NC State Began the Tradition of Cutting Down the Nets

It’s fitting that the NC State Men’s Basketball team has had the opportunity to cut down the nets twice this postseason. The first being when they won the 11th ACC Championship, and the second being when they advanced to their 4th Final Four.

The reason it’s fitting for the Wolfpack to cut down the nets in celebration, is because they were the first to ever do so.

Back in 1947, when NC State defeated UNC 50-48 to win the Southern Conference Title in his first season as the Wolfpack’s Head Coach, with no ladder available, he asked his players to hoist him on their shoulders so he could cut down the nets. It wasn’t the first time Case had ever cut down the nets. In Indiana, as a prestigious high school basketball coach, he had done so on four occasions after winning the state title.

What Case did in 1947, began a tradition that has run throughout college basketball ever since.

Jimmy V, followed in the footsteps of Case, and cut down the nets a few times himself. An interesting fact about Valvano, is that he would have his teams practice cutting down the nets at the beginning of the season, so they could envision being champions.

My second part of motivation is dream. Do you still dream? I still dream. I dream all the time, I watch that film a lot, I also for my players we have one practice every year, they come up on the court, there’s no balls, there’s no drills, all we do is practice cutting the net. I have golden scissors, they carry each other up, they carry me up, I cut the last one. We do that, we film it, we go up and watch it, then we watch us at 83′ doing it, we see the reality, we see the dream. – Jimmy V