RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) All eyes at North Carolina State s arena once again were on Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani.
This time, nobody wanted them to leave.
Three days after they were ejected from the stands by an official during a game, Gugliotta and Corchiani returned to the RBC Center to cheers from a passionate fan base that has insisted the players treatment was unjust.
Both were part of the 1989 N.C. State team that was honored during a ceremony before the Wolfpack s game Tuesday night against No. 7 North Carolina .
The last thing we ever thought we d do is get embarrassed or embarrass this program that we love so dearly, and in our minds, we didn t, Gugliotta said roughly an hour before the game.
For some reason, we got thrown out, and we still don t, obviously, really have a good explanation why, he added. If that s what comes out of it the realization of how strong and powerful this fanbase is, and the support from (athletic director) Debbie Yow and the people upstairs that run these programs, then that s awesome. Then we can turn this into something tremendously positive, and it looks like that s where this is heading.
Yow sounded eager to put the episode in the past, saying: we re moving forward.
The fans, however, didn t seem quite as ready to let go. Among the dozens of signs fans brought to the arena were cutouts of Gugliotta s and Corchiani s faces made from photographs taken when the players were escorted from their seats in Saturday s game.
The fan base, the Wolfpack Nation, has just been incredibly supportive, Corchiani said. To know that they ve got your back (and) you re supported, it s a good feeling.
While Gugliotta admitted the ejection still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, the two players seem to be able to laugh about it now. Roughly an hour before the North Carolina game, Gugliotta and Corchiani smiled when posing for a photograph with the Raleigh Police Department officer who escorted them from their seats.
They were sitting in the front row behind the scorers table during a loss to Florida State when official Karl Hess approached the table with 6:40 remaining and gestured for their removal. That prompted a response from Yow, who said she was seeking answers from high-ranking Atlantic Coast Conference officials and wanted fair treatment of our fans at games.
Less than 24 hours after the ejections and not coincidentally the school announced plans for the ceremony to honor the 1989 team, the Wolfpack s last to win an ACC regular-season championship.
The league reviewed the incident and publicly reprimanded Hess on Monday, saying game officials have the authority to ask the home team s management and not arena security to remove fans when, in the official s judgment, their behavior is extreme or excessive.
Hess told ACC officials that they weren t ejected for anything they said, but for excessive demonstration on several calls as they came right up to the scorer s table, according to an email sent Monday night by ACC associate commissioner for men s basketball Karl Hicks to N.C. State executive senior associate athletic director Chris Kingston. Hess, who started work as an ACC official in 1987, declined comment each time an Associated Press reporter asked him a question after the game.
Gugliotta scored 1,536 points while playing for N.C. State from 1988-92, before beginning a 13-year NBA career that included an All-Star selection in 1997. Corchiani, who spent three seasons in the NBA, played for the Wolfpack from 1987-91 and is second on the NCAA Division I career assists list with 1,038. Both Gugliotta s and Corchiani s jersey numbers hang from the RBC Center rafters.
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