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VIDEO: Former NC State stars tossed from the stands

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Mike Miller

NC State should be thanking two of the program’s legends, Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani, after their 76-62 loss to No. 20 Florida State on Saturday afternoon.

With six minutes left in the game and the Wolfpack down by 18 points, Gugliotta and Corchiani got themselves tossed out of the game. Neither former player is on the NC State coaching staff. They were sitting directly behind the scorer’s table as fans with their families.

Check out the video, it’s pretty wild:

On the one hand, this is just another example of a referee trying to make the story about himself. Karl Hess is a guy with a reputation for showmanship. Corchiani told Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com that neither he nor Googs used profanity. ""We’re not denying we were all over him, but I’ve been doing that every game I’ve been at since I retired. That’s homecourt advantage,” he said.

But the byproduct of the ejection is that no one is talking about the fact that NC State wasted away another opportunity to notch a marquee victory. The Wolfpack sit squarely on the bubble. After blowing a 20 point lead at Duke on Thursday night, NC State now has one more chance at a big win: Tuesday against North Carolina at home. A win probably doesn’t get them in, but a loss will make it very tough to get an at-large bid.

UPDATE: John Clougherty, the ACC’s supervisor of officials, has released a statement on the officials: “Under Rule 10, when circumstances warrant, an official has the authority to request home game management to eject fans when the behavior, in the officials’ judgement, is extreme or excessive. It’s unfortunate in this instance that ACC protocol of communicating directly with the home game management was not followed, and instead, a building security officer was solicited. We will re-communicate this policy with all officials to ensure proper protocol is followed.”

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.