Sidney Lowe celebrated Jim Valvano’s birthday by directing N.C. State’s third upset victory in three days. His college coach, winner of the Wolfpack’s two most recent ACC championships, would have been 61 today.

If there is a model for making the improbable a reality, at least in ACC basketball circles, it is Valvano, the coach who conjured a national championship from an unsung 1983 squad with Lowe as the point guard; a mix of Derrick Whittenburg, Terry Gannon and Ernie Myers at the wings; and a frontline of Thurl Bailey, Cozell McQueen and Lorenzo Charles. That squad, 17-10 entering the ACC Tournament, muddled through much of the season without Whittenburg, who was injured, then caught fire at just the right time.

Fast forward to 2007. Lowe is bidding to become the third man in ACC history to win the conference title in his first year as a head coach, after Duke’s Vic Bubas (an N.C. State alumnus) in 1960 and UNC’s Bill Guthridge in 1998. His team entered the ACC Tournament with a 15-14 record, having played 12 games without point guard Engin Atsur, who was injured.

Now, after defeating Virginia Tech 72-64 with a deliberate, disciplined style, the Wolfpack is within one game of the school’s 11^th ACC title.

All that stands in the way are the fatiguing prospect of playing a fourth game in four days, and a top-seeded North Carolina squad rounding into form as a national championship contender. UNC and N.C. State previously met in the finals five times, with the Tar Heels winning in 1968, 1975 and 1997. The Wolfpack came out on top in 1959 under Everett Case and in 1987 under Valvano.

The teams split their two meetings this year, each winning on its home court.

“We just want to come out and be really tough mentally,” Lowe said. “Forget the physical.”

N.C. State has surmounted supposedly superior opposition by executing its game plan with numbing efficiency. The 10^th seed made 55.8 percent of its shots in wins over Duke, Virginia and Virginia Tech, including 42.9 percent of its 3-pointers. The Pack converted 76.2 percent of their free throws, helping to maintain leads when they get them, and held opponents to 43.8 percent shooting.

“They’re a tough matchup because of their style of play,” Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. “They really are a very good passing team. They’re almost like a European team.”

Among Lowe’s assistants is Justin Gainey, who played all 160 minutes as the point guard on a 1997 N.C. State squad that until now was the only team to play four games in an ACC Tournament. That six-man unit lost 64-54 to North Carolina in the finals.

Gainey recalled that any consciousness of fatigue vanished when he ran onto the court at the Greensboro Coliseum, seeing the lights, the fans, the media, the ACC emblem on the floor. “It’s no time to be tired,” he said. “We sucked it up. It really didn’t faze me. After the game I was sore.”