2003 Top 50 List: Yes
Dan Collins List: Yes
This one is personal for me. I grew up an NC State fan, and Rodney Monroe, Chris Corchiani, and Tom Gugliotta are the players I remember best. I think many Wolfpack fans look back on this era with – not just with fondness, but something akin to reverence, out of proportion to the actual success these teams had. In Monroe’s years, NC State didn’t win an ACC Tournament and didn’t make it past the Sweet 16. I think there are a couple of reasons for the intensity of feeling that NC State fans have for this era.
One, these teams, and players, were exceedingly fun to watch. They played an up tempo style, made shots, and scored a lot of points. Corchiani and Monroe were a perfect pair – the fiery, tough, smart floor general Corchiani, and the cool, understated, sweet-shooting Monroe.
But the biggest reason is that looking back, NC State fans now understand that this was the end of an era. Through 1991, NC State was one of the ten best programs in the history of college basketball. Since 1991, they haven’t been one of the 50 best. It’s almost as if when Monroe and Corchiani left the program, they took the excellence, the pride, and the history with them.
Of particular significance to fans, 1991 also marked the end of the era when NC State was on a similar level with Duke and North Carolina. During Monroe and Corchiani’s careers, NC State went 8-10 against their biggest rivals. Nobody owns Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski, but it was competitive. When you played one of those teams at home, you expected to win. No matter where you played them, you knew you were going to compete, and you didn’t worry about getting embarrassed.
Monroe as a player is one of the greatest scorers in ACC history. He is the ACC’s fourth all-time leading scorer behind Tyler Hansbrough, JJ Redick, and Johnny Dawkins. He trails only Hansbrough and Redick in career 20-point games. He is sixth all-time in career 30-point games and is the only player from the last 45 years in the top six. Only Len Chappell (50) and Dickie Hemric (49) scored more in an ACC game than Monroe’s 48 against Georgia Tech in 1991. Monroe is third all-time in three-point FG%, shooting 43.6% for his career. His 27 points per game in 1991 has not been reached by an ACC player since.
Monroe did better among ACC voters than he did nationally. He was first team All-ACC in 1989 as a sophomore. In his junior year, he barely missed, finishing sixth in the voting. His performance didn’t dip at all; he probably lost some votes because the Wolfpack had a somewhat disappointing year in Jim Valvano’s last season. As a senior, Monroe was named ACC Player of the Year over Kenny Anderson and Christian Laettner. Anderson and Laettner did better in All-America voting, which is understandable; both of them had been to the Final Four the previous year, so they came into the year with a lot of hype, plus they were great players, of course.