TAMPA, Fla. – Jim Valvano would have turned 61 on Saturday.

And N.C. State did everything it could to treat him well. The Wolfpack won its third straight game of the ACC Tournament – this time a 72-64 victory in the semifinals against the No.3-seeded Hokies in the St. Pete Times Forum on Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore Ben McCauley said he was unaware that it was Valvano’s birthday; however, when he learned, he smiled and then said Valvano played his part.

“Maybe that’s a little bit more of the magic playing into it,” McCauley said. “He’s probably watching over us.”

Throughout the game, State made the plays it needed to in the second half. The Pack made 21-of-24 free throws in the half while the Hokies shot less than 45 percent for the game.

But next for State is top-seeded North Carolina. UNC dismantled Boston College earlier in the day 71-56 during the first semifinal.

First-year coach Sidney Lowe, who said the win was special because of Valvano’s birthday, said this ACC Tournament run has been spectacular.

“If we’re fortunate enough to go on and win this thing, it would be larger than the 83′ team,” Lowe said.

State is only the second team to make it to a fourth game in the ACC Tournament – the other happened to be the 1997 State team. Ironically, that year was former coach Herb Sendek’s first season with the Pack.

Justin Gainey, now the coordinator of special projects/events, played on the 1997 team. He played all 160 minutes of the tournament after playing no more than 15 minutes per game during the regular season, he said.

That team lost to North Carolina in the finals. But this go-round, Gainey said the team has a lot more to work with.

“This group has a lot more talent than we did and a lot more size,” Gainey said. “It’s really doable.”

Whether or not superstitions are true, Lowe isn’t going to change a whole lot for Sunday’s game. As he has done the past couple of days, he plans of taking his red jacket to the cleaners and having it ready to go for the finals.

“It was freshly cleaned [Friday],” Lowe said. “Picked it up this morning about 10:30, so we’ll just have to see if we can get it done one more time.”

The team has picked up on the superstitions too. But junior forward Gavin Grant said he was hoping Valvano’s birthday could have been a day later.

“I wish it was tomorrow and we could win that game for him,” Grant said.