The game was the thing, but only on the surface. Mostly, the night was about memories and the ghosts of greatness past, a celebration of resurrected spirit and of a home court advantage for which players and coach openly yearned.

The immediate result was a 69-62 N.C. State victory over Marist in a rugged NIT contest on Friday night, giving the surprising Wolfpack its 20^th win of the season. The triumph over the squad from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference enabled Sidney Lowe to become the fourth coach in N.C. State history to debut with a 20-win season, following Everett Case (1947), Press Maravich (1965) and Les Robinson (1991).

The victory allowed the Pack to play another day, this time at higher seeded West Virginia in the quarterfinals. The winner travels to New York’s Madison Square Garden to play in the Final Four of the revamped MasterCard NIT, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the NCAA.

N.C. State previously visited Morganton on Dec.6, losing 70-61 without injured playmaker Engin Atsur. “You’ve seen us play without Engin,” said Lowe, a former point guard. “We’re a totally different ballclub. His calming effect that he has on our team means a great deal to us.”

Calm was hardly the operant word, however, as the Wolfpack, bumped by a concert from using the RBC Center, reverted to Reynolds Coliseum to face the Red Foxes.

This year’s team played at Reynolds on Dec. 9 against Savannah State, a game with a predetermined outcome that half-filled the place. This was different, the first soldout men’s game at Reynolds since the 1999 NIT, after which the program shifted to its soulless, multipurpose, off-campus arena.

Ben McCauley, the sophomore who led N.C. State with 19 points against Marist, was asked his reaction to playing in Reynolds.

“Oh, my gosh,” he said. “This was amazing. It was amazing, plain and simple. The fans and how loud it got. They were right on top of us…It’s a great experience and something we’ll remember.” Teammate Gavin Grant, the game-high rebounder with 12, wanted to do it again. “We need to start scheduling Duke and North Carolina in here,” said the junior. “It’ll make a difference. I’m serious.”

Marist’s players, awed by the chance to play on the home floors of big-time programs such as Oklahoma State, their previous NIT opponent, and N.C. State, marveled at Reynolds too. "That’s one of the loudest atmospheres I’ve ever been part of,” said senior Will Whittington, who paced his team with 18 points. “We’re going to remember this. It was crazy in here, it was fun.”

Reynolds is now home to N.C. State women’s basketball, as retired jerseys and banners celebrating team achievements amply attest. The seating capacity has been reduced by 4,000, with student seats no longer crowding the court. The hand-operated noise meter is gone and the old Longines clock has stopped.

But the old place, opened in 1949 at the height of Case’s prowess, still nurtures a collective presence rarely duplicated in any other arena.

The 8,400 red seats were almost filled with red-clad fans an hour before game time, with no public sale required, their voices and enthusiasm suffusing the building with an ambient roar, like a train pulling into a station. Then the game began and the roar grew jet-engine loud, so loud spectators sitting in adjacent seats had to yell to be heard.

Folks had come to see a game, but clearly this was a celebration. Almost by happenstance, Lowe had rekindled the program's passion and pride, fielding a likable, overachieving squad that gives hope for the future even as it satisfies in the present.

Playing in Reynolds, tradition was served, a tradition to which Lowe paid homage from the day he was hired.

From the shadows you could almost hear echoes of the past, spurring memories of the oncourt exploits of Ronnie Shavlik and David Thompson, of Vic Molodet and Tom Gugliotta, of Mel Thompson, Chris Corchiani, Tommy Burleson, Sam Ranzino, Rodney Monroe, Lou Pucillo, Thurl Bailey, Kenny Carr, Eddie Biedenbach, Vann Williford, and of Monte Towe and Sidney Lowe, the latter two sitting on the Wolfpack bench as assistant and leader, respectively. You could see Jim Valvano hitching up his pants on the sidelines, and Norm Sloan wearing one of those godawful plaid jackets.

“It’s been one of the toughest places to play in the country,” Lowe said. He credited the fact the arena is on campus, at the heart of student life, and devoted exclusively to N.C. State. “I like playing in here, personally.” So much so, the coach wants to play more games in “the red barn,” as he called it, if the financial realities of life at the RBC Center can be overcome.

“If you can’t get excited to play in here, you shouldn’t be playing,” he said.