The last time Sidney Lowe stepped on a basketball court against North Carolina, he was a donning jersey No. 35 and was the senior point guard and cocaptain for N.C. State.

His team had just defeated Wake Forest in the opening round of the 1983 ACC Tournament 71-70 and North Carolina was its second-round matchup. The team’s best shot at the NCAA Tournament was with a win against UNC in the semifinals and then to win the tournament the next day.

The game would be tied at the end of regulation and enter overtime. Ironically, current North Carolina coach Roy Williams was an assistant during that game — a game he said he hasn’t forgotten.

“I just remember they made big shots and big plays and we didn’t,” Williams said. “You have to give them credit for making us not do what we wanted to do.”

The Wolfpack would get the win, 91-84, and the next day they would defeat Virginia 81-78 to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. From there, most people remember what happened, including Williams.

“They just got on a great run,” Williams said.

“I remember we were in the NCAA Tournament as well — seeing them play Pepperdine and Pepperdine kept missing some free throws down the stretch. I thought this could be some kind of special thing that’s going on here. I even thought it as early as that and I told Eddie Fogler, who was in the room with me, that they could really get it going here.”

During his time at State, Lowe would only have one win against North Carolina before his senior year. The Pack even lost its first game against the Tar Heels of his senior year.

However, Lowe said he never believed the team would lose to North Carolina.

“Never ever did we step out on the floor thinking that we’re never going to beat these guys,” Lowe said. “That doesn’t, that never ever entered our minds.”

He said with some of his senior leadership, he led the team and instilled confidence in the young players.

“No, it never did feel that way. Obviously, we had a ball club that was pretty confident — even as a young man, my freshman year here at State,” Lowe said. “We had some pretty good seniors in Hawkeye Whitney and Clyde Austin, some guys that obviously had been around for a while. We had us young guys coming in. We had come in with some success in high school with winning.”

And that leadership is something that Williams said he has always noticed from Lowe. He said even though Jim Valvano was a coach to watch out for, he said the Tar Heels were more worried about Lowe during the Pack’s 1983 run.

“I’ve been a fan of his for a long, long time,” Williams said.

“The 83 team had great leadership for Jimmy Valvano in what he did with the freedom and confidence he gave that team,” Williams said. “But they had a wonderful, wonderful leader on that court with Sidney, who was a very determined player, very focused player, very competitive player and I think the true leader of that team. Again, Jimmy did a great job with it, but we were more worried about Sidney than we were about Jimmy.”

Now the two get to meet each other again — this time in different positions, each as coach of his alma mater.