New film spotlights legendary 1974 ACC men’s tournament between UMD, NC State

WASHINGTON -
It wasn’t just a good game – it changed the sport. That’s the premise of the new film "The Game That Changed College Basketball," which focuses on the 1974 Atlantic Coast Conference men’s championship game.

The backstory:

The game was between No. 1 ranked N.C. State, featuring future Hall of Famer David Thompson, and No. 4 ranked Maryland, with future NBA players Len Elmore, John Lucas, Tom McMillan, and future Hall of Fame coach Lefty Driesell. 

N.C. State won the game in overtime, 103-100. But despite the close match-up between highly ranked teams, only one team per conference made the NCAA tournament at the time. 

So, that meant N.C. State went dancing (and would go on to win the national championship) – while Maryland stayed home. The NCAA tournament was expanded the following year.

What they're saying:

"To have a team ranked as highly and thought of as highly as we were not go to the NCAA tournament was absurd," said Maryland great Len Elmore, who is featured in the documentary. Elmore added that he still thinks about the loss more than 50 years later, although not as much as he used to. "I think it was almost a sacrifice, if you will, for us to go down and be as disappointed as we were but nevertheless play a role in college athletics history."

Producer and Director Shuaib Mitchell said he’s been working on the film – off-and-on – for the last eight years.

"When they went into this game, they knew somebody was not going to reach their dreams of winning a national title," Mitchell told FOX 5. "So, you can imagine the stakes."

What's next:

The world premiere of "The Game That Changed College Basketball" is scheduled for Sunday, March 9 at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts. If you’d like to purchase tickets, you can click here.