earned a Sweet 16 berth five times since 2018. He’s continued the winning tradition, even when the program has been underrated.
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“Coach (Kay) Yow, I loved her. To be over there broadcasting games and watching this program grow and being involved is very special,” Myers said. “Knowing Coach Yow, she’s smiling, she’s happy with what Coach Wes is doing and putting this program back on a national map.”
For the men, he knows they don’t love the “Cinderella” moniker, because the Pack is from a big conference. The reality is, though, this run is supposed to be impossible.
Teams aren’t supposed to end their regular season on a four-game losing streak, including an injury to one of its key players. They’re not supposed to dominate their in-state rival for one half and collapse in the second, then go on to outplay that same school — from start to finish — two weeks later.
Except the Wolfpack did. It all feels eerily similar to the 1983 team, which dealt with Dereck Whittenburg’s injury and the need to win the ACC Championship to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
“Coach V would tell you, they said Orson Welles would skip lunch and elephants will win the Indy 500 before N.C. State would have won the national championship,” Myers said. “We caught lightning in the bottle and that’s how you got the Cardiac Pack.”
And, anyone who might have said the 2024 Wolfpack team would be having its own version of 1983 was lying, Myers added.
Now, both teams are on the cusp of making more history and it’s an elite feeling.
“Two Final Eight teams is unbelievable,” Myers said. “Wolfpack all the way. I’m feeling like I went back in time … and we’re getting some respectability again.”
