Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.
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W 28 isconsin volleyball coach Kelly Sheffield picked an appropriate movie to show his players during the three-hour bus ride to Champaign, Ill., for last weekend's NCAA regional semifinals and finals. It was just the right psychological touch for Sheffield, whose choice was an ESPN "30 for 30" madefor-television movie, "Survive and Advance" starring the late Jim Valvano and the "Cardiac Pack." March will mark the 30th anniversary of NC State's improbable run to the 1983 national championship in men's college basketball; a run that absolutely no one saw coming. The No. 6-seeded Wolf Pack entered the tournament with 10 losses, the most in the field. Yet they were able to silence their critics by finding a way to win all of the close games, overtimes included. After beating a No. 1 seed (Virginia) in the regional final and a No. 4 seed (Georgia) in the national semifinals, they drew mighty Houston, whose average margin of victory was 18 points. The Cougars, the consensus No. 1, featured Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon and adopted the handle of "Phi Slamma Jamma" because of its high-wire act and dunkers; notably Drexler. But it was a Lorenzo Charles dunk ― off an air ball from teammate Derek Whittenberg ― that sent Valvano into a frenzy and lifted NC State to a memorable 52-50 win over Houston. "I had heard about Jim Valvano, but I had not seen it (the movie) before, it was awesome," said Wisconsin's 18-year-old freshman setter, Lauren Carlini, who was the MVP of the Champaign Regional. "No one expected him to get to the place where he was and the fact that his team bonded together and said, 'Hey, we're going to do this and beat the odds' showed that anything can happen." Carlini couldn't help but connect the dots between NC State's under- // VARSITY December 19, 2013 dog mentality and the 12th-seeded Badgers, one of the lowest seeds to ever advance to the NCAA national semifinals in women's volleyball. A year ago, Michigan was unseeded and made it to the semifinals ― where the Wolverines were eliminated by Texas, the eventual national champion and Wisconsin's opponent on Thursday at KeyArena in Seattle. In 2011, Florida State was the No. 12 seed and made it to the semifinals ― where the Seminoles were beaten by UCLA, the No. 9 seed. The Bruins went on to win the NCAA crown that season. In 2009, Hawaii, the No. 12 seed, lost in the semifinals to Penn State, the eventual champ. In 2005, unseeded Santa Clara fell to Nebraska in the semis. "I think we're playing the best volleyball of the year right now," Carlini said. "Everyone is having fun and we're going out there thinking, 'Let's lay it all on the table. We don't have anything to lose."'