NEW ORLEANS - It was the national championship game that had everything. There was the shot that launched a legendary career. And there was the heartbreaking turnover of the ages. Two extremes, two huge swings of emotion, in one 10-second span.
First, it was North Carolina's turn. Trailing by one with 30 seconds left, the Tar Heels inbounded the ball and looked to find an opening for the winning basket. With Georgetown in a 1-3-1 zone and the great freshman Patrick Ewing manning the middle, North Carolina knew they'd need a jump shot to win. So they passed around the wing a few times, taking time off the clock, before a young freshman found an opening in the zone.
Future NBA all-star James Worthy passed the ball to the young freshman - a skinny kid by the name of Michael Jordan - and Jordan calmly sank the jumper that put North Carolina ahead, 63-62. North Carolina's bench was celebrating.
But it wasn't over. Georgetown still had 10 seconds and a timeout to use to try to score the winning basket. Guard Fred Brown had the ball for Georgetown, no doubt looking to get the ball in to either Ewing or Sleepy Floyd, who had given the Hoyas the lead just before Jordan's shot. But, with time running out, Brown inexplicably passed the ball right to North Carolina's Worthy, and the Tar Heels were able to run out the clock after the turnover.
After the game, despite attempts by his coach to comfort him, Brown was devastated. He later said that he made the bad pass in part because Georgetown had been practicing in white jerseys all week, but were wearing blue for the national championship game.
Fortunately for Brown, the man who made the winning shot for North Carolina ended up becoming the greatest basketball player of all time. Losing a game on a shot that launched a legend helped put Brown's turnover on the back burner a little bit. People still remember his bad pass, but not as much as they remember Jordan's clutch shot.
Another thing that's not remembered about the game is that despite the winning shot, Jordan wasn't the biggest star for North Carolina that day. That honor went to Worthy, who, aside from being in the right place to catch Brown's errant pass, scored a game-high 28 points. Ewing also starred, scoring 23 points with 10 rebounds. In all, five players who played in the 1982 National Championship game went on to have distinguished NBA careers.
It was a game with 15 lead changes, one where neither team ever led by more than a handful of points. But it's best remembered for its final basket, its final lead change, where a freshman guard hit the shot that launched a legend.
Showing posts with label Georgetown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Georgetown. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
March 17, 1989: Mourning saves the day
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - "A 16 seed has never beaten a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament." That's the common refrain every year as basketball fans fill out their tournament brackets. That's the one piece of advice that even those who don't know about basketball can give. A 16 has never beaten a 1. The 1's are 104-0 against the 16's.
In 1989, though, that wasn't such a big deal. The tournament had been expanded to 64 teams only four years earlier, so at that point, the 0-16 record of the 16 seeds didn't seem that important. When the 1989 tournament started and East Tennessee State scared Oklahoma on the very first day, there were probably many people who thought it was just a matter of time before a 16 got that victory over a 1.
But nobody expected it to be this game.
A 30-point underdog to the powerful Georgetown Hoyas, the Ivy League champion Princeton Tigers went into Providence for their first round game hoping to just stay with the top seed. They did more than that. As a nation watched transfixed in Irish pubs around the country, the Ivy Leaguers used backdoor cuts and quick passing to stick with the Hoyas all game long. Everybody was waiting for when Georgetown would make its run, only the run never came.
But Princeton's gameplan was executed perfectly. The Tigers spread the floor, giving their center the ball at the top of the circle and forcing Georgetown's all-america center Alonzo Mourning up to the free-throw line. With the shot-blocking Mourning out of harm's way, the Tigers could run their backdoor passes all day long.
In the final minutes, when it was obvious that Princeton wasn't going away, Mourning took over. He scored seven of Georgetown's final nine points, including the free throw that gave them a 50-49 lead in the final minute. Princeton got the ball for a final opportunity, but Mourning blocked two final attempts in the final eight seconds, saving Georgetown from the ultimate embarrassment.
That wasn't quite the whole story, though. Most people watching felt that Mourning committed a foul on his final block attempt, that Princeton should have been at the free-throw line to try to win. The referees didn't see it that way, and the no-call is still viewed as one of the more controversial finishes in tournament history.
While Princeton didn't get the job done, they had established themselves as the team nobody wanted to play in the first round. Coach Pete Carril became a household name for his wonderful gameplan and game management against the Hoyas. And Princeton's close call set the stage for the game just seven years later, when the Tigers shocked the world and finished the upset against UCLA.
HONORABLE MENTION
March 17, 1886: ST. LOUIS - The first story on the front page of the very first issue of The Sporting News talked about how the defending National League Champion Chicago White Stockings (now Cubs) had just arrived in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for an early form of spring training. From that simple beginning, the paper grew to become the preeminient sports publication in the United States for decades to come. While its importance is diminished quite a bit by the advent of the Internet and scores of sports information papers and magazines, for years, The Sporting News was it. For decades, TSN was the only place where every boxscore of every Major League game was published, and the newspaper was as much a part of the American sports fabric as baseball and football. Without the success of The Sporting News, there is no Sports Illustrated, no ESPN, nothing. It was the original, the one of a kind. And 125 years later, it is still being published.
In 1989, though, that wasn't such a big deal. The tournament had been expanded to 64 teams only four years earlier, so at that point, the 0-16 record of the 16 seeds didn't seem that important. When the 1989 tournament started and East Tennessee State scared Oklahoma on the very first day, there were probably many people who thought it was just a matter of time before a 16 got that victory over a 1.
But nobody expected it to be this game.
A 30-point underdog to the powerful Georgetown Hoyas, the Ivy League champion Princeton Tigers went into Providence for their first round game hoping to just stay with the top seed. They did more than that. As a nation watched transfixed in Irish pubs around the country, the Ivy Leaguers used backdoor cuts and quick passing to stick with the Hoyas all game long. Everybody was waiting for when Georgetown would make its run, only the run never came.
But Princeton's gameplan was executed perfectly. The Tigers spread the floor, giving their center the ball at the top of the circle and forcing Georgetown's all-america center Alonzo Mourning up to the free-throw line. With the shot-blocking Mourning out of harm's way, the Tigers could run their backdoor passes all day long.
In the final minutes, when it was obvious that Princeton wasn't going away, Mourning took over. He scored seven of Georgetown's final nine points, including the free throw that gave them a 50-49 lead in the final minute. Princeton got the ball for a final opportunity, but Mourning blocked two final attempts in the final eight seconds, saving Georgetown from the ultimate embarrassment.
That wasn't quite the whole story, though. Most people watching felt that Mourning committed a foul on his final block attempt, that Princeton should have been at the free-throw line to try to win. The referees didn't see it that way, and the no-call is still viewed as one of the more controversial finishes in tournament history.
While Princeton didn't get the job done, they had established themselves as the team nobody wanted to play in the first round. Coach Pete Carril became a household name for his wonderful gameplan and game management against the Hoyas. And Princeton's close call set the stage for the game just seven years later, when the Tigers shocked the world and finished the upset against UCLA.
HONORABLE MENTION
March 17, 1886: ST. LOUIS - The first story on the front page of the very first issue of The Sporting News talked about how the defending National League Champion Chicago White Stockings (now Cubs) had just arrived in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for an early form of spring training. From that simple beginning, the paper grew to become the preeminient sports publication in the United States for decades to come. While its importance is diminished quite a bit by the advent of the Internet and scores of sports information papers and magazines, for years, The Sporting News was it. For decades, TSN was the only place where every boxscore of every Major League game was published, and the newspaper was as much a part of the American sports fabric as baseball and football. Without the success of The Sporting News, there is no Sports Illustrated, no ESPN, nothing. It was the original, the one of a kind. And 125 years later, it is still being published.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
April 1, 1985: The Perfect Game
LEXINGTON, Kentucky - People must have thought it was an April Fool's joke, or at the very least a misprint. How could Villanova have beaten Georgetown? And they held them to only 64 points? Are we sure that isn't supposed to say 84?
The Georgetown Hoyas were certainly loaded in 1985. The defending national champions, they had been ranked No. 1 nearly all season and were 35-2 entering the national championship game in Lexington. With Patrick Ewing, the consensus national player of the year, they seemed unbeatable.
Villanova, meanwhile, entered the newly expanded NCAA tournament as an 8 seed, having finished fourth in the Big East, including two losses to those very Hoyas. But they started doing some damage in the tournament, beating No. 2 Michigan, No. 8 North Carolina, and No. 5 Memphis State on their way to an unexpected place in the championship game.
Villanova won games by slowing the game down. In the final season before the institution of the shot clock, they hadn't scored 60 points in a single NCAA tournament game heading into the championship. Against Georgetown, many people thought the Wildcats would have to play the perfect game to win. They took that advice to heart.
Missing only five shots in the first half, Villanova entered halftime with a surprising 29-28 lead. Inspired, they kept up the near flawless play in the second half, shooting 90 percent from the floor in the final 20 seconds. Going up against a near-perfect performance, it's amazing Georgetown was able to stay in the game, but they did, trailing only 61-58 with 41 seconds remaining. Forced to foul, the Hoyas watched the Wildcats sink five clutch free throws in the final 41 seconds to clinch a stunning 66-64 victory.
The shooting stats for Villanova were mind-boggling. The 90 percent shooting in the second half gave them a 78.9 percent shooting rate for the game, which is still a single-game record for any NCAA tournament game. Nobody on their team missed more than two field goals or more than one free throw. The Hoyas lost despite taking almost twice as many shots as Villanova, while the Wildcats went a stunning 22-for-27 from the free-throw line.
Villanova had played the perfect game, and in the process became the lowest-seeded team to ever win the national championship. And that's no joke.
The Georgetown Hoyas were certainly loaded in 1985. The defending national champions, they had been ranked No. 1 nearly all season and were 35-2 entering the national championship game in Lexington. With Patrick Ewing, the consensus national player of the year, they seemed unbeatable.
Villanova, meanwhile, entered the newly expanded NCAA tournament as an 8 seed, having finished fourth in the Big East, including two losses to those very Hoyas. But they started doing some damage in the tournament, beating No. 2 Michigan, No. 8 North Carolina, and No. 5 Memphis State on their way to an unexpected place in the championship game.
Villanova won games by slowing the game down. In the final season before the institution of the shot clock, they hadn't scored 60 points in a single NCAA tournament game heading into the championship. Against Georgetown, many people thought the Wildcats would have to play the perfect game to win. They took that advice to heart.
Missing only five shots in the first half, Villanova entered halftime with a surprising 29-28 lead. Inspired, they kept up the near flawless play in the second half, shooting 90 percent from the floor in the final 20 seconds. Going up against a near-perfect performance, it's amazing Georgetown was able to stay in the game, but they did, trailing only 61-58 with 41 seconds remaining. Forced to foul, the Hoyas watched the Wildcats sink five clutch free throws in the final 41 seconds to clinch a stunning 66-64 victory.
The shooting stats for Villanova were mind-boggling. The 90 percent shooting in the second half gave them a 78.9 percent shooting rate for the game, which is still a single-game record for any NCAA tournament game. Nobody on their team missed more than two field goals or more than one free throw. The Hoyas lost despite taking almost twice as many shots as Villanova, while the Wildcats went a stunning 22-for-27 from the free-throw line.
Villanova had played the perfect game, and in the process became the lowest-seeded team to ever win the national championship. And that's no joke.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)