The basketball program at Kansas State has had a long and steady history of producing winning teams. What the school hasn’t done, at least in modern times, is make it all the way to the Final Four. Not since 1964 have the Wildcats danced on college basketball’s biggest stage. The 1988 Kansas State basketball team came awfully close though and pulled off a memorable NCAA Tournament upset along the way.
Lon Kruger was a young head coach looking to make his name when he took over in 1987. His predecessor, Jack Hartman, had a good run at reached a regional final four times in his career. Kruger’s first team in 1987 made the NCAAs and won the first game.
Mitch Richmond was the heart of the team. Richmond averaged 23 points/7 rebounds in the 1988 season and went to an outstanding NBA career that eventually landed him in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Richmond got support from William Scott in the backcourt.
Kansas State started slowly. They were 8-4 in non-conference games and that included bad losses to Missouri State and twice to Southern Miss. There was also a 101-72 shellacking at the hands of Purdue. The Boilermakers were one of the best teams in the country, but the Wildcats would get their own say before this season was over.
The start of Big Eight play saw a revival, with five straight wins. Then K-State lost to NCAA-bound Missouri. They lost 112-95 at Oklahoma, another nationally elite team. They lost a one-point heartbreaker at home to archrival Kansas and Danny Manning.
An NCAA bid was by no means a guarantee, but Kruger’s team surged down the stretch. They won their final five games, moved into second place and still had a shot at sharing the Big Eight title with Oklahoma until the Sooners won their finale. The conference tournament saw some of the best Wildcat basketball yet—they knocked off Kansas in the semis and gave OU a good run in the final before losing 88-83.
It was a big year for Big Eight basketball. Oklahoma was a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament and after all the ups and downs, Kansas State was sitting on the 4-line in the Midwest Regional.
In spite of the high seed, the first NCAA game was hardly a walkover. LaSalle might have been a 13-seed, but Lionel Simmons ,who averaged 23ppg, was one of the best players in the country and a worthy rival to Richmond.
Simmons was indeed that good, and he went for 20/10 in the first-round game at South Bend. Richmond was better, dropping 30 and he had more help. Scott hit 17 points and the K-State defense held LaSalle to 37 percent shooting in a 66-53 win.
The second round opponent was DePaul, a Sweet 16 team from 1987 and with a future NBA point guard in Rod Strickland running the show. The Blue Demons were coming off a 64 percent shooting performance in their first-round rout of Wichita State.
But Kruger’s defense met the challenge. Again, they held an opponent to 37 percent shooting. Strickland had 19, but his two key support players, Stanley Brundy and Kevin Edwards, were forced into a combined 5-for-19 shooting display. Richmond knocked down 19 while Scott stepped up with 23 points and Kansas State won 66-58.
The reward was a trip to the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan, where the Detroit Lions & Pistons used to play their home games before the advent of Ford Field. It was a nice season for Kansas State no matter what way you sliced it, and with top-seeded Purdue next in line, no one expected the season to extend beyond Friday night.
When the Boilermakers took a 43-34 lead at halftime, everything was unfolding as expected. Purdue, with three seniors in key roles, was widely expected to make a breakthrough Final Four run for head coach Gene Keady.
Then up jumped Mitch Richmond. He took over the second half and finished the game with 27 points/11 rebounds, shooting 10-for-20 from the floor. The K-State defense found its form of the first NCAA weekend and held Purdue to 27 points in the second half. The end result was a 73-70 upset that shattered brackets across the Midwest, if not the nation.
The Midwest Regional was a gutted bracket and the favorites on the other side had been eliminated. Kansas State needed only to deal with a 6-seed in the regional final. Unfortunately for them, that happened to be a 6-seed with Danny Manning in the lineup and it happened to be Kansas.
Manning was on one of the great tournament runs of all-time and he eventually led his team past Duke and Oklahoma to win the national championship. Even though Kansas State held a 29-27 lead at halftime, it came apart after intermission. Richmond shot 4-for-14 and the Wildcats lost 71-58.
Kansas State has continued to play fundamentally sound winning basketball in the ensuing decades. But it took them until 2010 to again reach a regional final of NCAA play and they again were stopped by a Cinderella story, this time Brad Stevens and Butler. The ultimate legacy of the 1988 Kansas State basketball team is a very good one, highlighted by the win over Purdue. That legacy will look better when this program can finally reach a Final Four for the first time since 1964.
The 1979 Notre Dame basketball team came into the season with high expectations, coming off the first Final Four appearance in school history the previous year. The ’79 team spent much of the year mostly meeting expectations, until an NCAA Tournament loss to eventualnational champion Michigan State signaled the end of an era in South Bend.
Digger Phelps had taken over the Fighting Irish basketball program in 1974 and since then had managed to end UCLA’s 88-game winning streak when John Wooden was still coaching and had made the Sweet 16 each of the previous five years, culminating with the Final Four run of 1978. Phelps’ team was loaded for bear in 1979 and ranked #3 in the country to start the season.
Kelly Tripucka was the best player and averaged 14ppg, but he was first among equals. Orlando Woolridge averaged 12ppg alongside Tripucka at forward, and Tracy Jackson came off the bench and did the same. Bill Laimbeer, a future mainstay of the Detroit Pistons’ championship teams was the starter at center, and while he only averaged 6 points/5 rebounds, Phelps brought Bruce Flowers off the bench to chip in 10/5.
The frontcourt talent and depth defined Notre Dame, but there were two good playmaking guards in Rich Branning and Bill Hanzlik. It wasn’t hard to see why optimism was running rampant in more places than football, where Notre Dame would win the Cotton Bowl in January on a historic comeback led by Joe Montana.
After three easy wins, the first big test came with a December 9 road trip to second-ranked UCLA. The Bruins had explosive forwards in David Greenwood and Kiki Vandeweghe, but Notre Dame survived a high-scoring game to win 81-78. Three weeks later though, the Irish lost to Kentucky in a game played at Louisville. This wasn’t a good Kentucky team this season, and the loss started what would become a pattern during the season—losing to the perennially proud program on a down year.
Jesuit rival Marquette, two years removed from a national title, was not on a down year. The Warriors had a terrific forward in Bernard Toone and would end up a 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame went up to Milwaukee and came home with a 65-60 win that moved them to the top of the national polls.
ND held the top spot in the rankings even through a 67-66 loss at Maryland, another generally good program that failed to reach the NCAAs in 1979. The Irish were 17-2 when UCLA made a return visit to South Bend. The Bruins were as good as anticipated in the preseason, on their way to the 1-seed in the West Regional and they showed why on February 11. Notre Dame lost at home 56-52 and gave up the #1 ranking.
Phelps’ team bounced back and reached 22-3 before a hiccup at the end. On the final Friday of the season, Notre Dame visited DePaul. The Blue Demons were having a big year themselves. They would get a 2-seed in the NCAAs and ultimately knock off both Marquette and UCLA en route to the Final Four, where they took Larry Bird’s Indiana State to the wire. Notre Dame lost this game 76-72.
There was no shame in losing that game, but a visit to Michigan two days later was another embarrassment against a program with a record of success that was struggling in 1979. Notre Dame lost.
Even with the two losses to end the year, the Irish still got the #1 seed in the Mideast, over and above Michigan State, who hadn’t been great much of the year before surging to share the Big Ten title.
There were 40 teams in the NCAA Tournament, so the teams seeded 1 thru 6 went straight to the Round of 32. Notre Dame played their first tournament game on Sunday against Tennessee. The Vols had a potent forward in Reggie Johnson, who averaged 21/7 and they were coached by Bob Knight disciple Don DeVoe.
It was a tough game that was tied at the half, but the Irish held Johnson below his average, at 13/5. Tripucka led the way with 21 points, Hanzlik knocked down 16 and Laimbeer played the most complete game with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Notre Dame won 73-67 and punched their ticket to Indianapolis and old Market Square Arena for the regionals.
The anticipated opponent had been Iowa, coached by Lute Olson and who would make the Final Four in 1980. But the Hawkeyes had been knocked off by MAC champ Toledo. The Golden Rockets were another team built around a versatile forward, in this case Jim Swaney.
Swaney was all the Irish could handle, going for 26 points while fellow forward Dick Miller went off for 18/10. But Notre Dame had much more balance. Tripucka score 24 and the Branning/Hanzlik duo controlled the backcourt battle, each scoring in double figures. Laimbeer, Woolridge and Jackson all rebounded, keying an interior edge that resulted in an advantage on the boards and at the free throw line, where Notre Dame outscored Toledo 23-9. The Irish built a ten-point lead at the half and won 79-71.
There was just one more step to return to the Final Four and with the bracket in the East Regional—whom the winner of the Mideast would play—being gutted—the ND-Michigan State game was basically a de facto battle for a trip to Monday night and the right to play Bird and Indiana State.
From the perspective of history, a Bird vs. Magic showdown seems almost preordained, but in the moment, there was every reason for Notre Dame to be confident. Yes, Michigan State had Magic Johnson and Greg Kelser, but the Irish were deeper and had future pros of their own. But Magic was very good, with 19 points/13 assists, while Kelser was simply unstoppable with 34 points and 13 rebounds. The game wasn’t competitive as the Irish fell 80-68.
Notre Dame, along with DePaul and Arkansas, each of whom lost by a bucket to Indiana State, might well have been the second-best team in the country. But there would be no Final Four reprise in South Bend. In fact, the loss to Magic marked the last real high point in Phelps’ tenure. He coached through 1991, but never again reached a regional final and only made the Sweet 16 two more times.
Rick Pitino came into the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats season feeling the pressure and—at least according to him—it was coming from some unlikely places. Pitino told a story of visiting Rome during the summer and meeting Pope John Paul II. As Pitino tells the story, he went over and kissed the pope’s ring. The Holy Father then looked at the Kentucky coach and said simply—“Rick, where’s yours?”
The story was a funny joke, although the denizens of Big Blue Nation were asking the same thing and they weren’t laughing. Pitino had enjoyed tremendous success in Lexington. He rebuilt a program that had taken a dramatic step back due to NCAA probation and restored it as a national power.
The recent past had seen Kentucky lose the epic 1992 regional final to Duke on Christian Laettner’s shot. The ‘Cats made the Final Four in 1993 before losing another epic battle, this one to Michigan’s Fab Five. It was 1995 that rankled.
After winning the SEC and earning a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky played poorly in a regional final loss to North Carolina. With key players back and an elite recruit in Ron Mercer joining the fold it was championship-or-bust for the Kentucky Wildcats in 1996.
Pitino had a deep team and no one averaged more than 27 minutes. Antoine Walker was a power forward loved by NBA scouts and he averaged 15 points/8 rebounds per game. Walter McCarty averaged 11/6. And the leading the scorer was Tony Delk, who scored 18ppg, shot 44 percent from behind the arc and won SEC Player of the Year honors.
Delk, Walker and McCarty were the core trio that played the most minutes. Anthony Epps was a good distributor at point guard and other contributors ranged from Derek Anderson to Mark Pope to the talented freshman swingman Mercer.
The great expectations for Kentucky weren’t restricted to the fan base. They were the preseason #1 and the entire country would see anything less than a national title as a failure. This season was going to be reminiscent of the program’s last championship run in 1978, a year so burdened by expectation that head coach Joe B. Hall called it a “joyless ride.”
Kentucky opened the season against a decent Maryland team and won 96-84. The next game came against fifth-ranked UMass. The Minuteman had a head coach named John Calipari and a center in Marcus Camby that would win National Player of the Year. The first signs of adversity came as the Wildcats lost 92-82. But these two teams had not seen the last of each other.
An 83-60 win over eventual ACC champ Georgia Tech got things back on track and before non-conference over, Kentucky had won its grudge match with Louisville. The Cardinals were not a great team in 1996, but they were pretty good and the Wildcats dismantled them 89-66.
Kentucky got SEC play off to a strong start when they went to 12th-ranked Mississippi State on January 9 and won 74-56. In a span of five days they rolled up huge numbers against bad-to-mediocre teams in LSU and TCU, winning 129-97 and 124-80.
A road trip to Georgia provided the toughest test of conference play. The Bulldogs were coached by another name that would become familiar to ‘Cats fans—Tubby Smith—and they would eventually make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky won an 82-77 game.
The blowouts resumed with a 120-81 pounding of Vanderbilt, and Kentucky won Georgia’s return trip to Lexington by an 86-73 count. When all was said and done, the Wildcats finished the conference schedule with a 16-0 record, won fifteen of those games by double digits and cleared the field in the SEC by four games.
Pitino took his team to New Orleans for the SEC Tournament and they rolled past Florida 100-76 and NCAA-bound Arkansas 95-75. In the tournament final, some adversity finally came. Mississippi State was a good team that would make the 1996 Final Four themselves and the Bulldogs won the conference tournament with an 84-73 win.
The loss might have been disappointing, but the six games this Kentucky team would be defined by were now at hand. The Wildcats were the #1 seed in the Midwest Regional (the Southeast was not available to them since its regional finals were to be in Rupp Arena).
Kentucky didn’t play as well as you’d like on the opening weekend. They only led San Jose State 47-41 at halftime before pulling away with 63 second-half points and winning 110-72. McCarty led the way with 24 points while Delk had 22. It was a similar story in the Round of 32 against Virginia Tech. The margin was just 38-30 at intermission, but McCarty again played well with 19, while Walker put up 21/11. Another second-half blowout led to an 84-60 win.
There would be no bracket breaks in the regionals at Minneapolis. The chalk was holding in the Midwest Regional and Kentucky would have to defeat two big men that were well-thought of by NBA scouts.
It started with 4-seed Utah and Keith Van Horn, who was averaging 21 ppg and by the following spring would be the second overall pick in the NBA draft. Van Horn got his numbers against Kentucky with 23. But the Wildcats overwhelmed the Utes with their depth. Five Kentucky players scored in double figures, led by Walker’s 19/8. The score was 56-34 by halftime and ended 101-70.
Van Horn wouldn’t prove to be a great NBA player in retrospect, but the same could not be said of the junior center who was up in the regional final. Tim Duncan had led Wake Forest to the 2-seed and averaged a 19/12 line in the process. And though Duncan only scored 14 points against Kentucky, he got 16 rebounds. Once again though, Wildcat depth was too much. Delk shot 9-for-13 and drilled 25 points. The score was 38-19 by the half and the final was 83-63.
Kentucky had met the moment, beating two straight outstanding college big men and dominating each game from start to finish. Delk was named the regional’s Outstanding Player. Now it was off the Meadowlands and another battle with a top big man—UMass was waiting for a rematch.
In today’s NCAA Tournament format, these teams would not have played on Semi-Final Saturday. Kentucky and Massachusetts were clearly the top two teams in the country, but #1 seeds were not seeded themselves. The rotation format said East played Midwest in the Final Four, so a game seen as a de facto title game took place on Saturday night.
The formula was the same as it had been in the regionals. Camby got his numbers, going for 25/8 But Kentucky had the numbers—the depth. Delk scored 20, Walker added 14 and McCarty led all rebounders with ten boards. The Wildcats won 81-74 and were on the brink.
Syracuse was the opponent and this wasn’t the most talented team Jim Boeheim ever had. The Orangemen were a 4-seed, but had put together a strong run behind the play of outstanding forward John Wallace. Boeheim, having not won a national title at this point, had some sentimental backing to do it in Big East territory and knocking off the consensus favorite.
Kentucky couldn’t contain Wallace, who went for 29/10. They didn’t play well offensively, shooting just 38 percent. They saw an eleven-point lead dwindle to two in the second half. Everything was there for a nightmarish loss.
But pressure defense and the arrival of Mercer didn’t let it happen. Kentucky was able to force turnovers and the highly touted freshman scored 20 points. The Wildcats pulled back away and won 76-67. Pitino could safely travel back to the Vatican—he had his ring.
Kentucky was back on top of the college basketball world for the first time in eighteen years. This was the first of three straight years playing on Monday night. They would lose an overtime game to Arizona in 1997 and Pitino would leave for an ill-fated NBA job with the Boston Celtics. Tubby Smith took over and kept the good times rolling with a 1998 national title. Kentucky basketball was all the way back.
Louisiana State has had mostly a rough go of it on the basketball court since the end of Dale Brown’s tenure in the late 1990s. But they’ve had one memorable March run since then—the 2006 LSU basketball team is obscured historically by the magic of George Masonthat same year and by conference rival Florida who ultimately won it all. But LSU’s own Final Four trip in 2006 was fraught with some magic, beating the top two seeds in their region to get to Indianapolis.
John Brady had taken over the program as head coach after Brown finished his career in 1997 on a dour note, with four straight losing seasons. Brady mostly struggled himself and 2006 was only his fourth NCAA Tournament trip in nearly a decade at the helm. But he had an incredibly talented front line and a quality veteran point guard, a combination that makes a team very difficult to match up with in March.
Glen “Big Baby” Davis was the focal point of the team. The bulky 6’9” sophomore averaged 19 points/10 rebounds per game and won SEC Player of the Year. Tasmin Mitchell, a 6’7” sophomore averaged 12/6. And 6’9” freshman Tyrus Thomas had a long wingspan that enabled him to block three shots per game, and averaged 12/9. It was a perfect balance of physicality, athleticism and depth that gave the Tigers a terrific inside presence in an age when most college basketball teams can’t match up down low.
Darrell Mitchell was the quarterback. The 5’11” senior not only ably ran the floor, but he knocked down 17ppg and was a respectable three-point shooter. Because of his size, he had no NBA future ahead of him, but Mitchell is the kind of player any good college team needs—especially in March.
LSU went 23-8 and earned a 4-seed in the NCAA Tournament. They beat Iona and then barely survived future conference rival Texas A&M, the 12-seed. A defense-oriented game was saved first by Big Baby going for 21/8 to keep his team in the game. Trailing 57-55, Mitchell came through and drilled a trey with four seconds left. The Tigers were going to the regionals.
Much of America was now on LSU’s side, because the opponent was Duke. The Blue Devils had National Player of the Year J.J. Redick, who was as hated as any Duke player this side of Christian Laettner. Redick was the National Player of the Year and looking to close his career with a national championship.
The LSU defense shut him down. Redick struggled to 3-for-18. While Davis had a rough night himself, the other two members of the frontline came through. Thomas had 13 rebounds while Mitchell had 10. And the team defense forced Duke as a whole into a 27 percent shooting performance. The Tigers kept the game in control and won 62-54.
Having beaten the 1-seed, LSU now had to deal with the 2-seed in Texas. The Longhorns were extremely talented, with All-American guard P.J. Tucker and a future NBA star in sophomore LaMarcus Aldridge. Another guard, Daniel Gibson, would hang around the NBA for seven years as a rotation player in Cleveland with the contending teams of LeBron James’ first go-round with the Cavs.
Big Baby got back on track with 26 points. The LSU defense was tough, holding Texas to 30 percent shooting. But Thomas was the story of the game. He scored 21 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked three shots. The game went to overtime, but LSU took it over in the extra session with a 70-60 win. Thomas was named Outstanding Player of the regional and the Tigers were making their first Final Four trip since 1986.
2006 was a year the NCAA Tournament was gutted, with no 1-seeds making the Final Four for the first time in history. I remember being so impressed with the quality of LSU’s frontline that I believed they would win the national championship. Didn’t happen. They played poorly in a 59-45 loss to UCLA in the prime-time Saturday semifinal. It denied the SEC a chance to get an LSU-Florida title game right on the Big Ten’s home turf of Indianapolis.
Davis chose to go pro that spring and was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics (today’s Oklahoma City Thunder) and was immediately traded to Boston in a deal that included Ray Allen. Davis averaged 14 minutes per game and got a ring with the 2008 Celtics. He continued to be a valuable and popular rotation player in Boston on another NBA Finals team in 2010. He remains in the league today, obviously well-liked by Doc Rivers, who brought Big Baby to the Clippers.
Thomas has also continued to hang around the NBA and has had his moments as a respectable scorer and rebounder off the bench, with Chicago for a few years and later with Charlotte.
Brady wasn’t able to build on the magic of 2006. LSU slipped to 17-15 the following year and after an 8-13 start in 2008, he was fired. The program as a whole has only made two NCAA Tournaments since. There is hope that this Selection Sunday might be different as the team is still alive in the semis of the SEC Tournament at this writing, but most projections say there is still work to do.
No matter the struggles before or after. No matter the problems the program has had replicating Brown’s success of the 1980s, LSU basketball experienced a special time in March of 2006.
It had been a tumultuous four years for Bob Knight and the Indiana basketball program since their unbeaten national title run of 1976. They missed the NCAA Tournament twice. In 1980, they won a Big Ten title, but lost to archrival Purdue in the NCAAs, then watched the Boilermakers and Iowa go to the Final Four. The 1981 Indiana Hoosiers completed the journey all the way back to the top, as they not only repeated as Big Ten champs, but won another national title.
A brilliant sophomore guard named Isiah Thomas keyed the team, with 16ppg and six assists as he ran the floor show. Randy Wittman, a lights-out shooter with an NBA career ahead of him, averaged 10ppg to complete a well-rounded backcourt. Another Thomas—Jim (no relation to Isiah) gave Knight quality minutes as a passer and defender.
The frontcourt was in equally good hands. Ray Tolbert averaged 12 points/6 rebounds per game and won the Chicago Tribune’s Silver Basketball Award, which was as close as the Big Ten had to a generally acknowledged MVP in those days. Elevating Tolbert over Isiah in terms of value and impact is pushing it, but it does underscore Tolbert’s ability to control the paint.
Another forward, even more talented, was on the rise. Landon Turner averaged 10ppg, but the junior was coming into his own as the season went on and emerging as a possible #1 overall NBA draft pick for 1982. Ted Kitchel rounded out the frontcourt, and though he only scored nine points per game, he was another sharpshooter who could space the floor.
Indiana was ranked fifth in the nation to start the year, but December was a disappointment. They played good teams in Kentucky, Notre Dame and North Carolina, all of whom would be 2-seeds come March and the Hoosiers lost all three. The games were close to be sure—68-66, 68-64 and 65-56 respectively, and the games against the Irish and Tar Heels were on the road. But it didn’t suggest a special season in the offing.
A trip to Hawaii between Christmas and New Year’s was a disaster, with losses to Clemson and Texas Rio-Grande Valley. Indiana completed non-conference play at 7-5. Forget a national title—in an era when only 48 teams made the NCAA Tournament, the Hoosiers had their hands full just trying to get to the Dance.
Indiana opened up Big Ten play on a stronger note at home, beating Michigan State and Illinois by double digits. The Spartans were on hard times after the departure of Magic Johnson following the 1979 national title run, but the Illini were a good team that would compete for the Big Ten title and be one of three conference teams to make the NCAAs.
The Hoosiers then dipped again, losing two of three. They dropped an overtime game at Michigan, who had a prolific scorer in Mike McGee, but was not a well-balanced team. Another loss came to Iowa, who didn’t have big-time talent, but had Lute Olson at head coach. In between these two defeats, Indiana knocked Ohio State, who was led by future TV analyst Clark Kellogg.
At 3-2 in the Big Ten and 10-7 overall, the moment was urgent for Knight’s Hoosiers and they responded with a four-game win streak. Indiana blew out Northwestern, then got a clutch overtime win over Minnesota, a team that was on the rise with a big center in Randy Breuer and who would win a Big Ten title of their own in 1982. IU beat Purdue 69-61 and then blew out Wisconsin to get back in position in the conference race.
A return visit to Purdue ended the win streak. The Boilermakers and first-year head coach Gene Keady were able to pull out a 69-66 win. Indiana responded by winning at Wisconsin and setting up a big game at Iowa on February 19. Both teams came in with 9-3 league records and the winner would take sole possession of first place. The Hoosiers did not play well and lost 78-65.
It’s in this latter stage of February that the 1981 Indiana Hoosiers began to look like the team history remembers them as. They beat Minnesota 74-64, took out Ohio State 74-58 and outgunned Michigan 98-83. Iowa held serve, including a win at Purdue that gave the Boilermakers a sixth conference loss and ultimately knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament. Minnesota would also fade from NCAA consideration.
The final week of the regular season opened with Iowa appearing to be in command, still up a game in the league at 13-3 and having winnable road games at Michigan State and Ohio State. Indiana was 12-4, with Illinois giving chase at 11-5.
Indiana visited Illinois in a conference championship elimination game. The Illini had talented forwards in Eddie Johnson and Mark Smith who combined for 30 points/14 rebounds per game and they would ultimately make the Sweet 16. But the Hoosiers stood strong with a 69-66 road win. When Iowa was upset 71-70 at Michigan State, the Big Ten race was tied.
On the final Saturday of the season—there was no conference tournament played then, so this was the day before Selection Sunday—Iowa went to Ohio State. Kellogg had averaged 17 points/12 rebounds this season and while he didn’t have enough help, the Buckeyes were no easy out. And they completed Iowa’s final-week collapse with a 78-70 upset. The Hawkeyes would lose in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. And the door was open for Indiana to win the Big Ten outright.
The Hoosiers were peaking and a visit to East Lansing wasn’t going to stop them. They took home an easy 69-48 win and a second straight Big Ten title. After the problems of the early season, they were going to the NCAA Tournament as a 3-seed in the Mideast. DePaul and Kentucky were the regional favorites, but Indiana had one big hole card—the regionals would be played in Bloomington.
After a first-round bye, Indiana played their second-round game in Dayton against the Maryland Terrapins, led by forward Albert King. Indiana played its best game of the season to date, with a dominating 99-64 win. Tolbert and Turner dominated the interior, combining for 46 points/15 rebounds. Isiah scored 19 of his own and dished out 14 assists.
On a weekend where upsets played havoc with the NCAA field, no one benefited more than the Hoosiers—both DePaul and Kentucky lost. Indiana would not only play the regionals at home, but would do so against a gutted field.
The backcourt of Isiah and Wittman rolled through UAB, combining for 47 points and the Hoosiers won 87-72. They closed out their regional run with a 78-46 blowout of St. Joseph’s, holding them to 33 percent shooting from the floor. Indiana was on its way to another Final Four and ironically it would be at the same venue as in 1976—the Philadelphia Spectrum. There had to be good luck in there somewhere.
If the regionals had been gutted the Final Four most definitely was not. Indiana played the early afternoon game on Saturday against LSU, the 1-seed out of the Midwest. The Tigers were led by forward Rudy Macklin, a second-team All-American and Indiana trailed 30-27 at the half. But the combination of a great defense and a heavy dose of Landon Turner—20 points/8 rebounds—completely turned the game around in the second half and Indiana cruised to a 67-49 win.
North Carolina was the last hurdle. As the teams got ready to play on Monday, word came from Washington D.C. that there had been an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. There was real doubt as to whether the championship game would be played. When later word came that the president was stable, the teams were given the go-ahead to play.
The Tar Heels had not only beaten Indiana in December, but they had a tremendous frontcourt. Al Wood was a second-team All-American. Sam Perkins and James Worthy were players that proved to be pretty good, both at this level and the next one. They had just beaten Virginia and its All-American center Ralph Sampson to get here.
But Indiana was just in too good of a groove. The game followed a similar pattern to Saturday. The first half was fairly even, with Wittman hitting a baseline jumper as the horn sounded to give the Hoosiers a 27-26 lead at intermission. And the second half was all IU.
Isiah owned the stage, scoring 23 points. Tolbert dominated the inside with 11 rebounds. Wittman kicked in 16 points, while Turner added 12 points/6 rebounds of his own. Isiah was named Most Outstanding Player, just as he had been in the regionals, and the 63-50 win gave Indiana another national title.
Knight had added to his legend. He was now a multi-national title winner and considered stepping back from coaching and perhaps going into broadcasting. CBS acquired the rights to the NCAA Tournament for the following season and was pushing hard to get the Indiana coach as their number one analyst.
But in the summer, tragedy struck. Turner was in a car accident and ended up paralyzed. Knight would not leave the program and he returned to coach and to raise money for Turner’s ongoing medical care and to have his home fitted with ramps to allow for wheelchair use.
All of it is part of the legacy is the 1981 Indiana Hoosiers. From the strong finish on the basketball court, to the humanitarianism off of it, this all became part of the history of one of college basketball’s great cultures.
The 1979 Michigan State basketball team has become one for the history books. They won perhaps the most storied national championship game ever played, dominated the NCAA Tournament and sent Magic Johnson on to NBA greatness. But this Spartan team had its share of ups and downs along the way and it’s fair to wonder how close they come to missing out on March Madness entirely.
Michigan State came into the season on a high. Magic’s freshman year in 1978 had been an unqualified success, as he joined forces with power forward Greg Kelser to lead Sparty to a Big Ten title and the regional finals in the NCAA Tournament before losing a close game to eventual champion Kentucky. It was a breakout year for head coach Jud Heathcote.
The core talent was all back for a 1979 run. Magic would average 16 points/7 rebounds/8 assists per game in ’79. Kelser averaged 18/9 and underrated center Jay Vincent kicked in 14/6. Johnson was joined in the backcourt by Terry Donnelly, while Ron Charles and Mike Brkovich got the rest of the playing time in a lineup where minutes were heavily concentrated among six players.
Michigan State dropped a 70-69 heartbreaker at North Carolina in non-conference play, but the Tar Heels were on their way to an ACC title and a #1 seed in the NCAAs, so that was nothing to be alarmed over.
The Spartans also beat Oregon State, who finished third in the Pac-10. And there was a rare “non-conference” game with Bob Knight’s Indiana team. The Spartans and Hoosiers met in the Great Alaskan Shootout and Michigan State won a 74-57 game that did not count in the league standings.
Two easy home games opened Big Ten play and wins over Wisconsin and Minnesota seemed to have Sparty riding high. Then the struggles began.
Michigan State lost a pair of two-point road games, at Illinois and Purdue. The Spartans got back on track with a blowout win over Indiana and an 83-72 overtime win of Iowa, each in East Lansing. But Heathcote’s team immediately turned around and lost 49-48 at mediocre Michigan and an appalling 83-65 defeat at lowly Northwestern.
The record was now 4-4 in the Big Ten, four games back of Ohio State, who was off and running to the early conference lead. Iowa had a 6-2 league record, with Purdue at 5-3. It’s important to emphasize that only 40 teams made the NCAA Tournament in 1979, so more than just seeding position and pride was at stake as the Spartans tried to recover from their Big Ten woes.
A Thursday night home game with Ohio State marked the point where the season could one of two ways. The Buckeyes had two great college players in Herb Williams and Kelvin Ransey, who packed a 1-2 inside-out scoring punch. The game went to overtime, but the Spartans won 84-79 and were off the mat.
They followed that win with a victory over Northwestern and a tough 60-57 win over Iowa, who had a good scoring guard in Ronnie Lester and was coached by Lute Olson. Michigan State then won the rematch at Ohio State 73-57 to further tighten the race.
The road trip to Indiana was a key game, not at the top of the standings, but to see which team would fall out of serious contention. Knight’s program had been a bit down since the undefeated NCAA title run of 1976. He had brought in a good recruit in Mike Woodson and would add Isiah Thomas a year later, and win three of the next four Big Ten crowns. But not this year. Michigan State won 59-47 and the Hoosiers disappeared from the radar.
A non-conference win over Kansas, then a fairly mediocre team, was mixed in this recent run in league play. Michigan State’s Big Ten record was up to 9-4, tied with Purdue. Ohio State had come back to the pack at 10-3 and shared first place with Iowa.
The Spartans blew out Michigan by 23 points to keep the streak going and then welcomed Purdue into East Lansing. The Boilermakers had a great center in Joe Barry Carroll and a future NBA guard in Jerry Sichting each playing key roles. Michigan State won 73-67, then beat Illinois 76-62 in what would prove to be Magic’s home finale. Sparty closed the month of February at 12-4 and in a three-way tie atop the Big Ten with Iowa and Ohio State, and Purdue a game back.
There were two games left, and Michigan State went to Minnesota and dispatched the Gophers 70-63. Good news came elsewhere in the league—Iowa lost at home to Michigan and Ohio State was stunned at Wisconsin. The Spartans had clinched a share of the league title and could wrap it up outright with a win in Madison.
Wisconsin was a bad team, finishing 12-15, but they had shown an ability to play spoiler. They had beaten in-state rival Marquette, a program just two years removed from a national title and who would ultimately make the Sweet 16. The victory over Ohio State on the final Thursday of the season was just the start of the Badgers’ closing rush—they topped the Spartans 83-81.
It cost Michigan State the outright title. Iowa blew out Northwestern to reclaim a piece of first place and Purdue beat Ohio State 74-66 in West Lafayette, completing the Buckeyes’ collapse and giving the Boilermakers the third team to gets its hands on the conference trophy.
The importance of the riveting conference race was underscored by the NCAA Tournament bracket—only Michigan State and Iowa made the field. The Spartans were a 2-seed in the Mideast Regional (the forerunner of today’s South bracket) so they had plenty of room to spare, but the different times show how much peril Sparty had been in when they were 4-4 in the conference.
Michigan State had a first-round bye and if form held, they would play the University of Detroit (since re-named Detroit Mercy), the program recently coached by Dick Vitale and who played with a big chip on their shoulder against the big boys of the state, including a near-upset of Michigan in the 1977 NCAAs. But Detroit was upset by Lamar.
It almost certainly didn’t matter, because Magic, Kelser & Co, were peaking, their last outing at Wisconsin nothwithstanding. Lamar was coached by Billy Tubbs, who would later lead Oklahoma to a Final Four in 1988. The Spartans jumped all over him to a 46-27 lead by halftime and won 95-64. They punched their ticket to the regionals in Indianapolis.
They faced 3-seed LSU in the Sweet 16. The Tigers were a rising power in the SEC under head coach Dale Brown. They had displaced defending national champion Kentucky and won the first of three straight conference titles. But they weren’t yet ready to win a game of this magnitude. Magic scored 24 points and handed out twelve assists. Charles was brilliant, with 18 points/14 rebounds. Michigan State again had control by halftime, leading 36-19 and ultimately winning 87-71.
A juicy regional final was set against top-seeded Notre Dame. The Irish were looking for a second straight trip to the Final Four. They were led by small forward Kelly Tripucka, and by an interior player would one day be a fan favorite in the broader Detroit area—Bill Laimbeer, a key player for the “Bad Boy” Pistons that won consecutive NBA titles in 1988-89.
Michigan State shut them both down. Tripucka only scored eight points and Laimbeer was held to seven, while getting just four rebounds. Meanwhile, Kelser destroyed the Irish, with 34 points/13 rebounds, en route to Most Outstanding Player honors. Magic scored 19 and dished 13 assists. The Spartans were again in control by halftime, 34-23 and won the game 80-68.
The Final Four was in Salt Lake City and Sparty got a break they probably didn’t need the way they were playing. The East Regional, where North Carolina and Duke were the top two seeds, had fallen apart with upsets and ninth-seeded Penn, the last Ivy League to make the Final Four had qualified. They had a nice player in Tony Price but were no match for Michigan State. The Spartans got 28/9 from Kelser and a dominating 29/10/10 triple-double from Magic. The score was 50-17 at halftime and ended 101-67.
All the hype in this tournament had surrounded Magic and Indiana State’s Larry Bird, who had led the previously unknown Sycamores to an undefeated season, while winning national Player of the Year honors. Bird didn’t have a lot of help, but his supporting cast delivered just enough for two-point wins over Arkansas in the regional finals and DePaul in the Final Four.
Magic vs. Bird for the NCAA title on Monday night was must-see television and remains the highest-rated national championship game in history. This game is credited for putting March Madness on everyone’s sports radar. The truth is more complex than that, but there’s no question that Monday night in Salt Lake City was a seminal moment in college basketball history.
Seminal it may have been, but it wasn’t a compelling basketball game. Michigan State was too good. The defense locked up Bird and forced him into 7-for-21 shooting. Magic scored 24 points, while Kelser delivered a 19/8/9 line, actually passing for more assists than the Magic Man. And Donnelly hit all five jumpers he took, scored 15 points and was the reliable supporting piece Indiana State didn’t have.
It wasn’t a blowout, but Michigan State led 37-28 at halftime and kept Indiana State at arm’s length the rest of the way in a 75-64 win. The Spartans had their first NCAA basketball title and from the doldrums of the early conference schedule, they had risen to make history.
Jud Heathcote’s career as Michigan State basketball coach didn’t start well. He inherited a program that had produced five straight winning seasons and promptly went 10-17 in 1977. But a big turnaround was coming—Heathcote brought in a recruit by the name of Earvin “Magic” Johnson. In Magic’s freshman year, he led the 1978 Michigan State basketball team to a Big Ten title, some NCAA Tournament success and set the stage for even bigger things that were to come.
Magic averaged 17 points/8 rebounds per game in 1978. That was impressive enough, but it was the ball distribution from the 6’8” point guard that stood out the most. He averaged over seven assists per game, and his 222 total assists were more than three times greater than any other Spartan.
Gregory Kelser anchored the paint, with 18 points/9 rebounds. These two stars were Sparty’s core, but Michigan State’s quality supporting cast shouldn’t be overlooked. Jay Vincent and Bob Chapman were both double-digit scorers and small forward Terry Donnelly was the team’s second-best passer behind Magic.
Michigan State went 8-1 in the non-conference portion of the schedule. There was only one legitimate test on that part of the slate and ended in a loss at Syracuse. So there wasn’t necessarily reason to think of the Spartans as a national contender, but coming off a 10-17 year, they were clearly a different team.
Just how different became clear in Big Ten play. Michigan State ripped off seven straight wins to open the conference schedule. They beat Minnesota, who had Kevin McHale in the low post. They beat Wisconsin and Illinois, then had a narrow 67-63 escape at Northwestern.
Purdue was a mediocre team, but had a great talent in center Joe Barry Carroll, a sophomore who averaged 15 rebounds per game and would lead the Boilermakers to the Final Four two years hence. Michigan State won that game, then beat Lute Olson’s Iowa, another team that wasn’t anything special in 1978, but would be in the 1980 Final Four.
The winning streak concluded with a victory over Ohio State, who joined Purdue and Minnesota in finishing the regular season at 16-11.
Michigan State’s 7-0 start had them in command of the conference race. January 28 would start a two-week stretch that would see them play Indiana and Michigan twice apiece. The Hoosiers and Wolverines were the Big Ten’s benchmark programs.
They had tied for the conference title in 1974, with Michigan winning a one-game playoff for the NCAA bid (the rules allowed for just one team per conference prior to 1976). Indiana had great teams in 1975 and 1976, the latter being college basketball’s last undefeated national champion. Michigan had been a Final Four favorite in 1977 before an upset loss in the NCAA Tournament.
Neither team was outstanding in 1978, but both were pretty good. Indiana would end up joining Michigan State as the conference’s only other NCAA Tournament team, while Michigan tied IU for second place. The Spartans’ ability to handle these two teams would be a good test of how much of a corner the program had turned.
The early returns were not good. Michigan State lost 71-66 at Indiana and then came home and dumped a 65-63 game to Michigan. With the conference race threatening to tighten, the Spartans responded with a 68-59 home win over the Hoosiers. A visit to Iowa City interrupted the run of games against the contenders and Michigan State got a big scare before escaping 71-70.
Sparty was 9-2 in the conference and the Wolverines were 7-4 when the two rivals met in Ann Arbor on February 11. Any possibility of a close Big Ten race ended when Michigan State posted a 73-62 win to take a three-game lead. Even though they lost a game to Purdue 99-80, the worst performance of the season, the Spartans cruised through their final five games to end the year at 23-4, with a 15-3 conference record that cleared the field by three.
The NCAA Tournament was not seeded at this point, at least officially. It seems fair to guess that the Selection Committee saw Michigan State in the 2-3 seed range. They were placed in the Mideast Regional and had a difficult road ahead of them. Kentucky, the consensus favorite to win the national championship was the de facto #1 seed. Marquette, the defending national champion, was probably seen as the 4-seed. If Michigan State won their first round game (the field was only 32 teams), the opponent was in line to be the same Syracuse team that had beaten them in December.
Michigan State faced Providence to open the tournament and everything went smoothly. They shot 64 percent and held the Friars to 39 percent. Kelser put up 23 points/11 rebounds, while Magic posted a 14/7/7 line. Chapman and Donnelly were in double figures and an easy 77-63 win sent the Spartans on to Dayton for the regionals.
They were also going into a regional that upsets had shaken. Marquette and Syracuse had both lost in overtime. Michigan State drew Western Kentucky in the Round of 16 and there was no upset coming here. Kelser was big-time again, with 23/13. Chapman poured in 23 points of his own and Magic settled for distributing, picking up 14 assists. The Spartans led by ten at the half and coasted to a 90-68 win.
No bracket break awaited in the regional final. Kentucky was up next. Kyle Macy and Rick Robey were college stars and future NBA players. Jack Givens would end up the star of the entire 1978 NCAA Tournament. It was going to take Sparty’s best game to win this one and while they played well, it’s not what happened. Kelser put up a 19/13, but Magic had a rough day shooting, going 2-for-10. The Spartans lost 52-49.
A near-miss against the eventual national champion was certainly nothing to be ashamed of, particularly given how far the 1978 Michigan State basketball team had come. They had completely turned the program fortunes around, and one year later they would win a national championship.
Bill Frieder had put Michigan back on the map in basketball with a Big Ten championship in 1985. The 1986 Michigan basketball team validated that achievement with a second consecutive conference title before a surprise early NCAA Tournament loss to a familiar foe.
After the program had been in the national elite in 1976-77—making the NCAA title game in ’76 and winning the Big Ten a year later—they fell off the map. Head coach Johnny Orr left for Iowa State. Michigan basketball hit a low point in 1982 when they went 7-20.
The rebuilding of Frieder had shown some promise in 1984, with an NIT title. The ’85 Big Ten title had earned them a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament before an upset loss to Villanova in the second round—an upset that didn’t look quite as bad after the Wildcats won the national championship.
Michigan was built around an outstanding big man in Roy Tarpley, who averaged 16 points/9 rebounds per night and was an intimidating shotblocker. They had two guards who excelled both in scoring and distributing the ball. Gary Grant and Antoine Joubert were each good for 12 a night. Their playmaking skills were underscored by the fact Joubert set a school record for assists in 1985, Grant broke it in 1986 and broke it again his senior year of 1988.
Butch Wade provided rebounding depth, as Richard Reilford was a steady contributor at the forward spot. And there was a freshman in Glen Rice who was just got his toe in the water this season, but would eventually be the star of a national championship team by his senior year.
Michigan opened the season ranked third in the nation and went to Hawaii for a two-game tournament. They barely escaped Virginia Tech by a point, when Grant blocked a shot by Tech’s Dell Curry (father of current NBA MVP Steph Curry) before beating Kansas State 70-58.
The Wolverines went on to Springfield, MA, home of the Basketball Hall of Fame, for the Tip-Off Classic with Georgia Tech. This single game was once the focal point of the early season college basketball schedule and the Yellow Jackets were ranked #1 in the country. The game was ugly and didn’t live up to the hype, but Michigan won it 49-44. They moved up to #2 in the polls.
The rest of the non-conference schedule was relatively easy, though a 105-85 win over Cleveland State looks more impressive in retrospect, now that we know what the Vikings ended up making the Sweet 16 in March. This win sent Michigan into Big Ten play with a 10-0 record.
On New Year’s Day, the more heralded Michigan football team beat Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl and finished #2 in the final polls. The basketball team would take the floor the next night in Indiana looking to get an early lead in the conference schedule.
Bob Knight’s Indiana team had suffered through one of the worst seasons of his tenure in 1985, missing the NCAA Tournament. But they were playing better this season and in Steve Alford and Daryl Thomas had two core players of the team that would win the national title one year later. Michigan went into Bloomington on a Thursday night and came out with a 78-69 win.
A victory at mediocre Ohio State followed and the Wolverines came home to beat good NCAA Tournament-bound teams in Illinois and Purdue. The Illini had a talented front line with Ken Norman, Anthony Welch and Efrem Winters and were the one team in the conference that could match the Wolverines on sheer manpower. The Boilermakers were young, but three sophomores, Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell and Everette Stephens, formed the core of a team that would win a Big Ten title of its own in 1988.
Then Michigan did the kind of thing that often drove its supporters crazy and gave its critics ammunition. They lost to a bad Minnesota team. A victory at Iowa, another good team followed, but the Wolverines then saw their defense fall apart in a 91-79 loss to Michigan State. The Spartans had a guard in Scott Skiles who could score and distribute with a fury and this game was a part of his successful push for Big Ten MVP.
A soft part of the schedule against Northwestern and Wisconsin provided easy wins and that was followed by a narrow escape, 80-79, at Purdue. But the third conference loss came in Champaign, as Illinois beat Michigan 83-79.
Two more recovery blowouts came at the hands of Minnesota and Iowa, the latter being a pretty good team. It was time for revenge against Michigan State as the Spartans came to Ann Arbor. But Skiles had other ideas. The Wolverines played poorly against their rival again, losing 74-59.
A conference race that Michigan was heavily favored to win was now up for grabs. With four games to play, Michigan and Indiana were tied at 10-4, with Michigan State giving chase at 9-5.
The Wolverines had an easy three-game run in Wisconsin, Northwestern and Ohio State, although after some of the eggs that had been laid, perhaps nothing should have been taken for granted. In this case though, the players kicked it into high gear, scoring 282 points in the three games, and this in the era prior to the three-point shot and when the shot clock was 45 seconds. Maybe there’s something to be said for the notion that the way to improve offense is to make teams learn to actually run one. Just sayin…
Anyway, Indiana also won three in a row, so Michigan State was out and everything came down to a Saturday afternoon in Crisler Arena. Michigan and Indiana, winner-take-all for the Big Ten title in the era when the conference didn’t play a tournament.
There were no worries about focus this time. Michigan was easily the more talented team and they were ready. Tarpley had his way underneath, scoring 21 points and the Wolverines got ten offensive rebounds in the first half alone. Michigan led 44-25 by halftime and won 80-52. They were Big Ten champs for the second straight year, the first time the program had won a repeat title since the days of Cazzie Russell in the mid-1960s.
Michigan was seeded #2 in the Midwest Regional. The bracket favorite was Kansas, with their excellent sophomore forward Danny Manning and the regionals would be in Kansas City, making for a difficult road to the Final Four. It turned out, the Wolverines never made it to KC.
They were sluggish in the first round against Akron, trailing 32-30 at the half before recovering to win 70-64, needing 14 points from the freshman Rice to help escape.
In the round of 32, their old pal Johnny Orr was waiting with Iowa State. The Cyclones were seeded #7, but their backcourt was Jeff Hornacek and Jeff Grayer. Hornacek would eventually be a starter on Utah Jazz teams that made the NBA Finals with Karl Malone and John Stockton. Grayer was an outstanding college player, an explosive scorer.
Tarpley did his job down low, owning the inside, scoring 25 points and hauling in 14 rebounds, keying a 33-17 edge on the boards for Michigan. But Iowa State shot 61 percent from the floor. The Wolverines trailed by nine at the half and a second-half push came up short. The season ended with a 72-69 loss.
It was a bitter loss and of this core cast of players, Rice would be the only one left when Michigan found its March vindication with their NCAA title run after Frieder left and Steve Fischer was appointed interim coach just prior to the tournament in 1989. But it can’t be overlooked that this core group—Tarpley, Grant, Joubert & Co., along with Frieder—were the ones that put Michigan basketball back in the national conversation, underscored by their consecutive Big Ten championships.
The 1976 Michigan basketball team is mostly remembered as the foil for Big Ten rival Indiana, as the Hoosiers ran to a historic undefeated season and finished it off by beating the Wolverines in the national championship game. But Michigan was more than just Robin to Indiana’s Batman. These Wolverines were a tough, physical group that used teamwork to trump individual stars on their way to the national final.
Michigan basketball was in a good place coming into the 1976 season. They had reached the NCAA Tournament each of the previous two years, a difficult feat when it took a Big Ten title to qualify in 1974 and then 1975 was the first year conferences could send multiple teams—to a bracket that was still only 32 teams.
Johnny Orr had been the head coach since 1969 and it was the program’s best success since the days of Cazzie Russell from 1964-66 when the Wolverines made two Final Fours and a national title game, before losing to John Wooden’s embryonic UCLA dynasty.
Michigan was led by Rickey Green in 1976, as Green averaged 20ppg. The backcourt had Wayman Britt and Steve Grote. Britt was a tenacious defender and the team captain and Grote chipped in some valuable points. What really helped the Wolverines stand out was the play of Phil Hubbard and John Robinson down low. Hubbard averaged 16 points/10 rebounds, while Robinson was good for 15/8 per game.
The preseason rankings had Michigan at #16. They opened with two SEC opponents. A win over a weak Vanderbilt team was followed by a tough 82-81 loss at Tennessee on the first Saturday of December. The Vols were a good team, on their way to the NCAA Tournament. Today it would just go in the books as a nice non-conference test. In 1976, with only a handful of at-large bids available for non-conference champions, every loss was a big one.
Five straight wins followed, but another loss to a future NCAA team on the road, this one at UNLV came. Michigan lost 108-94 on December 30 in their final game before starting Big Ten play.
The schedule was soft to open league play and Michigan began 3-0. They hosted Indiana on January 10 and dropped an 80-74 decision. The Hoosiers had gone unbeaten in the regular season in 1975 and coming into Ann Arbor for a win solidified their status as clear Big Ten favorites.
Michigan promptly started another three-game win streak including close games over good teams from Michigan State and Purdue. The Wolverines then suffered an aggravating 76-75 loss to a fairly pedestrian Illinois team. Michigan responded by dropping 100-plus points on Iowa and Wisconsin in home wins that set the stage for a trip to Bloomington.
The Wolverines nearly derailed history on February 7. They had the Hoosiers on the ropes before Indiana made a series of plays at the end of regulation to force overtime and then kept their win streak alive, 72-67. It was a gutwrenching loss that basically ended any conference championship hopes Michigan might have been harboring.
They came back and blasted Ohio State, which wasn’t much of an achievement, then did the same to Michigan State, which was. Another loss, this one 81-79 at Minnesota, gave reasons for some nervousness about the NCAA Tournament. But Michigan still finished the regular season ranked #9 and got a bid.
Seeding wasn’t in place in 1976, so we don’t know exactly what the selection committee thought of the Wolverines. They opened the tournament in Denton, TX against Wichita State. The Shockers had good overall team balance and a nice inside presence in double-double man Robert Elmore. But they were also 18-10 and only in the field as the champions of the Missouri Valley Conference. Wichita shouldn’t have been a problem for Michigan.
They shouldn’t have, but they were. The Wolverines only shot 43% and were beaten on the boards. They trailed 41-35 at halftime and were still behind 73-72 when Elmore went to the line to shoot a one-and-one. He missed. With the season on the line, Michigan went to Green, who hit a baseline jumper with six seconds left for the 74-73 win.
That was the only game of the first weekend, and now it was on to Freedom Hall and Louisville for the regionals. Notre Dame was the opponent. The Fighting Irish didn’t have the same depth as the Wolverines, but Notre Dame’s Adrian Dantley averaged 29 points/10 rebounds per game and was one of the best players in the country.
The sports fans of Michigan would get more familiar with “A.D.” when he first helped lead the Detroit Pistons to the NBA Finals in 1988 and then had to be traded out of town the next year to make room for Dennis Rodman as the Pistons ultimately won the title. On this March night in Louisville, Dantley nearly derailed Michigan all by himself.
Dantley scored 31 points and Michigan shot just 44% from the floor. But they again hung in, used their lineup balance and Green stood up to score 20 points. The Wolverines escaped with an 80-76 win and were one win from the Final Four.
Another big star awaited. Missouri’s Willie Smith wouldn’t have the pro career that Dantley had, but Smith was a terrific college basketball player. He averaged 25ppg for a team that won the Big Eight title and Smith was lighting up the NCAA Tournament. And he didn’t stop in the regional final against Michigan, scoring 43 points.
But Smith, like Dantley, was a one-man show and Michigan was a team. Green scored 23 points. Robinson and Hubbard were dominant, combining for 41 points/34 rebounds, more or less balanced between the two. Smith might have been named the regional’s outstanding player, but with Michigan grabbing a 13-point lead at halftime and winning 95-88, they were the ones going to the Final Four.
Indiana was the unbeaten team on everyone’s mind in Philadelphia, but there was another one of the foursome without a blemish. Rutgers came in with a record of 31-0. They were led by Phil Sellers, a 19/10 man down low and another 19-ppg scorer in guard Mike Dabney. Eddie Jordan was a skilled floor leader.
Once again, Robinson and Hubbard dominated. This time the combined numbers were 36/20 and Saturday’s national semifinals was never close. The Wolverine defense held Rutgers to 39 percent shooting, the score was 46-29 by halftime and it ended 86-70. In the other semifinal, Indiana finished off the UCLA dynasty, in their first year post-Wooden. For the first time in history, two teams from the same league would play for the national championship.
For twenty minutes of basketball, it looked like the third time might be the charm for Michigan. They led 35-29 at half, and Indiana’s great backcourt defender, Bobby Wilkerson, had left the game with a head injury.
But Michigan couldn’t provide the clear contrast in styles they had in earlier big wins. Indiana might have had the national Player of the Year in Scott May, but they weren’t top-heavy reliant on him like Notre Dame and Missouri had been on their stars. Indiana’s inside talent, Kent Benson, Tom Abernathy, and May, couldn’t be bulldozed. Indiana did all the good things Michigan did and did them better. They took over the second half and won 86-78.
This was still a talented team that had achieved a lot and had more in front of them. 1977 looked like their year, as everyone came back and they were #1 in the country before a stunning regional final loss to UNC-Charlotte. That defeat probably rates as the bigger disappointment than even the national championship game loss since it looked like the 1977 title was Michigan’s to take.
But with or without a national title, the group captained by Britt, led by Green and anchored by Hubbard and Robinson, gave the folks of Ann Arbor a lot of good basketball.
The 1983 Final Four is a watershed moment in the history of the NCAA Tournament, remembered most for N.C. State’s stunning national championship. There was another Cinderella story in Georgia, along with powerhouses Houston and Louisville playing an electric semifinal. It was a great showcase for college basketball on every level, and here we look back on the road all four teams took to reach Albuquerque.
N.C. State had a recent national title to its credit, in 1974 with David Thompson, but had only made two NCAA Tournaments since. The 1983 team was led by its guards, starting with 18-ppg scorer Derek Whittenburg and Sidney Lowe adding 11 points a night. The front court was anchored by Thurl Bailey, with 17 points/8 rebounds.
The ACC was one of several conferences to introduce a three-point line as college basketball played with different rules across the country and began the process toward standardization that would take place four years later. The rules worked well for the Wolfpack, who had another long-range gunner in Terry Gannon. They went 17-10 in the regular season and then won the ACC Tournament to get an automatic bid to March Madness.
History’s conventional narrative says that State needed to win the conference tournament just to make the NCAAs. But it’s quite possible that their ACC semifinal win over North Carolina and Michael Jordan got them in. The Pack were a 6-seed and one finds it hard to think that a loss to powerful Virginia and national Player of the Year Ralph Sampson would have knocked them all the way out. The conventional belief at the time was also that the UNC win put N.C. State in, and the victory over Virginia simply eliminated any lingering doubt.
Head coach Jim Valvano took his team to the West Regional and the dramatic started immediately. They trailed Pepperdine by six with 24 seconds to go, at a time when the three-pointer was not used in tournament play. N.C. State pulled it out in overtime. Then they beat #3-seed UNLV 71-70 when Bailey scored the game-winner with five seconds left.
The regionals at Ogden had the Pack on a collision course for a fourth game with Sampson and Virginia. The lower half of the West Regional had been ripped apart by upsets, so N.C. State drew 10th-seeded Utah in the Sweet 16. A close first half was blown open thanks to 68 percent shooting by State. They got 27 points from Whittenburg and 18 more from Charles in a 75-56 win.
Virginia beat 4th-seeded Boston College in an up-and-down 95-92 game and the ACC battle in the West was set. Sampson was college basketball’s pre-eminent figure in the early 1980s and his pursuit of the national title was the big storyline of the entire tournament. He got 23 points/11 rebounds in the regional final, but got no help.
Whittenburg scored 24, Charles put up an 11/10 line and the Pack led 63-62. On Virginia’s final possession the ball went not to Sampson, but the little point guard, Othello Wilson, who put up an air ball. Whittenburg was named the regional’s Outstanding Player and the Cardiac Pack were going to the Final Four.
HOUSTON
The recruitment of Akeem Olajuwon prior to the 1982 season turned Houston into a national power in the early 1980s. They made the Final Four in 1982. Akeem (he didn’t become “Hakeem” until later in his NBA career) came back as a sophomore and averaged 13 points/11 rebounds, while providing a feared shotblocking presence down low.
Olajuwon had a lot of help around him. Larry Micheaux was a very good power forward, averaging 14/7. Michael Young was a talented small forward who knocked down 17 a night. And there was a two-guard by the name of Clyde Drexler who proved to be pretty good himself, averaging a 15/9. The Cougars thundered to a 26-2 record and the #1 seed in the Midwest Regional.
The NCAA Tournament was 48 teams, meaning the top four seeds in each regional got first-round byes. Houston drew Maryland in the second round, with an explosive scorer in Adrian Branch and an immensely talented freshman in Len Bias. Young led the way for the Coogs, with 16/7 and the team shot 59 percent as a whole. Maryland’s effort to take the air out of the ball early in the second half failed and Houston won 60-50.
They were on their way to Kansas City for the regionals and a big showdown with Memphis. The Tigers were a 4-seed, but they had an All-American center of their own in Keith Lee. Memphis had already won a hyped battle of centers when Lee trumped Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing in the second round. But Olajuwon outscored Lee 21-13, Young knocked down 17 more and a game that was tied at the half ended with a 70-63 Cougar victory.
The bracket’s 2-seed, Missouri, had been upset in the second round, so it was 3-seed Villanova that advanced to the final with a 55-54 win over Iowa. It wasn’t exactly a break, as this was a good Wildcats team with another good center in Ed Pinckney.
But the Houston frontcourt was too much. Micheaux was magnificent with a 30/12 line, while Akeem added 20/13 and was named the regional’s Outstanding Player thanks to his combined two-game effort. Houston locked up a repeat Final Four trip with an 89-71 win.
GEORGIA
Georgia had never made the NCAA Tournament in its history. Head coach Hugh Durham had taken Florida State to the Final Four back in 1972 and after consecutive 19-12 seasons, he was ready to go with the Bulldogs in 1983.
Vern Fleming was the team’s best player, averaging 17ppg and running the show offensively. Fleming had quality help, with Terry Fair averaging 14 points/7 rebounds and James Banks adding a 14/5. Even so, a 15-9 season and sixth-place finish in the SEC made them an almost certain candidate for the NIT.
Then the magic started, with help from the bracket. Georgia won the SEC Tournament by beating the 3rd, 7th and 9th place teams. They rose all the way to a 4-seed in the East Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
After their first-round bye, Georgia edged Virginia Commonwealth, thanks to a strong rebounding night. The Bulldogs reached the regionals at Syracuse where some notable talent was awaiting them. The bracket’s #1 seed was St. John’s, with Chris Mullin. And 2-seed North Carolina had Michael Jordan waiting in the wings.
Fair came up with the game of his life against St. John’s, scoring 27 points and grabbing nine rebounds to key a 70-67 upset of the Redmen. North Carolina took care of 3-seed Ohio State, and set up the regional final. Georgia completed the upset parlay with an 82-77 win, thanks to 56 percent shooting and 20 points from Banks. Fleming and Gerald Crosby added 17. Jordan, like ACC counterpart Ralph Sampson, had done everything he could, with 26 points, but Georgia got a superior team-wide performance.
The hero-a-night run through the regionals resulted in Banks getting MOP honors, since he was the best player in the final. Georgia might have gotten bracket breaks to win the conference tournament, but there was no disputing the excellence of their run through Mullin and Jordan to reach the Final Four.
LOUISVILLE
Louisville head coach Denny Crum was the Mr. March of college basketball in the early 1980s. He already had a national title in 1980 and a Final Four trip in 1982. This edition of the Cardinals was athletic and deep, with Milt Wagner and Lancaster Gordon leading the way in the backcourt, combining for 29ppg. Up front, Rodney McCray and Charles Jones were both double-digit scorers and good rebounders, while Rodney’s brother, Scooter provided more athleticism.
The Cards rolled to a 27-3 regular season and were the #1 seed in the old Mideast Region (the forerunner of today’s South bracket). Louisville got a tough draw in the second round, facing a Tennessee team that had an All-American and future NBA guard in Dale Ellis. Louisville was able to hold Ellis to 13 points, while Gordon and Jones each scored 18 and Wagner added 15 more in a 70-57 win.
Having beaten Tennessee, Louisville now went to the home of Vols for the regionals in Knoxville. What followed was a regional that was perhaps the greatest in NCAA Tournament history if you combine the quality of all three games, the tradition of each program and their proximity to the site (thus allowing more fans to attend).
It was Louisville and Arkansas (coached by Eddie Sutton, with a 1978 Final Four appearance and near-upset of Larry Bird’s Indiana State in 1979 already under his belt) on one side of the bracket. It was Indiana, with Bob Knight and Kentucky on the other side. In 1983, this was the only regional where all four top seeds held serve.
Louisville dug themselves a 10-point hole against the Razorbacks, who had a future Olympian in Joe Kleine at center and a future NBA defensive wizard at guard with Alvin Robertson. And let’s not forget their athletic guard Darrell Walker. They were no easy out and Arkansas took a 37-27 lead in the Sweet 16. The Cards rallied to a 65-63 win behind 19 from Gordon and 17 from Scooter McCray.
Kentucky survived Indiana 64-59 and the rivalry battle for the Final Four was set. This was even bigger then that it would be today, because Kentucky’s refusal to play Louisville in the regular season was a national storyline in college basketball. Now, the Wildcats had no choice.
The game was worthy of the stakes. Kentucky’s front line, with Mel Turpin and Kenny Walker, were the heart of a team that would make it to the Final Four a year later and the game went to overtime. Then Louisville’s athleticism completely took the game over. Gordon scored, forced a turnover and scored again, part of his 24 points on the day. Wagner poured in eight straight points to blow the game open. Rodney McCray finished with 15 points/8 rebounds. Louisville just smothered Kentucky defensively in the OT and won 80-68.
Gordon was a deserving MOP selection and for the third time in four years, Crum was going to a Final Four.
THE 1983 FINAL FOUR
It’s worth pointing out that up to now, Georgia is a much bigger Cinderella story than N.C. State, given their comparative program histories, the unlikeliness of their conference tournament runs and their opponents in the regionals. But the story didn’t end here. The two teams played in the early game on Saturday afternoon and N.C. State won a 67-60 game not as close as the score makes it sound. Bailey’s 20 points/10 rebounds led the way and Whittenburg knocked down 20.
Houston and Louisville was seen as the de facto national championship game, and the display was nothing short of electric. The teams played above the rim, and the Cougars slammed home eleven dunks in the second half alone, including several that were nothing short of spectacular. ESPN’s College Basketball Encyclopedia informs us that sportswriters at the press table were high-fiving each other and had to be rebuked for failing to observe standard etiquette.
The Cougars won 94-81, with Akeem scoring 21 points and hauling in 22 rebounds to lead the way. The big center continued to dominate on Monday Night, with 20 points/18 rebounds. Even though Houston trailed by eight at the half, they appeared to be taking over the game and led 52-45.
What happened next led the way to the highlight that leads virtually all NCAA Tournament video montages to this day. Houston kept missing free throws. N.C. State clawed its way to a 52-52 tie. Then came the final play.
A dangerous pass by Gannon from the left corner to Whittenburg at the top was deflected by Houston’s Benny Anders and nearly turned into a slam dunk the other way. Instead, Whittenburg was able to get the ball and launch a last heave at the hoop. Lorenzo Charles grabbed it out of the air and slammed it home and the miracle 54-52 upset was complete.
The 1983 Final Four made the late Jim Valvano a legend and produced the first Cinderella national championship of the NCAA Tournament. March had truly gone mad.
The NCAA Tournament expanded in 1980, going from 40 teams to 48, meaning that for the first time, a majority of the bracket (32 teams) would have to win six games to win the national championship. The extra hurdle didn’t stop upsets from happening—the 1980 Final Four was the first one that was mostly gutted of teams who could remotely claim to be a favorite.
While eventual champion Louisville was a power, Purdue, Iowa and UCLA all took the long road to Indianapolis. Here’s a look back on how each team reached the Final Four.
Denny Crum had taken Louisville to the Final Four twice before since becoming head coach in 1972. Both times, the end of the road had come against UCLA, where Crum had made his reputation as an assistant to John Wooden.
The Cards also lost to the Bruins in the first round in 1977 and made consecutive Sweet 16 appearances in 1978 and 1979.
In 1980, Louisville looked ready to take that proverbial next step. They had the best player in the country in Darrell Griffith. Nicknamed “Dr. Dunkenstein” for his athleticism, the guard averaged 22 ppg and won national Player of the Year honors. Griffith was supported by a good front line, quick and athletic, with Derek Smith, Rodney McCray and Wiley Brown.
Louisville went 28-3 and got the #2 seed in the Midwest Regional. After a first-round bye, it looked like the dream might die an early death, when Kansas State took them to overtime. The Wildcats were led by Rolando Blackman, on his way to a long NBA career and one year later they would oust #1 seed Oregon State in this same round. The Cards survived 71-69, forcing Blackman into 6-for-18 shooting and getting 20 points from Smith.
The regionals were in Houston, and Louisville would face Texas A&M, who had upset North Carolina. Yet again, the Cardinals were dragged into overtime by an undermanned opponent. The key to this win was free-throw scoring, where Louisville enjoyed a 20-7 advantage. Griffith scored 24 points and the ‘Ville finally pulled away in the extra session, 66-55.
Now it was time to face the region’s top seed, SEC champion LSU. The Tigers had just beaten Missouri in the Sweet 16, taking out an opponent with two future NBA players, Larry Drew and Steve Stipanovich. Louisville would have to play much better than what they’d shown in their first two games of the tournament.
It took into the second half, but Crum’s team finally took it over. Griffith finished with 17 points/8 rebounds/7 assists and was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player. McCray and Smith grabbed ten rebounds apiece to key a decisive edge on the glass and the 86-66 win sent Crum to his third Final Four.
UCLA
The seat that John Wooden had occupied as recently as a five years ago was proving to be predictably uneasy for anyone else to occupy. Gene Bartow was Wooden’s successor and made the 1976 Final Four, but Bartow opted to go Alabama-Birmingham after two years and build a program from scratch.
Gary Cunningham was next in line, and he produced two good teams, but came up a game short of the 1979 Final Four, losing a thrilling regional final to DePaul. Next up was a young head coach named Larry Brown.
It didn’t go well for the Bruins through much of 1980. They finished fourth in the Pac-8 conference and were seeded #8 in the West Regional. But they had individual talent. Kiki Vandeweghe was a 20 ppg scorer. Rod Foster scored 12 a game and was a good playmaker, while Mike Sanders averaged 11 points/6 rebounds.
Vandeweghe lit up Old Dominion with 34 points, while Sanders hauled in 18 rebounds as UCLA won their first-round game 87-74. The top seed in the West was DePaul, with national Coach of the Year Ray Meyer and All-American forward Mark Aguirre. The Bruins held the Blue Demons to 41 percent shooting, while Sanders had 15 points/12 rebounds. The 77-71 upset sent shock waves through the bracket.
The entire West Regional was gutted, with fourth-seeded Ohio State the only favorite to make it to Tucson for the regionals. UCLA won a tough 72-68 game over the Buckeyes in the Sweet 16. Vandeweghe didn’t shoot well, going 3-for-13, but Sanders and Foster each scored 19 apiece. Meanwhile, sixth-seeded Clemson, with future NBA players in Larry Nance and Mitchell Wiggins, beat Lamar 74-66 to advance.
UCLA was in control in the regional final against Clemson. Vandeweghe was back on his game, with 22 points/9 rebounds. The Bruins were up eleven at the half. Sanders continued to play great basketball, with a 22/10 day that earned him Outstanding Player honors in the 85-74 win. Even in a down year, UCLA basketball was still Final Four bound.
PURDUE
Joe Barry Carroll was the anchor of the Purdue team. The 7’1” center averaged 22 points/9 rebounds and was a shotblocker that controlled the interior. But in his senior year, the Boilermakers hadn’t taken full advantage of his talents.
After making the NCAA Tournament in his freshman year, Purdue missed the Dance each of the previous two seasons. With a supporting cast that included double-digit scorers in Keith Edmonson and Drake Morris, the Boilers needed to make a move.
Second-year head coach Lee Rose had taken a great player to the Final Four in 1977, when he advanced with Cornbread Maxwell at UNC-Charlotte. Purdue finished third in the Big Ten, but with a #6 seed in the Mideast, they were playing at home on the first weekend and had the chance for a big run.
The first game with LaSalle was a great showdown of All-Americans, as the Explorers had forward Michael Brooks. The battle was everything fans could have asked for. Brooks was great with 29 points/12 rebounds, but Carroll was even better, at 33/13. Purdue won the game 90-82. Carroll continued to dominate in the second round, with a 36/12 line against St. John’s in a 86-72 win.
Purdue had enjoyed home cooking, but there was the possibility it would turn on them at the Mideast (the forerunner of today’s South bracket) Regional. Lexington’s Rupp Arena was the venue and Kentucky was there as the #1 seed. The Wildcats would play Duke, while Purdue staged a grudge match with Indiana.
Bob Knight’s Hoosiers had won the Big Ten and Carroll didn’t have a great game, with 11/8. But Edmonson and Morris stepped it up with 20 points apiece. Purdue also went 32-for-44 from the free throw line, while Indiana was 13-for-17. Purdue won 76-69 and they also got the break they needed—Duke, with several of the players who had lost to Kentucky in the 1978 NCAA championship game, took revenge, with a 55-54 win.
Playing a worse opponent—Duke was the 4-seed—on a true neutral floor was a break, but it wouldn’t be easy to capitalize on. The Blue Devils had forced Kentucky’s All-American guard Kyle Macy into a 3-for-9 night, and they had a future pro center in Mike Gminski. Purdue trailed the regional final at halftime, 30-28.
Carroll’s defense was taking its toll though, and though Gminski got 17 points, he was forced into 6-for-16 shooting. Meanwhile, Joe Barry was efficient, hitting ten of sixteen shots and scoring 26 points. Purdue took over the second half with a 68-60 win. Carroll picked up MOP honors and the Boilers could get back to enjoying home cooking, with the Final Four in Indianapolis.
IOWA
Basketball was a dead sport in the Hawkeye State when Lute Olson took the program over in 1975. By 1979 he got Iowa into the NCAA Tournament and one year later, Lute did even better.
The Hawkeyes had a potent backcourt, with Kenny Arnold and Ronnie Lester averaging close to a combined thirty points per game. And there was a balanced and deep front court with Steve Krafclsln, Kevin Boyle, Vince Brookins and Steve Waite. Iowa got to the 5-seed line by the time the bracket was unveiled and were placed in the East Regional.
Each of the first two games followed a similar script, with Arnold leading a balanced offense. Arnold had 23 points against Virginia Commonwealth, while three other players had 17 in an 86-72 win. Then Arnold had 18 while two others had 17 in a 77-64 win over N.C. State. The Hawkeyes had taken over that second game with a 51-point explosion in the second half to reach the regionals.
Iowa was the team that didn’t belong when the East Regionals convened in Philadelphia. They were only team not seeded in the bracket’s top four and they were the Midwestern interloper among Syracuse, Georgetown and Maryland.
The Hawkeyes faced top-seeded Syracuse in the Sweet 16. Iowa got to the line repeatedly, going 30-for-39 on free throws and the front line was in control of the game. Brookins had 21 while Boyle added 18 in the 88-77 upset. To complete the run, Iowa would have to face another Big East team, as Georgetown won its D.C.-rivals grudge match against Maryland, 74-68.
Iowa fell behind by ten points at halftime, but rallied. They pulled it out 81-80 on the strength of 22 points from Brookins. Georgetown’s Sleepy Floyd went off for 31 points and that got him Outstanding Player honors.
I’m not against a player from a losing team winning this award, but Floyd did not have a great game against Maryland. Meanwhile, Brookins had been special on both nights and his team won the regional. He should have been MOP, but in either case, Iowa was going to the Final Four.
THE 1980 FINAL FOUR
Indianapolis has become a common site for the Final Four, and 1980 was the first year they city hosted college basketball’s showcase event. A tradition that would eventually go to the Hoosier Dome and Lucas Oil Stadium began here at old Market Square Arena.
Louisville played Iowa in the first game on Saturday, and Griffith simply took over. He was 14/21 for 34 points, while the Cardinals shot 60 percent as a team in an 80-72 win.
Carroll played reasonably well in the Purdue-UCLA game, with a 17/8 line. But the Boilers needed him to be great and it wasn’t enough. Vandweghe scored 24 points and the Bruins pulled out a 67-62 win.
For the fourth time in his coaching career, Crum faced the program he had once helped stock as chief recruiter. When Louisville trailed 50-45 with less than five minutes left, it looked like Denny might fall to 0-4 against UCLA and the Bruins would improbably win yet another national championship. But Griffith came to the rescue.
The Player of the Year finished the championship game with 23 points on 9-for-16 shooting and he ensured the Cardinals controlled the late stages of the game. Louisville’s defense was tough all night, holding UCLA to 47 percent shooting and the Cards won it 59-54.
It was the year that belonged to Griffith and he capped it off with being named Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four. Louisville was finally national champs.
The 1982 Final Four produced one of the great national championship games, as North Carolina and Georgetown went down to the wire before Dean Smith won his first title. With Louisville and Houston also in New Orleans, it showcased a dazzling array of talent–James Worthy, Patrick Ewing, Sam Perkins, Sleepy Floyd, Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon were all on college basketball’s center stage. Here’s a look back on the road all four teams took to get there.
The Tar Heels had lost the NCAA final to Indiana in 1981 and brought most of the key personnel back, along with one notable addition–the freshman Michael Jordan. It’s no surprise that North Carolina was ranked #1 to start the season and with a 27-2 record that’s how they entered the NCAA Tournament.
UNC was led by first-team All-American Worthy, with 16 ppg, and then Perkins who scored 14 ppg and was second-team All-American. It was a potent two-headed monster at the forward position, with Jordan kicking in 14 a game in the backcourt, and Jimmy Black ably distributing the ball and running the show.
North Carolina staged a season-long battle with Virginia at the top of the national polls and in the ACC. The two teams tied for the regular season title and then Carolina won a controversial 47-45 game in the tournament final–controversial because Smith went to the Four Corners offense with nine minutes left in a close game. In the long run, the outcry triggered the coming of the shot clock. In the short run, the victory got UNC the top seed in the East Regional.
The NCAA Tournament was a 48-team bracket, meaning the top four teams in each regional got byes into the second round. North Carolina got a tough fight from drastically undermanned James Madison, being fought to a draw on the boards and allowing 57 percent shooting. But they survived and advanced, 52-50, to the regionals in Raleigh.
Alabama was waiting in the Sweet 16. The Tide knew something about causing heartache for #1 teams, having come the closest to stopping Indiana’s unbeaten season in 1976. This one was another good game, but Carolina had too much balance–all five starters, including Matt Doherty, ranged from 11-16 points and the result was a 74-69.
Villanova, the Big East regular season champ, was waiting in the final, having nipped 2-seed Memphis 70-66 behind great interior play from John Pinone and Ed Pinckney, who combined for 35 points/22 rebounds. But once again, North Carolina’s complete balance was too much. The five starters were all between 11-15 points in a 70-60 win.
No one player really stood out for the Tar Heels, but Worthy’s combined 30 points in the two games made him high scorer, so he was a logical choice for the region’s Outstanding Player. But these collection of immensely talented individuals were all submerged into a team concept and that team was going to Smith’s seventh Final Four–and looking for his first national title.
GEORGETOWN
John Thompson made the splash of the recruiting season prior to the 1981-82 campaign. It was Ewing, not Jordan, who drew all the hype and when Ewing chose the Hoyas, the program was primed to reach its first Final Four. The big center scored 13 ppg and was a feared shotblocker, made all the more effective by the waves of attacking defenders that Thompson ran in and out on the perimeter.
Eric “Sleepy” Floyd was the best offensive threat and the shooting guard knocked down 18 ppg en route to first-team All-American recognition. The floor show was ran by the combination of Eric Smith and Fred Brown. Georgetown finished second to Villanova in the Big East, but the Hoyas dominated ‘Nova in the conference tournament final, earning Georgetown the #1 seed in the West with a 26-6 record.
After a workmanlike 51-43 over Wyoming, the Hoyas went to Provo, where a chalk regional with all four favorites awaited. Floyd was red-hot in the round of 16 against Fresno State, shooting 7-for-9 from the floor. Georgetown’s defense dominated, holding Fresno to 41 percent shooting and controlling the glass in an easy 58-40 win.
Oregon State won the Pac-10 and head coach Ralph Miller had been national Coach of the Year. The Beavers put on a defensive display of their own, holding third-seeded Idaho to 42 percent shooting, while guard Lester Connor knocked down 24 points. Oregon State looked ready to be a worthy challenger to Georgetown in the regional final.
Only they weren’t. Floyd continued to light it up, hitting nine of his twelve shots, and the team shot an amazing 70 percent. The defense didn’t go anywhere, holding Connor to 13 and Oregon State to a 38 percent shooting effort. The Hoyas were up 42-25 by the half and coasted to a 69-45 victory. Floyd was an easy regional MOP choice and Thompson was going to the Final Four.
LOUISVILLE
The Cardinals were the only team in New Orleans that didn’t have at least one future NBA legend on its roster, but they had plenty of talent by the college standards of the day. Derek Smith, Lancaster Gordon, Jerry Eaves and Rodney McCray were the cornerstones of a team that had depth, defensive skill and leaping ability on the glass. Louisville’s Denny Crum was also the only coach in the Final Four who had a national title on his resume, winning it two years earlier.
Louisville went 20-9, an abnormally large number of losses for a top team in the early 1980s, but Crum also played a stacked non-conference schedule to prepare his team for March. They entered the NCAAs as the #3 seed in the Mideast Region (the bracket that has since evolved to become today’s South regional).
The Commonwealth of Kentucky–and in fact, the entire college basketball world, looked forward to a battle between Louisville and sixth-seeded Kentucky in the second round. This was at a time when UK still refused to play the Cards and it was a national story. But Kentucky no-showed against Middle Tennessee State, shooting just 38 percent. Louisville settled for an anticlimactic 81-56 rout of MTSU to move into the regionals in Birmingham.
Two great centers awaited–one was Sampson and top-seeded Virginia, the other was Randy Breuer, the 7’3″ big man from Minnesota that Louisville had to deal with in the Sweet 16.
Breuer was as advertised, getting 22 points/12 rebounds. But Louisville outperformed the Gophers everywhere else, shooting 58 percent and getting 23 from Gordon as they won 67-61. In other Sweet 16 game, UAB, relying on some home cooking, upset Sampson’s Cavs 68-66 behind 23 points from Oliver Robinson.
UAB was coached by Gene Bartow, who had succeeded Wooden at UCLA and taken the program to the 1976 Final Four, but was never really appreciated. Crum was also a former Wooden assistant. So these old hands of the dynasty went head-to-head for a Final Four trip.
Robinson again got his points, scoring 20, although Louisville made him work harder, in a 9-for-21 shooting effort. The Cards were more efficient, shooting 60 percent. Robinson got Outstanding Player honors, but Louisville got the ticket to New Orleans in a 75-68 win.
HOUSTON
The talent jumps off the page–Clyde Drexler, a 15 ppg scorer. Akeem Olajuwon (it was only later in the NBA that he would change his first name to “Hakeem”), a still raw freshman. And that was only the beginning. Larry Micheaux was a good interior player, Michael Young a good wing shooter and in the college world of 1982, Robert Williams was the best of them all. He averaged 21 ppg, and also effectively quarterbacked the offense.
Perhaps the mystery is not why this team made the 1982 Final Four, but why they only went 21-7, finished the season unranked, trailed Arkansas in the old Southwest Conference and ended up a #6 seed in the Midwest Regional.
The Cougars had to play the opening round and shot 70 percent in beating Alcorn State 94-84. Then Houston upset Tulsa, with second-team All-American and future NBA mainstay Paul Pressey 78-74. Williams led the way with 26 points and Houston went to St. Louis for the regionals.
It was a gutted bracket, with Missouri the only one of the top four seeds to survive. DePaul, the regional favorite, had been ousted by Boston College and SWC rival Arkansas had fallen to Kansas State.
Houston met up with Missouri and it would be one of the best games of the tournament. Ricky Frazier scored 29 for the Tigers, but the Cougars answered with North Carolina-esque lineup balance, five players between 11-16. Missouri center Steve Stipanovich got 12 rebounds, but Houston answered with Drexler and Akeem both getting 10-plus boards. The result was a 79-78 Houston win.
Boston College had edged Kansas State 69-65 behind 20 points from little guard Michael Adams. Houston contained Adams in the regional final, although the inside-out combo of Jay Murphy and John Bagley nearly did the Coogs in, combining for 49 points.
Houston got 25 from Williams and outscored Boston College from the free throw line 33-16, with reserve guard Reid Gettys hitting ten straight free throws to help secure the 99-92 win. Williams was the Outstanding Player and the Final Four was next.
THE 1982 FINAL FOUR
The early game was North Carolina-Houston and Perkins was the star of the show. He scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Jordan added 18 and the Tar Heel defense contained Houston, holding them to 42 percent shooting. Olajuwon was a non-factor, and while Drexler played well, he wasn’t a difference-maker. North Carolina won 68-63.
In the late afternoon, Georgetown and Louisville played a defensive war, with the difference being the Ewing helped the Hoyas clean up a lot of the misses. The big center had ten rebounds, keying a decisive edge for his team as Georgetown won 50-46.
The national championship game was a classic, replete with outstanding performances and great storylines. Worthy was electric, scoring 28 points on 13/17 shooting. Ewing was dominant, with 23 points/11 rebounds of his own. Thompson made a coaching decision early that was, at best, questionable.
Ewing, at his coach’s instruction, drew five obvious goaltending calls in an attempt to intimidate the Tar Heels. Against a young, untested team, this might have worked. The veteran North Carolina players shrugged their shoulders and accepted the free points, every one of which they would need.
Floyd knocked down 18, but without the same efficiency he showed in the regional. The 9-for-17 shooting certainly wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t scorching. Jordan had 16 and ultimately hit the game’s biggest shot that put North Carolina up 63-62. Georgetown had one last chance to win it, but Fred Brown froze up and threw the ball straight to Worthy at the top of the key.
The lasting image of the game is Thompson hugging Brown. The lasting legacy is that Smith finally had a national title and the reputation of the man who would eventually be renowned as the greatest basketball player ever was just getting started.